Up and Coming Rock Star Mather Louth

Many artists and musicians have been asked: who are you? Who's left when you take away the makeup, the costumes, and the stage lighting? We, the audience, may never know, but that's part of an artist's mystique.

Mather, the songwriting mistress at the helm of Mather Louth, is just that type of artiste. She is just now on the verge of breaking into the touring circuit, and ready to take on the masses; but let's take a step back.

When she began to toy with the idea of making albums, this performer was basically doing it herself. "Let's see...a little less than three and a half years ago, I started playing shortly after my mom taught me some basic chords," she says of learning the guitar. Soon, when she had a concrete dream in mind, she moved out to Hollywood, as so many entertainers do.

Not having her lefty guitar, and being miles away from home, she decided to pick up a right-handed guitar and play upside down, as Kurt Cobain and Mississippi bluesman Albert King had done. Once in Cali, she began her first serious songwriting.

Now, of course, Hollywood sounds ideal before you actually arrive; but is it all it's cracked up to be? "Anyplace with the exception of Pittsburgh [is]," jokes Mather. "It's what you put into it...[I've] had friends move out here, and they haven't put in enough time...[they] come out and stay for only half a year. I'm much more in tune with New York...I have built my own level of success. There's a lot of hope, a lot of broken dreams...in some ways, it's lived up to the stereotypes."

Currently in a neighborhood called Los Feliz (near Griffith Park), she is beginning to feel somewhat at home. "It has a very East Coast feeling," she says of the area, "[but] if you spend any considerable amount of time here, it's like, 'Hollywood, eh?'...I had to build up my own social circle; I'm more realistic than anything. I've experienced a lot of frustrations, but there's not much to complain about."

If you were to inspect Mather Louth's Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/matherlouth), then you may get a clearer picture of the above. The site is a sampling of what you might expect to hear if you were to buy one of the band's albums. Among the selections on their brief playlist are the songs "Desert Woman," with a full backing band including a horn section, and "Blackwater Davey," an old-times bluesy melody that almost sounds as if it were recorded in a downtown theatre.

Some of the band's recordings are a bit rough sounding, due to a lack of sophisticated equipment. "Those demos are lo-fi because I did everything myself," Mather explains, "...they're not the best quality, but [they] got the job done. The way that they've changed, and the way that my bandmates have worked on them, have made them really interesting. People said 'I can hear a lot of potential' [in the recordings.] Some of those I would not change; there are places where I go off beat, but there are classic blues recordings where there are mistakes."

A recent listener of some of Mather Louth's recordings had a negative reaction due to the sound quality; however, as Mather herself stated, there are times when that is appropriate. Kurt Cobain, when listening to the final product of Nirvana's Nevermind album, was displeased with what he heard. In his mind, it was almost too perfect, due to sound engineer Andy Wallace's mastering process. Their follow-up, In Utero, had a much "edgier" sound, which satisfied the indie crowd.

One gets the impression that Mather would be more satisfied with a "rough"-sounding track than a flawless one; you might compare listening to an MP3 with listening to a vinyl record.

It is difficult to say how critics will respond to Mather Louth's work once it's in the hands of the public. "We've been reviewed a number of times and the interest is growing; we're about to record our demo next weekend," foretells the singer. "Out of fairness to the band, it wouldn't be [right] to have all these interviews without them; basically, being at the front, more attention is directed towards me. Once we get the demo out there, I'll be reaching out to more reviewers."

Also on the band's Myspace page is a digital promo poster, designed to look almost like a wanted poster on the door of the old saloon. Across the top, it reads, "From Los Angeles hails the Burlesque Blues...Mather Louth and Her Band." Even the font has an "Old West" look to it, giving an early-20th-century flavor to the band.

Mather's personal page has a similar feel to it; many of the images recall vaudeville, complete with pantomime and juggling. "I'm influenced by so many different genres; I never consciously try to change direction. When I brought Jon [Nilsen], my sax player, in for it, I had never envisioned a sax player, but it worked really well. I've written everything from rock to jazz to shoegazing...like My Bloody Valentine. [I'm] into feedback and experimentation."

Shoegazing, according to Wikipedia, is a type of alternative rock that sprang to popularity during the 1980s in Britain. Magazines like NME coined the phrase because the musicians would often remain motionless while performing, and stare at the floor.

Were Mather Louth to hire a professional producer, Mather wants to make sure that she would remain true to the band's creative vision. "A producer's role should be enhancing an artist...I have an idea of how I want certain things to sound. Randall Keith, my bass player, is an arranger; he has acted like a producer at times. My friend Amanda Taylor is an amazing producer; she hasn't produced other albums professionally, [but] she's coming from a background where she knows music. It's better than a producer just twiddling knobs; it could be a good situation."

As of right now, Mather and her bandmates are drumming up interest in the band and its unusual, avant-garde style. Soon, they will be prepared to unleash their sound on a listening audience. May 7, they will be appearing at The Indoor Cafe in Burbank, and on the 17th, they will be making their talents known at Canter's Kibitz Room in L.A.

Those in attendance had better be prepared for the sound and the fury.