After going through nine members and even breaking up in 2011, Single Mothers are finally unleashing a debut full-length record, Negative Qualities, on Oct. 7 through Dine Alone Records.

The hardcore punk quartet was originally founded in 2008 by vocalist Drew Thomson in London, Ont. After a tumultuous three year existence, it posted a self-titled EP online before calling it quits and moving onto other things.

Despite breaking up, Single Mothers gained the band lots of fans. In 2012 it was re-released by Secret Voice - a label founded by Touché Amoré vocalist Jeremy Bolm - and distributed by Deathwish, a respected hardcore label based in Massachusetts with a roster that includes Converge and Deafheaven. 

That success ultimately inspired the band to give it another go and start writing the songs that would eventually end up on its Dine Alone debut.

“Dine Alone kind of reached out, we were gathering some steam and shopping for labels and everything just kind of fell into place with them,” says Brandon Jagersky, the band’s drummer, while on a tour stop in Iowa.

The record deal also managed to solidify the band’s line-up, which now consists of Thomson, Jagersky, guitarist Michael Peterson and bassist Evan Redsky.

“I’ve been playing drums for a long time,” Jagersky says. “Back in 2009, I went to school with Evan, who’s in the band right now. I’m also friends with someone else who was in this band for a bit, one of my best friends I grew up in the Niagara area with.”

“I joined about a year-and-a-half ago, and it was about a week before leaving for the U.K. to tour for a month, which is kind of funny because that was obviously my first tour. I just played one little stupid house show and then we started playing 300-capacity venues in the U.K. Then we flew back to Canada and took the van down to the States for another 30 days.”

In between all that touring Single Mothers started recording in Los Angeles at Big Game Lodge Studio with Joby J. Ford, who’s also a guitarist for The Bronx, a Californian hardcore punk band that formed back in 2002.

Jagersky joined the band later in the recording process, and Negative Qualities was finished up back home in London with Simon Larochette, a friend of the band’s who also recorded the self-titled EP.

The end result is 10 aggressive punk songs brought to life by Thomson’s shout-speak vocals and fuzzy guitars, with the closing track “Money” being one of the strongest Single Mothers has written yet. 

“I had a pretty easy time recording,” Jagersky reports. “I just kind of went along with the songs and they were mostly already formed. I think the band has grown a lot and become a lot more mature since the start and right now we’re just on the road finally promoting this record we’ve worked so hard on.

“We really want to tackle this release before we think too seriously about anything else.”

Published in Volume 69, Number 2 of The Uniter (September 10, 2014)