Little did Mairead Guy and Maddy Simpson know upon enrolling in Greg Liszt’s 21st Century String Band ensemble at Berklee College of Music that the course of their musical careers were about to be forever altered. Upon being paired up for a rehearsal by chance, Mairead and Maddy unearthed their musical synastry quickly. The two wove a vocal blend of sibling-like precision and their musical instincts coalesced with ease. After several jam sessions, the inevitable was clear – Mairead and Maddy were meant to make music together. With banjos in hand, the two joined forces to establish the cherished Boston alt-folk duo, Sweet Petunia.
2026 sees Sweet Petunia unfurling its petals even further – on March 13, the duo released their inaugural LP, Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown via Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, their first release since their 2021 EP, Lovingly. Laden with ripe lyrics and expansive sonic landscapes, Sweet Petunia harvests new growth with 12 tracks navigating dynamic emotional thresholds and lyrics that cover themes from gender identity to toxic relationships to heartbreak and beyond.
BGS was elated to sit back down with Sweet Petunia and discuss all things Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown.
We last got to chat in 2024 for One to Watch. What has the shape of the last two years looked like for y’all?
Maddy Simpson: Lowkey pretty crazy! We started working with a booking agent and got hooked up with our label, Righteous Babe. We’re also in talks with a manager, so we’ve kind of legitimized in that way. I think the last time we spoke we didn’t have any of that.
So exciting! How has that changed the scope of your project?
Mairead Guy: They’ve been doing this so much longer and the range of people that they can connect us with is so vast compared to what we’ve been able to build so far, which is really cool.
MS: Yeah, it’s interesting to have other perspectives to bounce off of, too. The team is very thoughtful in many ways and they think of things that we would have never thought of. It does feel like this has legitimized the record and the band in a big way. Not that we weren’t legit before, but now we’re thinking about things on a much wider scale.
Speaking of which, congratulations on the new record! What about this moment in time do you feel like influenced the birth of Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown?
MS: Truly, once we started working with the label, we just wanted to get it out as quickly as possible. March just worked best for them to slot it in, so we went with it!
MG: And March 13th must be a cosmically good day to put out an album, because we have a couple friends putting out albums that same day – Anjimile and Grace Givertz.
How fortuitous! So what was it like putting this album together? How was it different from the process for your EP, Lovingly?
MS: We recorded Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown essentially four years ago at this point. It was our first try recording a full-length album and we did it in a kind of hybrid format – some in a couple different home studios, and then an actual recording studio. It was the first time we really brought in additional people to play on it, which was cool. We were much more thoughtful about the arrangements and the production and all that. It was the biggest thing we’ve ever done, and it was a lot, but it was incredible to see how it all turned out.
MG: We definitely learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t and what we want for next time. Even if all that was the only thing that came about from this process, it would have made it worth it.
Could you say more about what you learned?
MS: I think we both grew a lot. I learned a lot more about what I wanted and how I want things to sound. It was really awesome to work with some really close friends of ours; I learned more about collaborating, which was really cool. I also learned that it takes a really long time to put out a full-length record. Even once it’s finished, it takes quite a while, which I already knew in theory, but then to live it – it can take years sometimes, which is crazy.
MG: I feel similarly. It is cool to have the time to dedicate to thinking about the way that you want things to sound in their recorded form. That was great to learn about, especially differentiating between the ways in which that can be helpful and then also the ways in which you can get stuck in a loop of overthinking.
Now I have to ask, the title of the album is Foggy Mountain Mental Breakdown, and I’m curious if there’s anything you’d like to say about the influences behind that – Earl Scruggs, mental health, etc.?
MG: We thought it was funny! We were around a lot of bluegrass at the time – I think we came up with it at a bluegrass festival, and then a lot of our songs are pretty sad. There was sort of this trend where a lot of people were giving their projects jokey names that were plays on words, like Dolly Spartan or Chet Faker. Stuff like that was popular at the time.
MS: And it’s a little bit of an “if you know you know” vibe, because nobody knows “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” unless you play roots music and if you do, it’s the most old news bluegrass song. It’s like “Free Bird.” But then normal people have no idea what it means, which is kind of silly. It’s also a nod to our origins. Though we never really played bluegrass music, for the first three or so years that we were a band, we were almost exclusively around traditional roots music and a lot of those people were playing bluegrass. It is a huge part of our band, even though we’re more so old-time people, we love bluegrass.
The folks over at BGS definitely catch your drift!
So on FMMB, there’s a ton of lush instrumentation — what was that like? How did you find the additional musicians for all of these orchestrations?
MS: Most of the people that played on the album were people that we knew who were friends and musical collaborators of ours already. We know a lot of musicians, so it was pretty easy to put a lineup together. For example, we knew Lucy Nelligan – who plays all the fiddle on the album – from college and had played with her before. It was really a no-brainer to just have her come in and track a bunch of fiddle, just letting her go and do whatever she was gonna do. It’s cool to have that trust built with people where you know they’re going to produce quality tracks. We’re lucky that we are around so many amazing and talented musicians.
“Wilting” is the track with all the woodwinds and that was really cool because our producer, Leah Gutman, found a bunch of people to play on that session. All those people are now friends of ours, though at the time we didn’t really know any of them that well. It’s wonderful to see how our relationships have grown over time with the people that live in our community and play in our scene. For “Wilting,” our friend Christian Schmidt, who’s my roommate, played flute, but then our friend Brendan Wright from the band Tiberius was playing clarinet. And Miles Chandler from Clifford came in and played, our friend Nate Scaringi and our friend Maria – all these people that we’ve gotten to know over the years, but they were virtually strangers when they came in and tracked that song.
Do y’all have any dream collabs?
MS: Dolly Parton. Sabrina Carpenter got to do it, so…
Oh, and Willie Nelson! I’d really love to play Luck Reunion.
MG: Paul Simon. Or like, Simon & Garfunkel 30 years ago. When they reunited at Central Park we could’ve opened. Or Rhiannon Giddens would be cool.
MS: Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings would also be awesome.
What track on the album do you each feel a deepest kinship to? Or is that like asking a parent to choose their favorite child?
MS: Hmm. I really like how “In David’s Living Room” turned out. I really love all of the auxiliary stuff that happens. I remember when Leah and I were cooking on that, I was just very excited with the direction that track was going in, because it felt like our indie moment in a record that’s pretty traditional. Though there’s other moments like that too, I think that’s my standout right now.
MG: For me, it’s probably “Grub.” That’s just one of my favorite songs that we’ve ever worked on together. You know, there’s a lot of songs on the album that, because they’re so old, don’t necessarily feel as relevant to where I am now, but “Grub” is one that I feel very protective of. The flute that Christian put on it is just so beautiful. It was also really fun to record — we did it on a 4-track while sitting on Maddy’s washer-dryer. Plus my roommate, Riley Halliday, made a beautiful stop-motion puppet music video for it.
Oh, tell me more about the music video.
MG: Yeah, so my roommate Riley – they’re an incredible visual artist, and they are really good at making puppets. We came to them about three years ago, probably, and asked them if they’d be interested in making this video. They did a combination of stop-motion, claymation, hand-drawn animation, and puppets that they built completely themself. They handbuilt everything and made this perfect video that I feel just represents the song so well.
Talented friends seriously make the world go round! Was there anything outstandingly difficult about making this album?
MG: Well, I was living in Maine at the time, so I was commuting down every weekend. In terms of life, it was great for me to be down there every weekend, but it definitely made things take a little bit longer. And it was harder, for sure, because we couldn’t just pop in really quick and do something. Everything had to be planned out pretty far in advance.
MS: Yeah, that was tough. Also, it’s really expensive to put out a record. Often it’s something most people can’t do unless they crowdfund or save up hella money for. For us, it just took a lot of saving and being very smart with money – and lowkey we ran out of money in the process. So if anyone wants to buy some merch!
A hypothetical for you – if you each could wake up tomorrow having mastered any instrument, what would it be?
MS: I’ve actually been thinking about this a lot lately, because I kind of want to learn how to play the drums. Our friend Andre M is so crazy on the drums. He has this beautiful technique – it’s very beautiful to watch him play. Every time I see his band, I’ll have like one Miller High Life and then I’ll be like, “I’m gonna do that!” So yeah, I’d definitely love to learn how to play the drums better.
MG: I always thought that I maybe have the vibe of a bass player, so that could be fun. Maybe we’ll start our drum and bass era – we could be a drum and bass duo.
I’d so be here for that. How would you each sum up FMMB in five words?
MG: College angst and bad dreams.
MS: Lowkey sad, but it’s chill.
Okay, y’all killed that.
So what’s coming up for y’all? Where can the good people find you?
MS: We are going on an album release tour in April. We’ll be out for most of April and the beginning of May all over the place – the Northeast and the South. We’re so excited to be playing five dates supporting Ani DiFranco. Our full list of tour dates is out now. Come through!
Photo Credit: JJ Gonson