The 17th of June 2019 was a sad day for the Delain fan base because guitarist Merel Bechtold announced her departure from the band. However, she had decided to achieve her dreams and promised us to present a new band…
Actually, the story goes back to 2015, when Merel met with her “brother from another mother” on the audition for her first band, called Purest of Pain. This guy is namely Joey Marin de Boer. I suppose lots of you are familiar with him since he was also a member of the legendary Delain. Time proves that they are inseparable because Dear Mother is would become their third band in which they are working together.
The final piece of the puzzle was found when David Hruska joined as a vocalist. David Hruska lives in London, but he is also from the Czech Republic, and anyway, he also originates from Russia… ahh, it’s complicated. We can agree that he is a polyhistor, his job is related to motion pictures (you can find his work with the name David Pear) and you can also find videos, where he plays the guitar professionally. In the studio, they had Werner Erkelens as a session bass guitarist.
The music video of The Ones Below (made by David, of course) also tells you their tale:
It was a journey till the release of the first CD. A new song with a music video was being released every 6 weeks. On Friday evenings, we could enjoy the band members personally in a hangout (Facebook live), where they answered our questions, told us their background stories and had a friend-to-friend conversation, including joking about pooping Merel.
On 16th July of 2021, Dear Mother dropped out their debut album with the title Bulletproof.
I have also mentioned something about communities in the title. Yes, Dear Mother is not just 3 (amazing) people. Let’s start with the team, including Frank van Leeuwen (also known from Purest of Pain), who does a lot for the band, like dealing with the merchandise. The group does everything by themselves. For example, the singer is also the creator of the music videos and if you order a T-shirt, they would pack it themselves! An interesting fact is that Joey’s talented mom has painted the cover of the single Symbiose:
The fans are also active. Although the band has no record label (yet), they could afford their spendings with the support of the fans through crowdfunding. The name of the fanbase is Dear Mother Family, and I’m sure, it has deserved its name. You can make friendships on the Facebook group, and the musicians are friendly and direct.
Should I prove it? Let’s see it. I asked some fans to just write anything they want about this topic.
Dear mother has completely changed my life. Dear Mother is more than just a band, with fantastic music, it’s a family. The Dear Mother family is the most amazing community I have ever been a part of! I have built some great friendships because of it. Merel, Joey and David have created something so special and I’m forever grateful to included in it. The music that they create is phenomenal! I love how there is such deep meanings behind the songs. And they put some of their personal experiences in it too. Which makes it so relatable to the listeners. Dear Mother is going to make history!
Adelaide Waterson
We can be also grateful for the creator of the French fanbase because he has also written an honest opinion to us:
DEAR MOTHER, more than a band, more than a totally awesome music (Bulletproof POWAAA), lovely people and musicians close to their community.
When you’re a fan of a band and their music, you like to be able to identify with them, to see them on stage, to meet them in the backstage, and to show your belonging to them with t-shirts or other merchandise. But it’s quite rare to be able to communicate with them directly, for various reasons, they have their personal life, they are busy managing the band, looking for concert dates, managing their communication, composing new songs, and they certainly receive tens or hundreds of messages every day.
Well, Joey, Merel and David are professional musicians, very accessible and answer you regularly on all social networks, Facebook, Instagram, by email. That is to say that they take time for us, and that is so rare, and so nice.
When you are tagged on Instagram or when you find an email from one of them, written personally by them in the morning when you wake up, it makes you so happy and brings a lot of joy.
And for those of you who don’t know, there is a private Facebook group called DEAR MOTHER FAMILY where we can all talk to each other, and they regularly come to say hi, or share personal moments, rehearsals, ask us questions, get our opinion on this or that. We are part of the process.
That’s DEAR MOTHER !
Joey, Merel, David, we love you. <3
Frank and Ferry too 😉
Olivier, Dear Mother France
After the success of the live hangouts, they decided to follow the tradition.
Don’t forget to join them on the 17th of September!
Website and merchandise store: https://dearmotherofficial.com/
