Hey Momma! Who do we have talking with us today? Where are you currently and how are you doing? Hello! Allegra and Etta here. Currently relaxing and listening to music. Doing well :)
Awesome to hear you’ll be coming over to Australia in early 2026 to play some shows! How did the tour come to be, and do you know have pre-existing relationships with people, and bands here? We’ve never been to Australia so we don’t have any relationships with any bands or people there yet. Armlock is a band we’ve both discovered separately, through friends, so we’re really excited to have them join us. - Allegra
Our US tour manager is joining us on this run, and she is good pals with the Good Morning folk, so hopefully they’ll show us around a bit. - Etta
What do you look forward to most about your first time touring Australia? I’m excited for the weather. I think we’re both really hoping we can hold a koala at some point too. Australia’s wildlife is so different than the states, so it’d be cool to be able to see some animals. - Allegra
Definitely the animals <3 - Etta
I think Welcome to My Blue Sky is such an incredible record—it feels like the perfect bridge between the 90s sounds of bands like Sonic Youth and The Pixies, while also fitting right into this new wave of indie guitar music. What’s it like being part of that space, and do you consciously draw from that 90s era?
Thank you! You know, in the past couple years, we’ve really tried to distance ourselves from the 90s comparisons. While it’s true that we have been influenced by bands from that era in the past, especially in our teenage years, it wasn’t really case with WTMBS. While we were writing the last album we tried really hard to make sure we were adding new and fresh elements that makes the music feel contemporary. - Allegra
What artists or records first made you want to pick up guitars and write songs?
Rob Crow/Pinback has been a personal favorite of mine since I was a teenager. Sadie Dupuis from Speedy Ortiz was also a really big influence for us when we were first starting out. I also was obsessed with Kings of Leon as a kid, so if I never discovered their music I probably wouldn’t have ever picked up a guitar. - Allegra
I definitely was majorly inspired by Joan Jett as a kid in the guitar sense. My brothers were always playing music, and learning new instruments, so I feel like that pushed me towards learning guitar too. At that time, we were listening to a lot of Neil Young and Paul Simon - two artists that I still look up to, but honestly never talk about. - Etta
Beyond music, what cultural influences—films, books, art—fed into Welcome to My Blue Sky? A lot of the inspiration for WTMBS came from life on the road, the ups and downs of touring, and seeing little pockets of America that we have never really been exposed to. - Allegra
How has the community around you in New York shaped your music and outlook as a band?
To be completely honest, I feel really tapped out of the New York music scene. I know there’s a lot of great bands here, but when you start touring consistently, you play in the city you live in a lot less. I will say the best part about living in New York is that almost every band tours through here, so I’m always getting to see bands I admire live. The culture of New York really revolves around hustling, because everyone who lives here is trying to make it in some way. So it definitely keeps you competitive in that sense. - Allegra
Yeah, I feel like New York is now finally starting to have a bit of a scene again… When I moved to Brooklyn in 2017, the majority of the local shows that I could find were all raves and things like that. Now that more bands are starting to pop up, I definitely feel like we are involved in some kind of community by proxy, but then again, it’s also hard to feel a part of a whole scene of kids when we travel so much. - Etta
Are there people or scenes from your early days that you still carry with you creatively?
The way Etta and I write songs together has stayed pretty much the same since we were teenagers. We write together acoustically in one of our bedrooms, and have a really open and honest dialog about what we want the song to be about before we even put pen to paper. That’s kind of a ritual between us two that we’ve honored the entire time we’ve been creative partners. - Allegra
With so much touring, how do you stay connected to your roots and your closest circle of support?
It’s really hard actually. You kind of have to accept the fact that you might lose some friendships, because it’s hard to sustain casual acquaintances when you’re gone all the time. But if you have a close circle of friends that are willing to stick with you even when you’re MIA for a bit, that’s really all you need. I’ve personally learned that when I’m home in between tours, I need to make an active effort to reach out to people I want to see, instead of falling into the habit of isolating as a form of decompression. - Allegra
I really need to get out of the isolation habit. I’m also in a long distance relationship, so when I do get time off I feel like I’m not even in New York most of the time. One of the best pieces of advice I got when we first started touring so heavily, was this warning that you are absolutely going to lose friends (or at the very least, lose touch with people you care about), but the ones that are meant to be in your life will stick around, or come back around in some way or another. Getting comfortable with a shrunken friend group feels like a sad reality, but I honestly feel like that is the grace I’ve needed to give myself for a long time. - Etta
You’ve already played huge stages like Coachella and Primavera—what’s been your favorite show or tour memory so far?
One of my favorite tours we’ve ever done was opening up for Weezer in 2023. Rivers asked Etta and I to go on stage and sing “I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams” with the band. That’s still one of the most surreal experiences we’ve ever had as a band. Never in my life did I think I’d get to perform with Weezer, let alone share a stage with them and sing my favorite Weezer song live for thousands of people. - Allegra
Yeah, it’s hilarious too because I remember when we started that tour we would joke with each other like, “it’s going to be so awesome when we sing with Rivers,” you know, thinking of it as a really far fetched idea. Then, somehow, it actually ended up happening - it was very much a pinch me moment. - Etta
Are there any upcoming artists, bands and people from your community that our readers should be across? Ie: Anyone doing excellent and great things
Soul Blind is an awesome band from New York that has a new album out. They’re one of the heaviest, loudest, and tightest live bands I’ve ever seen. I’m also really into this artist called Deadharrie. I was listening to him A LOT on the tours that inspired WTMBS. I also just discovered this band called Fat Evil Children from Los Angeles and I’m obsessed. - Allegra
I’m pretty obsessed with Peel Dream Magazine right now. I also have been digging some of the Sharp Pins stuff, and Crushed from LA just came out with a new record too. All incredible! - Etta
What’s next for Momma after this chapter of ‘Welcome to The Blue Sky’, and the upcoming Australian Tour?
Hopefully we continue to tour and visit cities/countries we haven’t played before. Once this cycle is done, we’ll sit down and start writing the next record. But we can’t really do that until we’ve lived a little and have some material to write about. - Allegra
We hope to catch you in Sydney, and hope the rest of 2025 + AU tour treats you well!
