It’s not easy to be young. On Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown, Mairead Guy and Maddy Simpson of Sweet Petunia revisit their younger years. Speaking as someone who had severe struggles with mental health at that time in my life, I can confirm these lyrics are terrifyingly real. The pair can come off as so intense in their music that they can sell a song with a bluegrass foundation at a basement rock show and lighthearted enough in conversation to make it seem comfortable to talk about their darkest moments. The album is a slow descent, a cry for help, and a fascinating case study in how discordant sounds have a home in roots music.
Guy and Simpson were talented enough and had solid enough foundations in traditional playing to get into the Berklee College of Music, but carved out a different path than Gillian Welch or Sarah Jarosz had before them. They also experienced some tough times.
“Everyone is pretty emo in college, everyday feels like a breakdown,” said Guy.
Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown was originally just meant to be a collection of those college thoughts, but they later arranged the songs to tell a story of someone going downhill. The title was a pun but, between that and the order of the tracks, it truly feels like a breakdown. Pleasant enough songs with low stakes lyrics and a more traditional sound start things off, but the mood shifts in “Good Part.” Rock elements creep in and the lyrics turn a bit more bitter. “I Wanna Run” truly marks the first signs of instability. The fast pace, violent imagery, and punk influenced vocals feel more than intense. It’s almost like something is off about the narrator of the song, and I mean that as a high compliment.
“It’s about a night where I dislocated my knee in mosh pit,” said Simpson. “That’s the moment of the record that’s the most manic and freaked out. That’s the craziest thing that happened in my life.”
“It was a show so no one could hear Maddy screaming,” said Guy. “She was kicking me with her non-dislocated knee.”
The image of someone disfigured and screaming for help with no one able to hear is quite literal, but it works on several levels. The pair were at the rowdy rock show because they were the first act. An acoustic pair from Berklee could, aside from one knee, keep pace with basement punk rockers.
“I think that’s what makes us so unique,” said Simpson. “We were taking classes with all these traditional players but all our friends were from the DIY scene in Boston”
The punk influences show up throughout the album. While the occasional scream is natural on a punk album, it’s truly out of place in acoustic bluegrass. Again, this is a compliment. The genre-bending has a way of making a typically grim lyric of the genre go from mournful to concerning.
Sweet Petunia have found their community and influences and it works. They call Boston home.
“It’s just a matter of whether you’re willing to participate in it genuinely instead of as a stepping stone,” said Guy of Berklee students joining a basement gig.
It’s amazing to hear how their environment changed their music for practical reasons at first before shaping their exciting identity. Without drums or bass, they had to find some way of quieting the crowd.
“Part of why we started playing really fast and really loud was because we were playing with these really loud bands,” said Simpson. “It would be a bar or a basement where people were loud and drinking and not really paying attention to the music. We realised we needed to be able to capture their attention somehow. By the time we got to the quieter stuff, people were locked in. Our friends if they are in the crowd like to do some shushing.”
It’s hard to say if the album would have worked as well without the reordering of all the tracks. The emotion would still explode through the speakers, but the downhill slide is what creates that sinking feeling for a listener that makes Foggy Mountain so effective as an artistic statement. The pair are delightfully casual about the fact they put out lyrics like “I wouldn’t have to worry about this corporal form” and “I’m a tiny little squishy ugly bug.” (Both from Grub, by the way, a peculiar but fantastic listen.)
“Being in your early twenties sucks really hard and that’s just what was showing up in the songs we were writing,” explained Guy. “We’re pretty far removed from where we are at now, but definitely some downers for sure.”
The two even found humour in their dramatic statements, like the sentence “I wonder how it would feel to fall out the window” in the claustrophobic “Nothin’ Yet.”
“We put it all out there. Sometimes we’re singing these songs and I can’t believe I’m telling everyone this,” said Guy, laughing a little. “We work at a music venue so sometimes we’re playing these songs in front of our boss. What other job is it chill to express that you’ve thought about throwing yourself out a window in front of your boss? And he just has to be cool about it. It is lowkey journal factory explosion sometimes. For my parents and my grandparents, maybe there are a couple of skip songs.”
(“Lowkey journal factory explosion,” for the record, is the first phrase a guest has ever used that made me feel genuinely out of touch with the younger generation. I’m sure more will follow.)
The two have since developed some coping mechanisms, especially a good laugh. Simpson joked about a “cousin’s friend’s dog” knowing about all her issues as a result of her putting them into song. They also know how to put things into perspective.
“I think it’s always good to remind yourself that it’s not that deep,” said Simpson.
“If nobody tells me I did anything wrong, then I guess I didn’t do anything that bad,” Guy added on, reminding us all to stop worrying about whether that one person hates you. They really don’t. They’d have made it clear.
“Puke” is the emotional nadir of an already rocky journey. It’s a state of literal paralysis driven by overwhelming emotion. “I guess I’ll piss myself,” the pair scream. In a world where almost anyone can put out content, “Puke” still feels unique.
“I was in a really emotionally fraught relationship. I was really stressed out every morning and waking up dry heaving because I was really fucked up in the head,” said Guy. “It was manifesting physically. I just wanted to go hang out with my parents like I was a little kid and not have to worry about anything like people being hurtful or taxes or going to the doctor.”
It’s the song they chose to close the album on and the song they usually end their sets with. The intensity is blistering and can provoke some real outlet of emotions from those in the crowd. And, you know, perhaps radio hosts listening and having flashbacks to a decade earlier.
“We probably can’t put much after that. When we play it live, it’s usually the last song in our sets,” said Guy.
The skill the pair seemed most pleased to have learned from Berklee is how to perform a song without becoming stuck in it.
“I think a lot of them we’ve been playing so long that we don’t have to feel the thing as when it was written,” said Guy. “We imbue the performance with the essence of that but not having to put yourself back in that headspace makes it easier.”
“It’s lowkey acting. Part of taking vocal lessons is learning how to convey a song without having felt that emotion yourself,” said Simpson. “I guess you do that with your own songs too.”
Both members of Sweet Petunia want to remind you that it’s okay to ask for help, just like they do in their lyrics.
“Ideally, everyone knows what I need and they’re just going to give it to me but that’s just not how life works,” said Guy.
“You have to ask people for a ride to the airport. You have to ask people to watch your cat when you’re out of town,” said Simpson, “Because people want to help you.”
“Sometimes you have to break up with your dumpy ass partner,” added Guy.
“Sometimes you just have to live your life and then you realise when you turn 25 and your frontal cortex fully develops you realise everything is going to be okay,” said Simpson.
Much like the band and “Puke,” I think I’ll stop there. I probably can’t put much after that. Except, perhaps, the video of the interview.
Visit www.wusb.fm and https://www.sweetpetuniaband.com
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