Mary Hood is an indie folk/rock band comprised of Mary Hood (songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist), Chris Curtin on second guitar and synthesizer, Brian Hart on bass guitar, and Billy Coughlin on drums. Mary’s guitar roots are in fingerpicking acoustic style, mimicking artists and lyricists like Elliott Smith, Stevie Nicks, and Shakey Graves. The band originally started as a 3 piece in upstate New York and moved to Brooklyn in 2020 and 2022 where they met Billy Coughlin (co-producer of Local Bops and frontman of Mascot). Billy put together a show with Local Bops at Gold Sound in Brooklyn and put Mary Hood on the bill and that was the first time they met. Later on, he and the host of Local Bops (Connor Beckett) invited Mary Hood to do a Local Bops interview podcast and they all hit it off. The band continues, "Some time later, Chris fell down a flight of subway stairs trying to catch the train and hurt his arm. We needed a fill in drummer, so Billy ended up filling in and staying as a permanent fixture. Chris decided he liked playing guitar and synth (which was somehow easier to play with a hurt arm) and so our band remains in its current form." The band’s sound has grown to include more eclectic instrumentation, percussion and countermelodies, blending harmoniously with Mary’s ethereal voice to create a sound some might describe as Radiohead meets Big Thief. We caught up with them to ask them more about what inspires them, how they formed and a bunch more:
How did the band form and what does the band name mean?
Mary Hood is my name. I had been playing as a solo musician for a while, and eventually decided I was limiting what I was able to create by being solo. I had met Chris at an open mic at an Ancient Order of Hibernians in Monroe, NY. He started playing drums with me and, shortly after, introduced me to Brian who was the bass player of his former band Cotango. We started playing in February of 2018 and had our first show at The Beverly in Kingston, NY in March of 2018 with Belle Skinner and Ciarra Fragale. Even though we are wholly a band now, everyone has said that my name is easy to remember so we stick with it.
Previous musical projects? How'd you first get into music?
When my uncle was a teenage punk, he would teach me to play the drums and show me bands like the Ramones and the Beastie Boys and the Dropkick Murphy's. At one point I remember him being very into French rap and would have me write raps with him and record it. I was in a fake band with my childhood best friend and we would write songs together even though we didn't play any instruments. We had one good song called “This Is Not St. Patrick’s Day” about waking up and finding out it's March 16th, not St. Patrick's Day. We rhymed “March 16th” with “no corned beef!” I didn't start doing music seriously until I was 18 and decided to go to school for songwriting in Nashville. That didn't work out so I moved back and joined a punk band called the Litterbugs on guitar and later played guitar with the Dan Zlotnick Band.
First concert that you ever went to?
Mary: Aaron Carter and A*Teens when I was 5 years old
Chris: Green Day at Roselawn in 1997
Billy: Ted Leo and The Pharmacists
Brian: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band
What's your writing process like?
Sometimes I write stream of consciousness or lyrics pop into my head at random times and I write them down in my notepad. More often than not, I just start playing guitar or banjo or piano, start singing random nonsense words and form the song from there. Random words gain meaning on their own trusting the subconscious and not thinking too hard about it.
What other artists or songs inspire your music?
Lyrically I am inspired by artists like Adrianne Lenker, Elliott Smith, Fiona Apple, Lauryn Hill, Evan Stephens Hall, Laura Stevenson, Pat the Bunny, Billy Joel. This year I have gotten more into post punk bands like Spirit of the Beehive, Tropical Fuck Storm, and Dry Cleaning. I am always drawn back to 90’s alternative (Third Eye Blind, Fountains of Wayne, Oasis, My Bloody Valentine) and 2000’s indie rock (MGMT, STRFKR, Arcade Fire, Beach House, Tame Impala) And always dad rock (which I guess is grandpa rock now?) Like Steely Dan, Tom Petty, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Fleetwood Mac, Electric Light Orchestra, As a band, I think we all love Radiohead, the Cure, and the Talking Heads.
What's the live experience like and your philosophy on playing live? Do you think the music live should be identical to the recorded version or should it be it's own thing?
I don’t think it needs to be. During a live show, I think we all feed off each other's energy and create a new experience every time. Recorded songs sometimes lose their life in my opinion, when you go into it just playing the parts to a click. And adding random extra parts or things you hear during the recording process that you might not be able to recreate live, is totally fine. Feeling inspiration to add more to a recorded song that doesn't mimic the live performance sometimes helps it gain new life and make the recording process more fun. When we recorded Light Pollution at Dreamland with John Valessio, we had access to a mellotron and an organ (things we don’t have at our live shows) and we took full advantage of recording those things, which made for a much more fun and inspiring recording session.
Has the band tour? What has the touring experience been, best shows? worst shows?
We have not toured. We are hoping to soon. Our best shows have definitely been local diy shows, because the crowd is always the most excited to see live music. There’s a supportive, low pressure energy in the air that always makes it magical. Every house is different. It’s cozy, and theres an intimacy that no venue has thus far been able to make me feel. Our last show was in a huge apartment in Bushwick. The people are moving out so they really went all out for their last show in their space. It was my favorite show in recent memory and I think most of the band agrees. The worst show in my opinion that we ever played was an office party where I ended up drinking too much and playing terribly for very serious people in business casual attire who didn't really care at all. I've also played a show solo in a dive bar where no one applauded except for one man in the back who let out a super enthusiastic "YEAH!" and I was relieved. but then realized he was watching sports and cheering cause his team had just won.
What's up next for the band?
We will hopefully be recording a few more of our newer songs and releasing them in the near future! After a long hiatus of not releasing music, we are ready to be more proactive and continue to progress and develop as a band, and hopefully tour. I am currently editing the self recorded music video for Light Pollution that I shot in Chris and I’s small Brooklyn apartment. On an extremely tight budget, we’re realizing how much we are capable of doing on our own, with a learning curve. The video will be out in early October.