Canadian rock band Mom Mom. Photograph: Emily Bradhsaw/Warner Music
Canadian rock act Mom Mom’s Lollapalooza India set in Mumbai, their debut present within the nation, got here collectively due to a last-minute swap-in.
Guitarist-vocalist Ryan Guldemond says from his lodge in Mumbai, “There was a cancellation, and so we bought kind of a last-minute invitation. We had like a day to determine.” For the band that’s been round since 2005, it was an “straightforward sure.” The chance to play India for a Canadian rock band was too good to cross up. “I don’t even know of any friends which have come to India,” he says.
Guldemond has already been absorbing the Mumbai expertise like one would count on from a first-time customer. Whereas they did go to the Taj Mahal Palace for tea, his most popular mode of tourism is easier: “My favourite factor to do is simply to stroll round and absorb the true power of a metropolis. I don’t love doing the plain touristy issues, however simply strolling for hours, particularly with a digital camera.”
He additionally mentions he’s additionally bought a terrific view from his lodge window — pre-dawn meditators going through the ocean. The band, apparently, have a tune referred to as “Namaste” from their 2025 album Nostalgia. He admits the tune’s connection to India will not be actually intentional, however provides, “There’s a number of religious themes and religious angst in our music… looking for peace, looking for enlightenment, however failing, and struggling along with your humanity. So it’s cool to be in a spot that’s so spiritually wealthy.”
What can Lollapalooza attendees count on from Mom Mom’s set? “Fairly excessive power, constructive,” Guldemond says. Don’t count on “Namaste” on the setlist, although. “I feel it’s a bit gradual for our Lollapalooza set. I feel we have to come out with a bang.”
The excellent news is that the band has loads of ammunition. With twenty years of fabric to drag from, they’re “positively pulling from the entire catalog.” Which means hits from their TikTok-fueled time like “Hayloft“ alongside songs like “Burning Pile,” “Verbatim” and “Amrs Tonite,” plus just a few crowd-pleasing medleys that give the band formidable firepower.
It was round 2021 that their older tracks exploded on social media with “Hayloft II” reaching a milestone that also appears to amaze Guldemond. “The lyrics had been essentially the most searched lyrics in America in 2021. To me, that was only a loopy statistic. Couldn’t imagine it,” he says.
For a lot of artists, being labeled a “TikTok sensation” would possibly really feel reductive. However the band has made peace with unconventional success. “I feel it’s a must to journey the wave. There’s a pure rhythm to success when it comes your manner, and I feel it’s applicable to honor the second and be pleased about it and never resent it as a result of it’s portray you in a [certain] mild.”
With their most up-to-date album, Nostalgia, the band returned to what can broadly be referred to as their triple vocal assault, indie rock “roots” after a good quantity of sonic wandering on albums like Grief Chapter and Dance and Cry. Half of their new document contains previous songs they by no means recorded however all the time beloved, whereas the opposite half options new materials. Reception was strong, however Guldemond is open about the truth that it wasn’t their most profitable album. “And that’s okay too. It’s only a chapter within the ebook, proper? Each chapter can’t be explosive.”
The important thing, based on Guldemond is to “do it for the method.” He provides, “You must love the method greater than the end result. As long as you can also make music and be within the course of, then you definitely’ll be completely satisfied.”
After wrapping up competition appearances in 2026, Mom Mom plans to return to the writing room. When requested in regards to the course of recent materials, Guldemond hints at one thing that departs from Nostalgia‘s retrospective nature. He says, “Now we could be our present selves once more. I feel most likely darker and possibly extra complicated, like extra progressive, extra components, like much less method and extra math.”
Because the band prepares to hit the Lollapalooza India stage, Guldemond hopes it’s the “starting of extra time within the nation.”
For a band that’s discovered to embrace no matter comes their manner amid viral fame, streaming algorithms, last-minute worldwide gigs and extra, Mom Mom will ship precisely what they promise: excessive power, real connection, and twenty years of songs that may imply one thing to folks, whether or not they found them in 2005 or 2021. “We simply maintain marching ahead,” Guldemond says.
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