Psychology researcher rocks the guitar as part of a ‘mom band’

Thumping drums and clarion guitar riffs send shudders through a backyard guesthouse-turned-studio in Eagle Rock, Calif. Inside, Darby Saxbe swings her Fender guitar, fingers walking and sliding along the strings, as the drummer hammers the march across the skins and the lead singer clips the lyrics to “Academy Fight Song” by the band Mission of Burma, invoking anarchy with a snap of her tambourine:

Walk into my room.

Ask me jerky questions.

Don’t mean what you say.

Immaculate Protection.

Once upon a time, Saxbe and her friends were kids immersing themselves in 1980s and ’90s punk, alternative, indie rock and pop music. All are now in their 40s, work and raise their children — but moonlight as rock stars.

During the day, Saxbe is an assistant professor of psychology at USC Dornsife, where she studies the effects of stress on families, including teens and parents.

Her bandmates comprise an eclectic group of women who also have other lives. Kris Canning, a bassist and guitarist, is a legal clearance supervisor for the TV musical talent show The Voice. Lead singer Katie Tell is the chief development officer for LA Family Housing, a nonprofit helping people transition out of homelessness. Carrie Hansen, the band’s drummer, is an artist and a coordinator at Art Center College of Design, and guitarist Maura Duval Griffin is a music supervisor who selects music for movie trailers, video game trailers and TV promos.

They met as mothers. Their children all attend the same school.

Birth of a band

Three years ago, Canning was at the school ice cream social when she heard that some of the dads had formed a band.

A longtime musician, she worked her way around the circles of parents, tapping shoulders and pointing a finger at the local mommies like Uncle Sam leaping out of a U.S. Army “I Want You” recruitment poster. “Do you play an instrument? Do you?” she demanded to know.

Before the ice cream had melted, Canning had persuaded enough women there that, yeah, they did “kind of play,” as Saxbe recalled.

And that’s how the Dahli Mamas were born.

This crew does not croon. No sappy love songs. No Yacht Rock. They hit the beat like a sledge hammer to a nail and rock the scarlet foam-covered walls of the makeshift studio. They pluck their inspiration from the likes of David Bowie, Blondie, Pixies, Ramones, Talking Heads and White Stripes.

“Professional fans of music”

Since the women first began rehearsing in 2015, the Dahli Mamas have appeared at several gigs, playing covers. They’re now regularly featured at the annual Eagle Rock Music Festival. Their selections this year spanned the ’80s and ’90s: the Breeders’ Divine Hammer, Elastica’s Connection, the Go-Go’s This Town, and Throwing Muses’ Not Too Soon. The top of the set was an outlier: the 2016 hip-swinging hit X’s and O’s by Elle King.

Some of the women have had formal music training. Others were self-taught. Saxbe’s first stringed instrument was a ukulele, and later, in junior high, she advanced to guitar.

“I started saving money up in a shoe box to buy an electric guitar, but then one Christmas my grandmother gave me this one,” said Saxbe, holding up a Fender MusicMaster that her grandmother had originally purchased in the early ’60s in order to learn jazz standards.

Duval Griffin, who had learned piano, took up guitar despite her mother’s opinion that “only men play guitar,” and taught herself by listening to Beatles albums. Hansen was a drummer off and on for years.

“Our first practice was pretty sad,” Hansen said. “I have a really good friend whose husband is a really good jazz drummer, and he had toured with Dwight Yoakam’s band. So, I begged him for some lessons.”

Tell said she always loved singing and performing. “I did a lot of musical theater. In college, I sang with a band occasionally. I missed that.”

Canning, who described herself and her bandmates as “professional fans” of music who spent their youth going to shows, played in a few bands in Boston and, later, L.A. “At my last show, I was pregnant opening for the Foo Fighters at the Sydney Opera House. It was for my husband’s band. I played horribly.”

Just one rule

The Dahli Mamas try to rehearse at least once or twice a month. Some practice on their own.

“What’s funny is the moms’ band has outlasted the dads’ band,” Saxbe said.

There is one rule for being a member of the Dahli Mamas. “Once someone’s kid is out of elementary school, then they’re out of the band,” Canning said.

 “I will adopt a kindergartener. I don’t want to get kicked out of the band,” Duval Griffin said.