Mothers began in 2013 as the solo project of Athens, Georgia-based visual artist Kristine Leschper while she studied printmaking at the Lamar Dodd School of Art. The discipline instilled in her a strong work ethic and an intense focus to detail, while simultaneously inspiring her to pursue other creative aspects of her personality. A self-taught songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Leschper’s earliest musical influences span a great swath of early aughts rock and folk, such as Interpol, Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, The Microphones, and Athens legends Neutral Milk Hotel; she later developed a love for experimental music, math rock, and noise artists, including Lighting Bolt, Hella and Tera Melos. As a result, her earliest demos exhibit a sense of striking catharsis under non-traditional song structures, which flirt between strength and vulnerability and are often quite linear in form.

Over the course of 2014, Leschper played solo shows that earned her local acclaim, including from Flagpole which praised her “visceral, deeply personal” songs. But she knew that in order to reach her true musical vision, she would need to expand the line-up, so she recruited musicians from other local bands and the new group quickly recorded their debut full-length album at Chase Park Transduction in Athens (R.E.M, Animal Collective, Olivia Tremor Control) over the winter of 2014. The album was produced by Drew Vandenberg, who has worked on albums by Of Montreal, Deerhunter and Porcelain Raft, and features collaborations with Josh McKay (Deerhunter) on vibraphone and McKendrick Bearden (Grand Vapids), who played bass and provided string arrangements throughout the album. Mothers will release their debut album in 2016.