Rising Stars: Meet Maiden Mother Crone

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maiden Mother Crone. Them and their team share their story with us below:

Nashville-based quartet Maiden Mother Crone was formed in the early months of 2019 by members; Nick Stacey (Guitar/Vocals), Dave Parker (Bass), Greg Dowling (Drums) & Wesley Suttle (Guitar). The band combines washy, reverb-drenched shoe gaze with dynamic, progressive-leaning song structures that reside in the ethereal and distorted.

In 2017 Wesley moved from his home in Mobile, AL, to study audio production at Dark Horse Institute. At a chance encounter at a local bar, Wesley saw Greg’s previous band. Finally, Gravy, a hardcore punk band, played to an unexpecting crowd of country folk. The juxtaposition of genre and the venue atmosphere made him highly intrigued, and he struck up a conversation with the band for a few short minutes. And that was that until a few weeks later, while Wesley was driving through East Nashville, he spotted the bass player of Finally Gravy, Tim Neyman, walking outside of The Cobra, yelled in excitement to him from across the street, and pulled into the venue where they then told him that the band was looking for a guitar player. Wesley joined the band and played shows throughout Nashville for the next two years, which is how they introduced them to Dave Parker. Originally from Charlotte, NC, Dave came to Nashville in 2010 and graduated from Belmont University in 2013. He played with bands, Econosin, and Balmora, which Finally Gravy played with frequently. When their band was coming to an end, Wesley and Greg wanted to branch out into a different direction in musical style and asked Nick Stacey, who Greg had met at a show in 2015, if he’d like to be a part of this as the band’s second guitar player, and singer. After a few jam sessions, Nick joined, and the sound was coming together. The three then sent Dave some demos and asked if he’d like to round off the band as its bass player, to which he was instantly drawn and said absolutely.

We quickly realized the strong musical chemistry between us and that this was the direction we wanted to go in – but we didn’t have a band name yet. We had a few ideas, but one day Nick told us about a cool tattoo that his uncle had, the symbol moons of the Maiden Mother & Crone. We learned about its history when we looked into the symbolism and ideology behind it. Many iterations of the ideologies that implement the idea of the maiden, mother, and crone are primarily focused on the stages of the female life cycle while also acknowledging and honoring the cycles of mother nature. There’s a common theme of life, death, and rebirth throughout nature. The changing of seasons, the cycles of the moon, etc. We felt that this idea was fitting for what we were creating. The chemistry we had together when playing and the music we were writing felt like a bit of a “rebirth” within each of our musical endeavors. We hadn’t experienced a connection that felt coherent, and we felt it showed in what we were doing. This notion intrigued us greatly, and we finally decided that Maiden Mother Crone was the right name for the band. We worked up a batch of songs in a few short months and started opening for larger acts like Mat Kerekes of Citizen, Kurt Travis of Royal Coda, and former vocalist of A Lot Like Birds and Dance Gavin Dance. 2019 was an excellent first year for us. We got to open for artists we highly respect, and in September, we released our first EP, “Blue Ruin.” When the pandemic hit in 2020, we stopped playing completely, and instead spent our time locked away in a basement writing and developing our style further. After some live stream performances, we went into the studio and recorded our sophomore EP, “Redirection,” released in January of 2021.

Presently, in 2022, with venues opened back up, we’ve been playing regularly again in and out of state in preparation for the release of our first full-length album, “The Sky Lay Still, While All Around Us Fell,” which we are currently in the process of mixing and mastering.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been fairly smooth?
For the most part, yes, except for covid. Covid halted all live performances at a time when we were gaining traction in the scene. As far as working with each other goes, we consider each other brothers, and writing and performing music together continues to be a rewarding and beautiful process.

If we knew you were growing up, how would we have described you?
We have always wanted to play music since we were young. Music has always been the most important thing to us, whether it’s listening, writing, or performing.

Wesley: “Around the age of 8 I saw some Queen live footage, and that was my eureka moment. Ever since, I knew I wanted to play music and based my life on learning anything and everything about music. I spent a lot of time alone due to this, but it was never an issue for me. I started playing guitar at 12, and here we are now. Who’d thunk it?”

Dave: “I heard Led Zeppelin and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ then-new album, “Stadium Arcadium,” in the spring of 2006 when my friend played me their music. That experience made me want to pick a guitar/bass and play together. John Frusciante greatly inspired my ways of thinking, creating, and feeling music on the instrument.”

Greg: “I started playing drums when I was about 12 years old for a church I used to go to. All my buddies in school were playing instruments and putting together a band, so I figured, “well, I can probably hit stuff,” and I was given a pair of drums sticks and told about counting 1 & 2 over and over again. 15 years later, here we are. The bands who kept me wanting to learn more about music and dive into wanting a career were Circa Survive and Coheed & Cambria because their drummers were unique and had lots of exciting playing patterns. I went and started practicing how those drummers played so that I could recreate and develop my style from the influence of theirs.”

Nick: “When I was 10, I wanted to play drums. We never had a kit at outhouse until a few years later, but my mom had a guitar lying around for as long as I can remember. A family friend taught me a couple of things one night, and it all snowballed. When I was about 13 I started getting into the 90’s Seattle “grunge” stuff, which probably inspired me to play and sing but to write songs.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://maidenmothercronemusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maiden_mother_crone_band/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaidenMotherCroneBand/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNqNyiClDO2q3t_eRsdsUYw
• SoundCloud: https://maidenmothercroneband.bandcamp.com
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0LtSvBepsYLxo6H2uJ75xY?si=5xnOqJ2fTwWTP1j2GYkBPg&nd=1

Image Credits
Devon Skold Jessica Sullivan Scumbag Creations