FEATURE: Spotlight: Hello Mary — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Nolan Zangas

Hello Mary

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I am moving more into…

PHOTO CREDIT: Olivia Wein

band territory this month with my Spotlight recommendations. I am trying to broaden away from solo artists. Today, I wanted to point out the incredible Hello Mary. The incredible New York trio write anthemic songs and have incredible chemistry and amazing stage presence. I am going to source a few interviews with them. Even back in 2020, they were starting to get a lot of buzz and hype. Two years on, and the trio (Helena Straight on guitar, Mikaela Oppenheimer on bass, and Stella Wave on drums) are amassing a big following and are being spotlighted by the likes of Rolling Stone! The first interview that I want to bring in is from KEXP. Hailed by the likes of Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses, The Breeders, Belly) and harnessing a sound that is ‘90s-nodding but modern at the same time, it is no wonder the hugely promising Hello Mary are turning heads right now:

“Formed in 2019, Hello Mary self-released their debut album in 2020 when Straight and Oppenheimer were 16 and Wave was 19. The release established the band’s penchant for unpredictability, surprising melodic twists, and explosive instrumentation. Across seven songs, they flex their muscle for changing time signatures with perfect synchronicity, gratifying whiplash helped along by their composition that, sophisticated beyond their years, counterbalances sonic space with blindsiding moments of thunderous drums and guitar.

Since the debut, they’ve been refining their sound in the confines of the pandemic with impressive results: in addition to shows around city parks, they’ve opened for Sunflower Bean, Luna, Quicksand, Dehd, and Pretty Sick. Most recently, they teamed up with industry vet Bryce Goggin (Dinosaur Jr., Pavement) to produce their latest batch of ear-splitters, including “Stinge” and “Sink In.”

The two singles find the unsigned band dialing back the thrash of their earlier material, still packing the tracks with controlled blitz but in sparser environments that allow each of their individual talent to shine. It’s hard not to speak in hyperboles when Wave’s kick drum ignites every chorus across the pair of songs, when Oppenheimer slices through the fuzz with chugging basslines in “Stinge,” or when Straight’s searing guitar solo comes for you in “Sink In,” the only refuge from which is her crystalline voice that transcends the slick sludge. While the lyrics in their debut weren’t as robust as their instrumental offerings, resonant reflections on love and the loss of it now color the music, rounding out their initial explorations of loneliness and isolation with experience”.

Apologies to mess with the chronology, but I want to go back to 2021 and an interview from SHEESH!. Maybe the trio are not as known in the U.K., but there is a lot of love and attention for Hello Mary in the U.S. I know that the three-piece will be touring the world very soon. Even though they have a large array of influences, they remind me of a mix of Nirvana, The Breeders and Sleater-Kinney. I think we could see the group in films and on the screen, such is their appeal, aesthetic, allure and how they grab you with their music. The trio recently released the single, Spiral. Hello Mary release their eponymous album next March:

“It’s five in the evening on a Wednesday night in early January when the dynamic trio of Hello Mary roll into our Zoom meeting. The members immediately start to excitedly chat and laugh with one another as if it were a regularly scheduled Facetime call between three lifelong friends. It’s hard to imagine that they’ve been playing together and creating music with one another for only two years. From finishing each other’s sentences to the ease at which laughter enters every part of our conversation, there is an undeniable rapport between the trio that any well respected musical group would be envious of. There is a seriousness and buzz of buoyancy in the members’ answers, an indication of their respect for their craft and each other, as they patiently responded to the standard and not-so-standard interview questions tossed at them.

Stella Wave, Helena Straight, and Mikaela Oppenheimer make up the rock trio that is Hello Mary. The band delivers nostalgic sounds reminiscent of 90s and early 2000s rock bands, but to define them by one era or genre of music would be a disservice to their potential and musicianship as a 21st century rock band. As stated by Stella, the drummer and co-vocalist, “It’s just rock, fuck Indie rock, fuck alternative rock, it’s just rock.”

The trio are very clear and assertive over how they want their music to sound and to prevent Hello Mary from being forced into any pre-existing holes. Mikaela, the bassist who delivers hypnotic bass lines throughout their tracks, emphasizes the raw sound they strive to produce. “We’ve talked about it before [and] we try to steer clear of produced and glossy music. We record our songs exactly as they are, just [to have] them sound like a really good version of us playing it live.” The members want people to rock out and jam along with their music. As Helena, the guitarist and co-vocalist of the three notes, “My favorite feeling when listening to music is to feel emotionally connected to the sound.”

The band released their first album Ginger last year and are currently working on recording their second. Expect to hear more mature songwriting and a tighter unison throughout the tracks as the trio have advanced both lyrically and in their musicianship. “Our songs are going to keep getting better [and] hopefully we can make a career out of it,” Helena further emphasizes. “I hope, even if this band goes nowhere or we don’t pick up or get big which would be a big bonus and a really fun way to make money and live, I would still choose to play music with Helena and Mikaela. I feel so good doing it and it’s so fun and fulfilling,” Stella chimes”.

I want to move to a feature and interview from LADYGUNN. They featured this awesome trio back in March. Consisting of some quick-fire questions, I thought it would be interesting to drop it in. We get to learn more about their tastes and inspirations:

“Hello Mary?

Mikaela and I met in the 6th grade…I got into music because my dad played the drums. There was always rock music playing at home growing up, so that’s how I got into it. Mikaela and I started making music together in middle school.

A defining moment for the group?

Helena and I were a part of the Brooklyn Music Factory…after that we started off on our own.

Inspiration?

The Breeders, Big Thief, Jeff Buckley, Radiohead…we’re all over the map!

A favorite spot?

My basement.

How often do you guys practice?

Twice a week.

What comes to mind when you think NYC

Listening to music on the subway.

A favorite band?

The Strokes!

PHOTO CREDIT: Nolan Zangas

Punk rock?

If you think you’re playing it…you probably are. There’s something unique about it.

A favorite closet item?

Blue jeans…we don’t have any black ones.

A memorable story?

There was this guy that wanted a Hello Mary t-shirt, and we all got on our bikes and delivered it to him in Brooklyn. It was the hottest day of the year.

Apples or Pears?

Pears honestly, but we’re trying to eat more apples.

How does your last album compare to the latest?

The last album that we have out has some cool moments, but it’s not that great in comparison to our latest. I think we’ve all become better as musicians.

A favorite from the album

‘Ginger’ is the most fun to play…but ‘Mary’ is cool too.

Some weirdness?

It was upstate…I was laying down and I felt like there were spiritual entities all around me. I started crying, and then laughing hysterically afterwards”.

I will end with a recent interview from Rolling Stone. Showing that Hello Mary have reached a new level and are getting love and support from some major outlets, they are going to blow up come 2023! This is a band that everyone needs to keep a close eye on:

“THEY SAY THAT rock is dying, guitar solos are old news, and kids today don’t like that kind of noise. OK, sure — but have they heard Hello Mary?

The New York trio’s self-titled full-length debut, out March 3, is a blast of distorted chords, sunny harmonies, and all-consuming angst that will renew your faith in the hopelessly dated and/or timelessly classic sounds of alternative rock. Hello Mary is an instant contender for 2023’s most bracing entrance to the stage, sharp and self-assured. Oh yeah, and the band’s two founders — singer-guitarist Helena Straight and bass player Mikaela Oppenheimer, both 18 — just graduated from high school this summer.

Drummer Stella Wave, 22, admits her expectations were low when someone first sent her a link to the songs that Straight and Oppenheimer had been writing as a twosome. “They were both 15, and I was 18,” says Wave, who was a college freshman in Westchester County at the time. “I don’t know how much you remember about that dynamic, but it feels huge. When I realized how young they were, I was like, ‘This might be kind of weird.’ But then I listened to the demos that they put on SoundCloud.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Hello Mary in Brooklyn, October 2022/PHOTO CREDIT: Jessica Gurewitz

She was intrigued enough to come meet Straight at her parents’ house in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. It didn’t go very well. “Helena opened the door and was so quiet,” Wave says, laughing. “She was so painfully shy. We practiced and it felt like pulling teeth, honestly, to get any reaction. She later told me that she almost canceled on me because she was so nervous.” (“I freaked out because she was older,” Straight confirms.)

Straight and Oppenheimer had been close pals since middle school, when they met through an extracurricular program for musically inclined Brooklynites. Both of them were introspective kids, and they bonded over mid-2010s favorites like Courtney Barnett, Car Seat Headrest, and Twin Peaks — “classic indie stuff,” Straight says — along with older picks from the decades before they were born.

“I remember when Neutral Milk Hotel came on my Pandora for the first time and I was like, ‘This is crazy,’” Oppenheimer says.

“And I was like, ‘Oh my God, my dad plays this all the time,’” Straight says.

Their taste was highly unusual in their peer group, where Top 40 pop ruled the day. “I still love Taylor Swift — I’m sitting on a Taylor Swift blanket right now,” Straight says. “So I could relate to people that were into that stuff. But Mikaela and I had a separate connection that we didn’t share with anyone else.”

Soon they’d broken off from the other students in the music program to start Hello Mary, which became the main focus of their early-adolescent lives. They’d spend hours at Straight’s house practicing in the basement as a duo; in the summer before ninth grade, they went up to the tiny attic to record some demos with Straight’s dad on drums.

Wave, a few years ahead of them, had grown up in another part of Brooklyn on a similar diet of parentally approved guitar weirdness. She recalls listening to “a lot of Pavement” — her mom’s favorite band — along with Luna, Galaxie 500, Yo La Tengo, and more. “I remember in elementary school being embarrassed because my mom DJ’d some Valentine’s Day dance, and having a talk with her before: ‘You can’t play your music. You have to play pop hits so that the kids like me,’” Wave says. By her own teens, she was getting into heavier bands like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and the Breeders”.

Maybe better known in their native U.S. and around New York/Brooklyn, there is this expanding consciousness of the amazing Hello Mary. With their music being shared on social media and loads of people raving about them, you need to check them out! The Hello Mary album is out next year, and new single Spiral is among their very best work. I can guarantee that, right away, Helena Straight, Mikaela Oppenheimer and Stella Wave’s wonderful music will capture your heart…