We had a chat with TE/MO about her deeply personal and impactful debut single ‘Mother I’
When it comes to statement debut singles, TE/MO is an artist who has made one of the most fierce and uncompromising in recent memory with the release of the powerful and cinematic ‘Mother I’, a tale of love, heartbreak, longing, and ultimately resilience, with the artist telling her impactful story for both herself and anybody going through anything similar to what she has been through.
There is an almost conversational nature to the track, set among a stirring backdrop and nuanced collections of sounds and sonic quirks that bring it to life in captivating fashion. The artist’s story and the inspiration for the track is packed full of drama, intensity, and is deeply personal, so rather than look to dissect and explain it ourselves, we had a chat with TE/MO to find out about the emotions that she has been faced with, her process creating the cathartic track, and everything that it has meant to herself and her listeners. ‘Mother I’ is a truly compelling listening experience that will have a profound effect on you as a listener, and our chat with the artist helped to illuminate the layers of depth and real-life struggle that have created such a beautiful work of art.
Hey! We love your new single ‘Mother I’, what more can you tell us about it?
Mother I was a labor of love – love got me through the labor. It all started when I had this experience at the ER – I’d been having these insane pains for months, so I thought I would finally go in and get a painkiller, and be done with it. But instead, I walked out with a (partially false) diagnosis that I would never be able to have kids, which is something I had always seen myself doing eventually. The shock of hearing that in my early 20s was so significant, I didn’t know what to do. I felt positively shattered, and I didn’t know how to move forward with my life when I didn’t know what kind of life I was moving toward anymore. I got home, and all of a sudden I was writing the 5-page poem that became “Mother I”. It was the only way I could think of to process what it was I was feeling – turning to poetry and, eventually, music. I didn’t think I would even end up doing anything with it, until I started talking to others about my experience and realizing that so many others – women especially – had similar stories. And that’s when it all clicked – that “Mother I” wasn’t just about me or my individual experience. It was a symptom of a much greater issue regarding how we talk about health – in particular women’s health – in the US. So I started working tirelessly with my incredible producer, JP Warner, on how we could create a track that reflected those stories and experiences. And I’m so proud of what we came up with.
What was the process like putting it together?
It was one of the most beautiful acts of creation I’ve ever witnessed, let alone been part of. And I guess I had never truly felt that “I don’t just want to write this… I HAVE to write this” feeling until I started writing this song. And JP is such a dream-collaborator, because his heart is as immense as his talent and skill are. So I called him after I wrote this thing and nervous-rambled for about 15 minutes like: “I don’t think this will be marketable at all but I NEED to do this”. And he just waited patiently til I was done and said, “Then let’s do it!”. So we started working remotely over Zoom (because at the time I was working a job out-of-state) building out the music, and then as soon as I was done with that contract I flew out to record vocals and finalize the track. In total we worked in a total of 5 states, over the course almost a year, on Zoom and in-person? And yet it came together as beautifully as if we’d locked ourselves in a studio for weeks straight. Which speaks to JP’s genius more than anything else.
What were your biggest influences when creating the track?
Other than medical trauma, ha? JP and I actually both have a background in classical music – I studied classical voice for over ten years, thinking I was going to go into opera, and he was the drum major at our college, and also studied classical music for a time. So I was conflicted when I started writing music because I love these big, epic, dramatic sounds and symphonic swells and things, and my lyrics tend to lean towards the more poetic, but I adore pop music and writing witty pop hooks, too. So for a while at the beginning it felt like I was trying to force myself into the box of keeping the song smaller than it wanted to be emotionally, until one day JP – who also adores cinematic scoring – was like: “Dude let it be huge.” And I realized he was right – these feelings and images are huge, so why can’t the music be? So after that, we went full steam ahead on this kind of cinematic-pop sound. And I’m stoked about where it landed – I came from the theater world, so give me a song that makes me want to stare dramatically out a window and I’m happy, ha!
How did it feel channelling such intense emotions and feelings into the track?
It was so liberating and therapeutic. Because not only did that act of creation help me sort through my own emotions and process my own experience, but it connected me to a ton of other people who were going through similar things. People have been sending me their stories and the art that my song inspired and their covers of my song, and every single time it reminds me why I did this incredibly vulnerable thing. I mean, that’s why I pursued a career in the arts in the first place, and I have never felt that spirit of connection stronger than through the writing and release of this song. I poured everything into this project, but somehow I still came out feeling full. And that’s the most wonderful feeling.
What else do you have planned for the near future?
Well, it feels like now that I’ve started writing, I can’t stop! Music ended up being the thing that blazed the trail for my healing journey – I wrote, in total, 6 songs about my experience with my endometriosis diagnosis, and about coming to realize through that health journey that “mother” is a word more boundless than we give it credit for. So you may be hearing more from that era of songwriting sooner rather than later… anddd there may even be some pieces of visual storytelling to accompany that era of songwriting… and then I may or may not even be cooking up some new sounds and stories for after all that…
