Adult Mom reveals some behind-the-scenes titbits from their new dealing-with-your-twenties album, ‘Driver’.
The move
In very early 2017, I moved back into my childhood home, leaving a relationship, a job, and city behind. I was immediately devastated by the things I chose to lose, and deemed the move back home a failure of massive proportion. It felt off – I was back in the bedroom I grew up in, the doors still scribbled with emo lyrics and teenage aspirations. 23 going on 16. The space felt liminal and never-ending. At first, I was writing to that space, and to the feeling of being in-between stages of life. I felt that I couldn’t progress or move forward or progress while living at home, despite it ultimately being a very important and transitional time in my life.
The car
Living in the suburbs left me with few time-killing options, so I turned to aimless long drives to fill the gaps. Getting my license later in life, after I turned 21, it was a newer talent and felt very liberating. My car became a type of home itself, and one that provided a lot of room for emotional breakdowns and some emotional highs. Being able to bring myself places, and be in control in that sense was and continues to be something very important to me.
The title
Taking from the idea of being a “passenger” vs being the “driver”, in both the literal and metaphorical sense. The word “driver” felt apt to my experiences while writing these songs. The album title is attempting to highlight being the driver instead of the passenger, wherein being the driver means having agency, having direction, having navigation and control while still having those definers questioned and developed throughout the record.
The inspirations
One of my favourite things about building this record was compiling who I wanted to reference in the music. I love the eclectic confidence of R.E.M., their jangly guitars and tight air drums and bass lines that hook. I love the songwriters who sing from the heart, like Joni Mitchell and Taylor Swift and Sheryl Crow. I love dancing to Carly Rae Jepsen and scream-singing to Paramore. We all wanted to pull from the things we loved as much as we could sonically, while still hopefully maintaining a cohesive thread.
The collaboration
Another favourite thing about building this record was getting the chance to collaborate with extremely talented musicians. I have always been a bit coveted about my process, always wanting to do things all by myself, and I soon realized that opening the door to collaboration is a gift. I got to co-produce for the very first time, and push as far as I wanted because of the wonderful people that helped make this album a reality.
With this record, I hope that people take away the true complicated nature of coping with things in their aftermath. For me, this record was all about trying to put the pieces of my life back together, and the very nonlinear navigation of that. I’m thankful that the pieces finally found their place.
Taken from the April issue of Upset. Adult Mom’s album ‘Driver’ is out now.
