Dear Mother, the new metal trio based in the Netherlands features former Delain members, Merel Bechtold and Joey Marin de Boer. Written in 2019 after completing their crowdfunding, the group’s debut album, Bulletproof, was released on July 16th, 2021 (order here). We caught up with Bechtold to learn more about the project.
How did Dear Mother form?
It started with reconnecting to music. I’ve been playing in so many amazing bands for the last few years, but none of them was musically close to my heart. When I played a song by ‘Dayshell’ I felt so pumped! That’s when I called Joey and said ‘we need to start a new band.’ In 2019 I decided to go for it and made the decision to leave an established band to
focus on writing new music. After a thorough search we found our matching vocalist and person, David Pear and things moved very quickly after that. We finished ‘Bulletproof’ the same year.
Dear Mother sounds much different than what some of your listeners are used to
hearing between your time with Delain and MaYaN. How would you describe Dear
Mother to your listeners?
Oh yes, very different! It’s not even close… so don’t expect anything like those bands! Dear Mother is closer to alternative metal, but even that genre is quite vague. I would say more in the direction of In Flames meets Stone Sour, meets Architects. Modern, melodic and a vocalist that mostly sings with distorted vocals, but also sings clean and growls.
What was it like recording Bulletproof during the COVID-19 pandemic?
A hassle, haha! We struggled with scheduling the drum recordings. Back then we weren’t able to do pcr tests and Joey was snotty for two months. We were acting well behaved and strictly following the rules. All the other recordings were done in isolation.
Are there any particular tracks that were more challenging to write?
Yes! Satellite took quite a while because we couldn’t get the chorus right. Right now I think It’s one of the strongest choruses on the album. Fade-in took a while because of the intro, but the song itself came naturally. And I would say Vertigo and Means To No war were quite challenging. All the other songs were super easy to write.
Now with the new album out, what’s next for Dear Mother?
We’re looking into a possible support tour and we’ll be booking the release shows for 2022 very soon. Also we’ll start to write new music very soon.
Can you talk more about the song “12 Years in Exile?”
Yes! I think it’s one of the songs that describes the overall Dear Mother sound the most. David writes all the lyrics. It’s inspired by a story about a programmer who was imprisoned and tortured for years. At some point he switched off and was able to master his emotions and overcome the pain so he became invincible.
Is there anything else you want to say or add about the new album, or any
additional new projects in the works?
Everything about this band is a full hands-on, DIY mentality. The writing, recordings, videos, artworks, releases, shippings are all done by ourselves. You can listen to the album on all streaming platforms, but if you like what you’ve heard and you would like to support us feel free to grab something from the webstore. And if you would like to go on a 7-day virtual road trip with us you can sign up here.
