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Ontario before breaking up and I went to go live in Montreal for a while.”) Interestingly, this immediate desire to travel became a feature of her life that would play a key part in the music that Amy Lou would be making just a few years later. “I did some trav- elling to New Zealand, and the US, and Central America, Mexico, before I met Lisa. I was in a few bands and by myself during those times. I, like a lot of my friends, did a lot of busking on the street and playing shows to be able to keep travelling... and, you know, eat and what have you.”
hat also starts to become clear are the various and developing musical tastes of the young Amy Lou as she moved from one project to the next. “In Montreal I played in an electric band with some friends and my sister, which was really fun… I played a lot with a friend who was a fiddle player, and we wrote a lot together. He was very helpful with theory and helping me see music in different ways. I owe him a lot of credit for my development as a musician. I have also played with, and still collaborate with, a dear friend Amy Goldberg, who has a project called Waltz Out Of Montreal which is incredible. She is my favourite songwriter. All this said, when I met Lisa, it just clicked immediately. We never have to talk much about where we want a song to go, we just finish each other’s sentences, and it’s amazing. I couldn’t be more grateful to be able to share that language with someone.”
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Lisa Maria meanwhile grew up learning Ottawa Valley Step Dancing. “This is a traditional Canadian dance form that blends tap, French-Canadian, and traditional European dance to create a unique style,” she explained. “Old time, French-Canadian, and Canadian Celtic music are the fiddle styles that are traditionally step danced to. Hearing these tunes had an influence on later picking up the fiddle. Through travelling I continued to pick up other traditional dance forms including Appalachian buck dancing and Québécois podorythmie. The podorythmie foot percussion is what I primarily use while performing with Mama’s Broke. Howev- er, I do add a mix of step dancing and buck dancing as well.” You can see immediately how the pair hit it off so quickly. She plays mandolin, fiddle and guitar, which she learnt while travelling. “I began travelling at a young age, always fuelled by the ‘next adventure’. Before meeting Amy, I travelled extensively through- out Asia, Europe, the United States, and Canada.”
It seems Lisa Maria’s music was similarly moving in various directions over the years. “I’ve played in everything from bluegrass to metal bands,” she recalled. “This helped me to become versatile and expand my creativity. Because I’ve always been on the move, I jumped in and out of a lot of projects and would often sit in as a session musician. Mostly I spent a lot of time playing in travelling busking bands, for back then, music was a means to support the travel. Amy was one of the first people I felt I really connected with musically and eventually things shifted and the travel became the means to support the music.”
As both Amy Lou and Lisa Maria had travelled extensively before they met, it’s no surprise that within a month of forming Mama’s Broke they organised a tour of Ireland, the UK and Europe, on that occasion travelling with a group called the Rail Yard Ghosts. “Since then we have been constantly moving around. We both travelled the world before we met, and we both have always had an interest in traditional music. Our travels together have only strengthened that love of folk music and added to the long list of influences and inspiration that drives our songwriting.”
A lot has happened in the few short years since Amy Lou and
Lisa Maria’s drive to Halifax in 2014. Indeed, it seems that is one of the reasons why, although it took only months to release their EP that same year, their first full-length album waited until 2017 to arrive. “It took us a while to carve out time away from travelling to record, so by the time we were in the studio, most of the songs we had, we had already been performing.” The upside to that of course was having the chance to get to know those songs, work on them, and decide which were for this album.
An equal pairing regarding song-writing, they both know their strengths. “Amy is definitely stronger lyrically,” Lisa explained. “My strengths tend to be more instrumental; however, everything is collaborative… The majority of lead vocals are Amy, but the title track, Count The Wicked, is a good example of us both singing lead.”
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