Mobina Galore: Burning Rubber Across North America
Mobina Galore
The bar has been set pretty high for Canadian punk. Bands are expected to give up their home life and be constantly on the road. But for Winnipeg’s own Mobina Galore, they’ve been able to keep their head above the water and make a huge splash worldwide in the past year. Most of their success is due to the fact there are only two members in the band: Jenna Priestner shreds on guitar and belts aggressive melodies as Marcia Hansen drums and sings backup.
I spoke to Hansen over the phone while she was taking a break from the road. Priestner is normally the one to do interviews, but Hansen wanted to help reduce her workload, “Jenna is constantly working,” Hansen says. “She is the band manager as well as half the band so she’s always booking shows, doing the logos, ordering merch, she just does everything.”
There are advantages to being a duo, such as less schedule conflicts — making practicing and touring easier to plan — more room in the van and less personalities to deal with. “Sometimes when I see a band with five or six people, I don’t even know how they do it, truthfully,” Hansen laughs.
Mobina Galore has been particularly busy this year with the February release of their newest album Feeling Disconnected off New Damage Records. A common theme of the album deals with the feeling of missing out no matter where the band goes. “When we’re on the road, we’re missing the comforts of home and our family and friends, and sleeping in our own bed and cooking ourselves dinner, all the things we take for granted when we are home,” Hansen explains. “And when we are home, we’re feeling really restless, we just want to be playing shows every night, seeing a new city every night and meeting new people.”
And all their hard work has paid off. Mobina Galore recently returned home from a successful European tour, where they played the Groezrock festival in Belgium. To add to their list of prominent music festivals, they were one of the first opening bands at this year’s edition of Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas, and in October, they will be heading down to Florida to play the Fest, where they will be reunited with Against Me!, one of Hansen’s all-time favourite bands that she had the privilege of touring with earlier this year.
Mobina Galore leaves for the road this week and will be touring across Canada and the US until September. They will be stopping by Montreal on Saturday. Having played in Montreal twice before at the Pouzza Festival, Hansen is looking forward to seeing a different side of our city. “That’s always what I hope to do when we get to the city, that we have a couple hours to walk around and explore,” Hansen says. “Especially in a big city, where you don’t know it very well, it’s hard to start from scratch.”
Mobina Galore will be playing at Turbo Haus on July 15, 2017, with After the Fall, Bucky Harris and Gutser. Tickets in advance are $10 and $13 at the door. Doors open at 8:30pm.
