INTERVIEW Mama Lips

When I saw my lovely friend’s name, Mama Lips, pop up on our new releases list, I squeaked in joy. I have known Mama for a couple of years now, bonded through our love of indie comics and zines, and how our lives felt interwoven during a shared experience of loss and grief. I cannot express how proud I am of their new music, and I couldn’t wait to learn more.

“I was always making up songs from when I was five and singing melodies. It came from an internal feeling of wanting to express emotions that are hard to explain in any other way,” Mama relays. They have this wonderful skill in making you feel all the feels; their gentle vocals combined with guitar is wholesome yet heart-wrenching, unafraid to go to dark places, but you always feel safe. Their music is like having a much needed coffee and cathartic catch-up with a friend. They go through tough stuff, but they’re kind, always lined with hope. “It’s just a natural thing I do. Like breathing. When the time is right to put an album out, that’s when I know. It’s fun to see a project grow from nothing to a fully formed thing.”

Writing songs is like having a conversation with yourself and discovering things you didn’t know. I’m in a much better place now because of the album

And what a profound thing it is. Perhaps the most perfectly named album ever, Life Is Beautiful is a deeply personal, Cure-inspired, folk punk/anti-folk album with a surreal edge – a glimpse into how they have been feeling for the last five years. “I lost my parents in such a short period of time and other family members and friends,” Mama explains. “The album reminds myself that although there has been such a massive loss that has broken me in a lot of ways, there’s still wonder in the world and I’m glad I have memories of the people that I love who are gone. I feel it would be doing a disservice to them to not appreciate the life I’ve been given.”

Their process is always “new and experimental”, telling a complete story from years of different puzzle pieces of songs which they eventually all slotted together. “I tried to create how the world sounds inside my head on the album. Sort of ethereal.” There are also some very special voices in some of the songs. “You can hear my Dad on his deathbed. I was by his side in the hospital for a week and I was recording voice notes for songs, so his voice and my Mam’s is now part of the music.” What a powerful way to commemorate a person by having them be a part of music forever. I asked if this whole process had been helpful in their healing. “I think it’s like therapy. Writing songs is like having a conversation with yourself and discovering things you didn’t know. I’m in a much better place now because of the album.”

I wondered whether they had any advice that they’d share with folks who may have experienced something similar. “Write down the day-to-day. Keep a diary. Eventually you will see that the goodness comes back. The sadness comes back too, but it’s a reminder that there is always an upswing around the corner.”

Mama Lips’ self-published new album, Life is Beautiful, is released on Friday 5th September.