Mountain Man Interview: SXSW 2010

Mountain Man is a trio of female musicians from Bennington College in Vermont. Amelia Meath, Molly Sarle and Alex Sauser-Monnig hold hands as they weave intricate folk harmonies into a swirling collage, with only the occasional acoustic guitar for instrumentation. The resulting sound is pure, innocent, but also haunting and familiar, - like choir hymns from some forgotten backwoods religion. The group members talked to Spinner as they prepare to release their debut album on Underwater Peoples Records, and head to Austin for SXSW.

How did your band form?

Molly: Actually, we weren't friends until we all started singing together ... maybe because we all have really strong personalities. But, I wrote this song, 'Dog Song,' then Amelia overheard me singing this song in the commons when I came to visit Bennington. She kind of cornered me and made me teach it to her.

Amelia: (laughing) I made you come up into my room!

Molly: Yeah! She made me come up there, and I was really scared, and I sang it to her like five times in a row, and I was very confused the whole time (laughing). But Amelia taught it to Alex when she came back from break, and there was a show we were all singing at, so we thought it'd be a good idea if we did some songs together.

Amelia: So, we just all figured it out, that we needed to be a band. We just figured it out.

Describe your sound in your own words.

Alex: Well, that's hard, but it's a combination of folk music and, like, old chorals.

Molly: I usually use my hands a lot when someone asks me that question. I say, "It's like three voices searching for something and coming together while they're searching."


Did you all sing in church growing up?

Molly: I was raised Catholic, and I sang in the choir, but we did not sing like Mountain Man!

Amelia: I grew up in my church choir too, and we definitely didn't sing like Mountain Man.

Alex: I sang in my church choir too.

Do you feel like it influenced the way you sound together?

Alex: Not at all!

Amelia: Well, I feel like it does. I mean, psalms and old church music like Tom Bogdan ... I really love those.

Alex: True. I mean, singing with my old church choir was totally different. We usually sang uppity Episcopalian music.

Are you surprise at the attention your group has received already in the indie rock world?

Amelia: Yes, that's totally surprising.

Molly: Yes, it's surprising to see other people responding to something that is so personal to me.

Alex: At the same time, it's pretty awesome!

How did you come up with your band name?

Alex: We were hanging out with our buddy, Alex Bleeker.


Evan Bozarth is a contributor from Seed.com. Learn how you can contribute here.