By Jennifer Finjan
It’s not often I reach beyond my electronica realm in search of tunage. It generally takes a lot to move me from my genre of choice…hell, it takes a lot to move me, period. But that all changed one day when my daughter was preparing our annual mother/daughter fall melancholy cd mix – a compilation of songs with the sads and overall love and lost retrospectives. I was so impressed with a particular song I was overhearing; I followed the song to its source and asked “who’s that?” Mittenz was the answer, and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Toronto’s own Emily Bones and Mary Death is a two-woman band whose sound is hard to categorize, so we’ll settle for indie/alternative for now. Emily and Mary Death sound like sweet-harmonizing angels when they sing about life’s gains and losses. They play guitars and other instruments in a way that expresses true rawness and vulnerability.
Emily and Mary not only write their own music, they do their own vocals, play drums, guitar, bass and keyboard themselves, they also record and produce their own work. In a sea of mediocrity, Mittenz offers something refreshing and unique. The only thing these Mittenz are missing is a record label, I am sure their wait will soon be over.
When and how did you two meet? What’s it like working together?
We met through an ex-boyfriend 7 years ago (who we both kind of dated, and we won’t name names!) We ended up ditching him, going back to Emily’s house, and that’s when our band started. You can imagine what some of the first songs we wrote about were (no names, once again!).
Tell me about your musical backgrounds? Where did you two learn to play the drums, guitar, bass, and keyboard?
Well, Emily first learned to play guitar in junior high school. Soon after that, she met Mary Death and that’s when they started Mittenz! The rest of the instruments are pretty much self taught. We consider ourselves to be Autodidacts.
How would you describe your music?
It’s always been difficult to describe our music because we see it as unique and genre-less. In a lot of our songs, you will notice they SOUND upbeat and happy, but when you take them away from the music, you read that they are powerful and always have something behind them. Each song is a different reflection of our mood for that period of time. We also like to make songs that will make people laugh and have to think “did she really just say that?!”
Are there any other artists out there that you admire and have had an influence on your sound?
We both look up to many different styles of musicians and genres of music. The list would be extensive. Female musicians would be the obvious Tegan and Sara, No Doubt, Brody Dalle (we love The Distillers and Spinnerette), Hole, Metric, The Creepshow, Paramore, and the Toronto-based musician Courtney Lynn.
Mary Death is sure that Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy has helped her to sing, while Emily also takes inspiration from his style. Bedouin Soundclash, City & Colour, Rise Against, Hoots and Hellmouth, Greenday, Foo Fighters and Nirvana are some other ones to name.
Your lyrics are predominantly about relationships and survival. How do you have so much great insight at such a young age?
A lot of it has to do with our living situations. We both have single mothers. Emily has never really met her Father, and Mary Death’s father left home about 4 years ago. We have learned to only rely on each other because many people have bailed out on us and we have to pick up the pieces. Since the lack of our fathers being there physically and emotionally, we feel that we have stronger boundaries in that area. Which is why we often prepare ourselves for failure and to have a backup plan. We do make a lot of mistakes but we’re very resilient people, and it seems that we get stronger with each situation life throws at us.
How many songs have you recorded thus far? What’s your favourite song and why?
We have at least 20 songs recorded, not all of them are available to us anymore as we’ve been progressing for the past 7 years. We both have boxes of cassette tapes and letters (and a million other random things) that we like to look back on. Often to get inspiration for songs now, or just to laugh at how lame we were when we were younger!
We go through favourite songs like dirty socks. We either wash them to renew the colours or we just buy a brand new pair! But our newest and most favourite song right now would have to be Purple!
What music is in your i-pods right now?
Mary Death has been listening to a lot of West African and Latin music (mostly for University). While Emily has been listening to local bands, including the one she is currently in; The Android Meme.
The fact that you both have a unique style really adds to your persona as artists – how would you each describe your personal style and list a few fashion/makeup items you can’t live without?
We like to match at our shows (hence a pair of Mittens!) mostly wearing bows in our hair, the same colour of clothes, or things that we make such as our own merchandise. We like to choose comfort over fashion when it comes to performances since we use a stomp box and move around a lot. But we do like to “fance” it up with heels and dresses, especially things with patterns such as leopard print, stripes, plaid and polkadots (no, not all together).
Emily’s personal style is a bit more open like wearing a bra on top of a tank top or just not wearing a bra at all. While Mary Death prefers to keep her boobs in control since they like to do what they want! In other words, one of us is more subdued and the other is more extreme. But when we come together, we join fashion forces and match like a pair!
We can’t live without mascara, even when there is not enough time for our whole makeup routine that comes first. We like to use white eyeliner/shadow in the corner of our eyes to brighten them. We also love foundation and concealer to make us look flawless. And we love to wash our faces and do masks!
What barriers have you experienced as a band? Is it still harder for girls trying to make it the music business?
What a question, we could go on for hours about this! We believe that it IS unfortunately harder for female musicians to receive recognition as well as respect. We feel that we are sometimes challenged by others (especially men) to turn music into a competition and we really dislike seeing it that way. Our perspective is that music should be shared amongst everyone, and not to view it as a battle of who is the better singer or guitar player. We’ve noticed that we are always questioned on our capabilities until we are seen on stage, and then we usually get the respect that we should have gotten in the beginning. There are a lot of ass-kissers out there it seems!
What do you think of the Toronto indie music scene, particularly for young artists trying to catch a break?
There is so much variety in Toronto when it comes to the music scene. When we first started out it was difficult to get shows. Now, the more familiar everything becomes to us, and the more people find out about us, the more shows we have. We don’t necessarily fit into the more “popular” genre at this point in time. So to really catch a break, you need something that everyone in the city is into. However, the city is so welcome to new ideas and styles that we are not afraid to be ourselves and write music straight from the heart.
What do you guys do in your down time?
We’re always working. 90% of our free time goes to our band. Whether it be promoting, playing shows, writing/recording songs, making videos, or taking photos. It’s getting a little chilly out now for busking, but that was a huge part of our summer. Making money while performing on the street is almost a dream come true for us Mittenz! We are also obsessed with food (wow that sounds weird) But seriously, we’re always trying new types of food and we’re very open to different cultures. Damn it, now we’re hungry.
Is there anyone you want to collaborate with in the future?
We’ve always discussed working with Dave Grohl because he is a multi-talented musician who we really look up to for that reason. As well as Dallas Green because he plays in a heavier, more electric band, in comparison to his solo music which is acoustic and heartfelt. Both are things that we seek inspiration in.
Do you have a three-year plan? If so, where do you want to be by then?
Touring around Canada is a definite plan; we would love to start that next summer! Having an album recorded and packaged is another plan that we hope will be accomplished soon. In our personal lives, Mary Death will be finished University and Emily will be finished school and working as a hairdresser. We want to save up so that we can spend it all on our tour!
Rumor also has it that we plan on packing our bags and moving to a different country for a year. Oops! Did we just let that slip?!