January 2023 - TURN IT UP: MMeadows
After years of collaborating with other musicians and performers like Taylor Swift, Beyonce, and Harry Styles, Kristin Slipp and Cole Kaman-Green felt it was time to join forces. The joint effort became Mmeadows and they are bringing a sound into the musical psyche that is all them. In preparation for their performance at Meow Wolf on January 28th, we sat down with Kristin and Cole to talk about their name, their upcoming LP Light Moves Around You, and why this collaboration works so well.
For those who will be experiencing your music for the first time, some back history - where does the name mmeadows come from?
One day before we were a band, Cole and I were driving together in upstate new york, and he was showing me an instrumental track he’d made the day before. It was late spring, dusk had just rained, and everything around us was glistening and green. We passed an open field just as the sun began to dip down behind the Catskills, and in that moment I knew two things: that we had to be a band, and that we were called mmeadows. Two “m”s for two people.
How does this collaboration of Kristin and Cole work so well, considering the different musical backgrounds?
For almost 2 decades we’ve played, toured, and recorded a lot of music together in another band (Cuddle Magic), and those years have been formative to our artistic maturation. While our early musical backgrounds are quite disparate (Cole from NYC, attending a performing arts high school, Kristin from rural Maine), our tastes, musical abilities, openness, and curiosity have aligned for much of our adult lives. We also have an immense amount of respect for one anothers’ musicianship. This (most of the time) allows us to give one another space we need to create. Not stepping on each others’ toes, or inserting our ego into the collaboration process has been essential to making the best work we can.
Light Moves Around You is a haunting song. What is the story behind this song?
I wrote this song early in the pandemic at a time when my anxiety was pretty extreme. I felt myself spiraling, and I wrote this song as a self-soother. The final line “we don’t have to worry about anything” is a reminder to myself that I’m not in control, not really, and there’s a little bit of peace in knowing that.
What can we expect with your performance at Meow Wolf on January 28th?
At the center of our music and our live show is our musicianship. Yes, we have a keytar. Yes, Cole is playing an esoteric wind synth from 1975. Kristin’s a serious singer with incredible range and nuance. Though we use a lot of synthetic and sampled sounds, the music is deeply human. You’ll experience two people who love nothing more than to play songs in a room filled with people.
Where can people find out more about you?
Come say hi at the merch table! We’ve got a lot coming down the pipeline and are active on socials.
To learn more about Mmeadows visit their website at mmeadowsband.com.