Mama ft. Antonella

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MAMA ft. Antonella
Origin	Wolverhampton, England
Genres	Indie rock EDM Techno Alternative rock Electronic music
Years active	2023–present
Labels	Sex Gecko Records
Website	mamaftantonella.com
Members	Antonella Gambotto-Burke Gavin Monaghan

MAMA ft. Antonella is an English alternative duo formed in Wolverhampton in 2022. The group consists of Italian-Australian writer Antonella Gambotto-Burke and platinum-selling Irish-British producer Gavin Monaghan.

History

2022 – present

MAMA ft. Antonella was formed in April 2022 by author and vocalist Antonella Gambotto-Burke and two-times BMA Producer of the Year and Studio of the Year Gavin Monaghan, who has over 30 gold and platinum records to his name and has worked with artists ranging from Grace Jones, Robert Plant of Led Zepplin and Celine Dion to indie superstars Editors (band), Ocean Colour Scene, and The Sherlocks. Monaghan's work has also been featured in multiple advertisements and productions including Austin Powers, Peaky Blinders, the Twilight films, and Gangs of London.

The two first met when Gambotto-Burke, on the advice of a record company CEO, went to Magic Garden, Monaghan's studio, to have her first single produced.

She had only started singing a few months earlier, on the advice of a Grammy Awards-winning producer she had been seated near at a private dinner in London held by Scottish music industry entrepreneur Alan McGee. McGee had, years earlier, asked Gambotto-Burke to sing with The Jesus and Mary Chain, an influential alternative band from Scotland, but, as she noted in an interview, "The thought absolutely horrified me. Various English musicians have wanted me to front bands - guitarists, pianists - and sometimes I started but never really followed through. I’ve always been really, really shy - not intellectually, but emotionally."

Gambotto-Burke began singing during lockdown. Musicians and producers started approaching her, "which blew me away. I’d assumed no one would care, but the opposite was true. And then it all got a bit twisty. While I used to write for the NME, I’d never had any experience of the engine room, and had never set foot in a studio; the NME was all about headphones, gigs, and mad interviews. A steep learning curve."

Gambotto-Burke said that on first meeting Monaghan, she felt intimidated by his reputation as one of the world's best producers.

Monaghan, who coined the band's name, said in an interview, "My role in MAMA is to paint a landscape for Antonella’s words, because her stories and top lines are killer. The strangest thing is how much fun I’m having. In my twenties, I hated touring. It was hell. The politics alone can do your head in. I promised myself I’d never join a band again, and turned a lot down – festival appearances, too. But MAMA is different."

On the release of their debut single, I Want What I Want, Mama ft. Antonella were heralded in Australia as "the most dynamic outfit to hit the scene in years, bleeding the raw aggression of punk rock into driving beats of electro-pop". The song, which was described in England as the "perfect crush collision of big dance floor electro pop with an impassioned poetic firebrand vocal", went on to attract over 37,000 streams in a few weeks with no advertising or history of live performances.

The video for I Want What I Want, which was released on July 7, 2023, was scripted and directed by Gambotto-Burke.

Despite being heralded as a creative "genius" by Monaghan and a "total rock star" by The Australian, Gambotto-Burke appeared awkward with her role.

"When I sing, I go into a kind of fugue state; afterwards, I can’t really remember what I said or did," she said in an interview. "It’s the opposite of working on a book, where every word – every thought – is calibrated. Music is just so freeing. Oddly, that has taken some getting used to, as I was accustomed to siphoning emotion through my mind. I was like an animal that just sits there, baffled, when its cage door is opened, incapable of understanding that the barriers have gone."

MAMA plan to start performing live in late 2023 to mid 2024. Their first album will be released through Sex Gecko Records.

Band members

Current members

• Antonella Gambotto-Burke – vocals (2022–present), some drums (2023), some bass (2023), backing vocals (2022–present), all toplines (2022-present), some production (2022-present)
• Gavin Monaghan – all instruments other than specified (2022-present), all musical composition other than specified (2022-present), all production other than specified (2022-present)

Contributing musicians

• Ash Sheehan of The Twang – brass, drums and percussion as specified (2023)

Touring musicians

• Liam Gomez - bass (2024)

Discography

Main articles: Mama ft. Antonella discography and List of songs recorded by Mama ft. Antonella

Studio singles

• I Want What I Want (2023)
• Real Girl (2023)

External links

• Mama ft. Antonella Official Website
• ft. Antonella/ Mama ft. Antonella at Curlie

This article "Mama ft. Antonella" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Mama ft. Antonella. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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