Today we’d like to introduce you to Father Figure
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Father Figure began in the spring of 2023 when Mirella “Ezi” first saw Antonia “Toni” playing bass at the 2023 GT Wrektacular. Seeing the bassist live, Mirella knew they wanted to form a band with her, so the two of them struck up a conversation. Despite the distance that followed, with Mirella studying abroad in Europe for the summer and Toni doing the same in the fall, the two stayed in touch, sharing music, and band ideas over facetime. By the fall, despite only meeting in person twice, they signed a lease for a shared space, intending to create a “band house” and venue for the upcoming school year, called “Your Dad’s House.”
By the spring of 2024, the band started coming together in full force. Sophia and Christina “Chris” joined after meeting Mirella through different connections. Sophia met Mirella through playing goalie for the GT Women’s Lacrosse team together. Chris met Mirella through a mutual friend and is drummer in another band. The band’s first performance together was on April 19, 2024, at Georgia Tech’s Bio Quad, marking the beginning of our journey together. We hit the summer of 2024 hard playing various local venues like Rocky Mountain Pizza and around the Home Park scene.
In the Fall of 2024, we continued to write music together and practice twice a week even with Toni being gone in Texas for a co-op. We stayed connected online and wrote songs together despite the distance. We had our first show at Smith’s Olde Bar in October of 2024, and after that we started to get serious about building a repertoire of songs and working on our stage presence. With the band reunited in 2025, we wanted to come out strong and had the opportunity to play at Smith’s again, which sold out the Atlanta Room and led us to playing our first encore. Looking ahead, the band will spend spring break recording our first album and have multiple shows lined up before taking a brief summer break as members head off to internships.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
All four of the band members are undergraduates attending Georgia Tech, and the resulting problem is we have conflicting schedules that make our heads explode. The predominant struggle has been juggling the different career opportunities (internships, co-ops, study abroad programs) with our music pursuits. Looking forward, our next big steps are releasing our first album, figuring out how to continue growing a larger fan base, and potential putting together a regional tour!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Father Figure is a femme and nonbinary-fronted, genre-bending post-punk band. What sets us apart is our unique approach to band dynamics—there’s no singular lead vocalist. Instead, every member sings and alternates between lead and rhythm roles, and we make an effort to highlight a lead bass at the forefront of our sound. Our members come from a variety of musical backgrounds including technical jazz, classical guitar, punk, and self-taught musicianship vs. professionally taught, which allows us to experiment with a wide range of influences. Our music blends danceable rhythm sections with darker tones, creating an atmosphere that is both fun to groove to but maintains the introspective nature of punk music. At the heart of it all is our passion to include our lived experiences and our desire for change in the world through the songs we create.
We’re most proud of the strong chemistry within the band, which Toni attributes to the open communication and flow state shared when writing together. Mirella takes immense pride in our songwriting and the welcoming, inclusive atmosphere we cultivate both onstage and with our fanbase. Chris likes to emphasize the professionalism we maintain, balancing the fun side of being in a band with the hard work of managing the band’s administrative tasks. Sophia points to the dedication each of us has shown, recognizing the personal sacrifices we’ve made to invest time, energy, and resources into making Father Figure succeed. Together, we’ve built something that we’re proud to stamp our names on.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Over the next 5-10 years, the music industry is likely to see a shift toward more politically charged and activist music. As the political state of the U.S. becomes increasingly tense and restrictive, music will become an outlet for coping and a tool for social change. Something we look forward to is the the resurgence of nightlife culture, people seek community and freedom of expression in the face of societal instability. Alongside a potentially thriving nightlife, the revival of techno and darkwave synth sound, how could we not love this as a post-punk band. We’ve also discussed our concerns about the rise of AI-generated music and how TikTok-driven trends reward writing 15 second hooks rather than the intentional craft of music. We have hope for the return to concept albums and music with lasting substance beyond fleeting viral moments.
We also predict the future of music will become more niche, with genres and subcultures fragmenting to the point that collective music movements and actions may be harder to find. There’s good and bad points to be drawn from this, in a negative sense this could create sort of echo chambers in the music world where people struggle to break out of their comfort genres. On the other hand, bringing back regional sounds and voices rather than following the trend of what’s popular and selling in the industry is always a plus.
We won’t be the first to point this out, nor the last but the growing impact of capitalism on the local music scene, particularly in Atlanta, where small to mid-sized venues are being bought out by major corporations is placing a strain on every artist. With insane fees, high ticket prices due to vendor monopolies, and limited booking practices the need for collective action within local music communities, possibly through the creation of unions for venues or just supporting businesses that support you, is needed to truly support the artists and scenes. We have to preserve the spaces that continue to support grassroots music culture. RIP Innerspace.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/father.figure.band/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@fatherfigurebandatl
Image Credits
Anna Joy Mcfarland
Rhiannon Williams
John Walters
