GETTING TO KNOW MOMMA’S ALLEGRA WEINGARTEN AND ETTA FRIEDMAN
BROOKLYN-BASED INDIE rockers Momma just released Household Name, their third — and clearly most accomplished — album. The tunes — including lead-off singles “Medicine,” “Rockstar” and “Speeding 72” — just can’t help but recall the golden age of Nineties alt-rock, helped along by Allegra Weingarten and Etta Friedman’s angular guitars and “I’m just sittin’ here watching MTV on a Sunday afternoon in 1994” vocals. But the duo inject more than enough of their own personalities to give Momma a unique sonic signature. All things considered, the effect is nothing short of addictive.
Household Name is quite a progression from 2020’s Two of Me, isn’t it?
FETTA FRIEDMAN: We had a lot of time, and that made such a difference. The last album was very concept-based; this time the songs aren’t linked to each other in any way, which was a lot easier to do.
ALLEGRA WEINGARTEN: We’ve never really done anything that sounds this polished, and a lot of credit for that has to go to our bass player, Aron Kobayashi Ritch, who produced the album.
You interweave your guitar lines so that the sum is always much bigger than the individual parts. How much planning goes into it?
WEINGARTEN: We’re really good at sensing what each other is looking for. Neither of us had a really fleshed-out, developed style when we started playing together when we were 16, so it just happened naturally.
The Nineties influence on your music gets mentioned pretty often. How did you get into those bands?
WEINGARTEN: My dad was a music journalist, so he’d always be getting sent CDs. Our garage was like a music library, and I’d spend hours in there when I was 13.
FRIEDMAN: My favorite bands ever were the Breeders and the Pixies, but I found Joan Jett at a pretty young age, and she really had a big influence on me.
Did listening to these bands lead you directly to the guitar?
WEINGARTEN: I guess so. I started when I was 13, playing acoustic. Getting my first electric in high school really turned things around, along with the influence of Pavement, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana.
FRIEDMAN: Both of my brothers are pretty musical — and I was always inspired by what they were doing. I got my first acoustic when I was 12 and was definitely very inspired by Joan Jett at that point.
What are your main guitars and amps?
WEINGARTEN: Live, I play a Gibson SG. For the record there were a lot of cool guitars and amps in the studio that we used. We d
