Maddy Wyse has always loved butterflies.
Her new project, Madam Monarch, can attest to that — a pop-rock collaboration with childhood friend Baylee Harper that reflects the same regality and femininity as its namesake.
“We feel like our music is a lot of bright colors with some dark elements,” Maddy tells me. “Kind of like butterfly wings.”
The band delivered its debut performance only a few weeks ago at Bluebird House, joined by guitarist Taylor Mastin. The last-minute fill-in announced the newest arrival to the Bellingham scene: a female-fronted powerhouse that you should definitely be paying attention to.
I recently caught up with Maddy and Baylee to talk all things Madam Monarch, from the band’s initial formation to the experience of being a female musician in a male-dominated environment. Below is our interview, edited for length and clarity.
A BREAKOUT Q&A WITH MADDY AND BAYLEE
Tell me about Madam Monarch’s formation.
MW: Baylee and I met when we were sixteen, maybe fifteen even. We started playing music at probably seventeen, it just happened kind of naturally. I started sending her songs that I would write and as soon as we started jamming together, I was like, ‘Oh, we mesh something crazy.’ There’s something about the way Baylee writes that just fits perfectly with my brain. It was something special pretty automatically. It took a while for us to really solidify that, it was a slow burn, but I feel like there’s a lot of beauty in that. We let it develop super naturally.
BH: I remember too, the first demo Maddy ever sent me. She sent me a demo of “Motions,” and I was like, ‘Oh, yup! This is good!’ I knew what to put over it immediately, so I feel like we’ve always had really good chemistry between the two of us. Over the pandemic, we started really collaborating on songs and structures together, and then Alex Dillard, he kind of played the producer role for us. All the demos you hear on our Bandcamp, that’s the kind of stuff we were creating over the pandemic and he played a huge role in helping us make that possible, with everything being virtual. He really helped us shape our songs, too. The songs start with Maddy, and then I put a beat on it, and Alex would kind of clean it up and add some guitar or synth or whatever. That’s kind of been our process, and now we have Taylor, too, which is sick. He’s the newest addition. He’s great. We love Taylor.
Where do you find inspiration when writing new songs?
MW: I’m very much a personal songwriter. When I start writing something, it’s because I’ve been feeling some kind of way for a while and I just need to get it off my chest or need to express something. When I’m able to do that, I feel like Baylee picks up on those vibes really well when she starts playing. I think Taylor does, too. We all write very emotionally, which is why the music gels so well.
Who were some of your biggest musical inspirations growing up?
MW: Probably my oldest and strongest inspiration is Paramore. I just saw today that “Still Into You” came out nine years ago, which means that Paramore has been my favorite band for probably nine, ten years, which is crazy. It’s a long time. Paramore, and then Hayley Williams’ solo stuff that came out recently is also a huge influence for me. Growing up in Seattle, we also had the big Seattle bands like Soundgarden, love some Alice in Chains. Other than that, just girl-bands. Dua Lipa, Dua Lipa’s not a band, but she pops off.
BH: For me, when I started playing drums, I was super influenced by a lot of classic rock drummers, like Neil Peart from Rush, Danny Carey from Tool, they’re more progressive. John Bonham. For female influences, definitely Hayley Williams. I remember when I started playing, I was thirteen or fourteen, there didn’t seem to be a lot of women represented in rock music especially, and especially women drummers. Just seeing somebody doing her thing with her band was super inspiring. Now, I’ve sought out the girl drummers, because there are a lot of really sick ones out there. I love Taylor Gordon, Sarah Thawer is a huge inspiration to me right now. I think one of the reasons why Maddy’s and my brains work so well with music is just because of those core classic rock, Paramore influences. We are just on the same wavelength about what needs to happen in the song.
MW: We both have the classic rock vibe really down. We also lean a lot towards more feminine stuff as well. I remember a turning point when I realized I wasn’t listening to any girl music, because I was listening to a lot of rock music, and there was just a switch in my brain, where I was like, no more. Now we just seek out female artists because I love that. I want to see women doing what I want to be doing. It’s really inspiring and cool to watch.
Tell me about your first show. What were some of the thoughts running through your head?
MW: It was so surreal, it was very crazy. It feels like a long time coming, it’s been a long journey of us working together. I would also say that it felt so right to be happening at that moment. We were contacted two days before to hop on the bill, and we were like, ‘Oh my god, our first show wasn’t supposed to be for a month. Are we ready for this?’ But we were like, ‘We have to do this.’ And I don’t think it could have come together any better. I just remember looking at Baylee and looking over at Taylor, and just all of us smiling like idiots and having the best time. It was wonderful, it was so good.
BH: Sam [Ashkenazy] had texted me and was like, ‘Yo, do you guys want to hop on the bill at Bluebird? We had a band drop.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god, can we do this?’ We weren’t expecting it, we were expecting our first show to be the one coming up this Friday. With Maddy and Taylor living in Bellingham and me and Alex here in Seattle, we had a specific number of practices planned, we had a whole little schedule of, ‘Okay, we’re going to be ready for this show on the 18th.’ It was really adrenaline-inducing. I just have to trust that it’s going to be great no matter what. We didn’t have enough songs for a setlist, but it really showed Maddy and I that we can give songs to our whole band and create something that we can instantly play. We played a cover that we had never practiced before that Friday. We had an hour-long band practice before the show and threw together a cover. And then Maddy was like, ‘I have this new song!’ She just gave all of us a brand-new structured song she had written, and in thirty minutes, we threw it together, and that was one we got some of the most comments on at the show. The crowd response was unreal as well. The fact that it went so well felt right at that moment. We’ve been working towards this for years.
You’re given the chance to open for anybody you want on a national tour. Who’s your headliner?
MW: We gotta go with Paramore. Just vibes-wise. I think that the sets would be good together, and I also just think that that would be the coolest thing ever.
You’ve got a few songs on Bandcamp. What can we expect going forward?
BH: We’re trying to record three songs. We want to release at least two singles this year, that’s kind of our plan, but we’ll see what happens. We definitely want to record. We have a lot of songs. If we can find time to do an EP or an album, I think we’re going to try for that as well. But definitely, we’re going to be releasing singles on all streaming platforms, pretty soon.
Maddy’s constantly writing new songs. She’s literally constantly writing new music, she’ll be like, ‘Hey, I have this song,’ and it’s like, a four-minute, fully structured idea she has. It’s insane, honestly. I don’t know how she does it. She just writes them all in one goal.
MW: I have to warn the band, like, are you all ready for me to send more yet?
What’s something you’d want to say to other women who want to write and perform?
BH: I would say to other women who want to write and perform but maybe feel like they’re nervous about how people are going to react, just do it. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel like your music isn’t worth anything because it doesn’t fit within their idea of what’s good or bad. Growing up as a girl drummer, I would be challenged by people that felt like it was wrong for me to be at their level. Just do you. Don’t let anybody’s thoughts or opinions of you as a girl musician affect what you’re trying to do. Just be the best that you can be and do what you love and do what you want. Write from the heart, do stuff from the heart, because YOU love it, not because you’re trying to please others. It can be really hard as a woman in the music industry, which is very male-dominated. But we do exist, we’re out here, and I feel like all the women that I’ve met in the music industry are pretty much just there for each other. You can find a lot of good supportive people. Do you and you’re going to attract the energy that you put out.
MW: Seek out other women to play with. Both Baylee and I have experienced not being taken as seriously. There are a lot more women that play music than you think because a lot of the time they don’t feel the need to broadcast it as much, and it’s really exciting when you meet another person that you can work with. I would encourage more women to reach out to other women about playing together.