So, how did the idea for ‘Mrs. Davis’ first come about?
Like most of our songs, it started with a gritty Troy Gale riff. One day, Troy shared a bunch of riffs with Will, our drummer, and he thought this one had some oomph to it. Hannah had been kicking around the phrase, “She’s heavily medicated, but damn she looks good.” We put the two together and it just took on a life of its own really. Out of all of that emerged this spectacular woman, Mrs Davis. We didn’t see it coming. It’s now her song to be honest with you.
What else can you tell us about the creative process for the track, and what did you enjoy the most about working on it?
We weren’t happy with the key of the chorus for quite some time and struggled to figure out what key would be best. It was much lower than the key we landed on. Philip Paulsen, our producer, played the bass and he was instrumental in bringing the entire song to life. He’s a key part of our creative unit and deserves a ton of credit. And then shooting the video in Palm Springs was a blast. We rented a house there because we wanted it to have this 1950s suburban feel. Hannah channelled Mrs Davis so well the day we shot the video.
How would you say that the track compares to anything else that you’ve done so far?
It’s got the gritty rock riff with the bouncy groove, which is us. That’s our sound. But we still think of this song as a character at some level. It’s Mrs. Davis. It’s her song. If you listen to Fire Me Up, one of our other songs, it doesn’t have that character appeal to it. It’s an amazing song in its own right, but it doesn’t have the story element that Mrs. Davis does.
The music video for the track looked like it was a lot of fun to do! How did it come together, and what was it like to work on?
We had a blast shooting it. Because Hannah’s idea for the song taking place in the 1950s, we thought it would be cool to rent a house in Palm Springs. And once we were in the house, we were like, “Oh, yeah, this is sooo Mrs. Davis.” Hannah gets a lot of credit for the video. Not only did she have the idea for the character of Mrs. Davis, but also the vision for the video. Our director, Dan Masso, was also brilliant and him and his team did a great job. It all came together for us really well.
What do you want ‘Mrs. Davis’ to do for the representation of Mama No Likey?
We’ve got a lot more music coming out this year, but Mrs. Davis is special. It’s a character driven song, which is kind of different, right? And for us, this song shows the level of detail we go into as a band from a production perspective. From the voices in the opening to the guitar fills and vocal harmonies at the end of each phrase in the verses, we layered in a number of elements that we think makes this song fun to listen to.
What else can we expect to see from Mama No Likey in 2025?
Our priority this year is to release a bunch of music. We’ve got a third song coming out in a few weeks called Kings and Queens. It’s much different, a bit more political in nature than the other songs. Kind of the times we’re in right now. We’ve already recorded our fourth song, but haven’t started producing yet. We’re releasing that one in September. And then we’re talking about releasing a 5-song LP later in the fall. So please follow us on Instagram (@mamanolikey) or our website (www.mamanolikey.com) and on Spotify to find out about our future releases. We thank you in advance and super appreciate your support!
