The Original Sins of MOTHERMARY
- Josh Kitchen
- 2 minutes ago
- 14 min read
By: Josh Kitchen / May 1, 2026
Larena and Elysse Winn are no strangers to the act of radical reclamation—whether it be of their identities, their psyches, their physical bodies, their sexuality, their shame, or their very conception of reality and truth. Growing up as the youngest of eleven children, identical twins Larena and Elysse had each other within their strict Mormon family. Raised in Missoula, Montana, the Winn sisters learned early on what it meant to exist inside a system that demanded obedience and submission—particularly as women, where worth was something earned, not inherent.
What followed in the years after leaving that world has been a long, ongoing process of taking that power back. Through their project MOTHERMARY, they’ve reimagined spirituality on their own terms—transforming anger into art, sacrilege into healing, and reclaiming holiness as something self-defined rather than bestowed. With MOTHERMARY, the Winn twins are rewriting those rules entirely, positioning themselves not as subjects of doctrine, but as creators of their own myth -
Which is why the recent release of Mother Mary—the newest A24 film bearing the same name and strikingly similar themes to the band—feels less like coincidence and more like a familiar erosion of agency. The film follows the artist "Mother Mary," played by Anne Hathaway, an electro-pop artist who subverts the Virgin Mary image and plays on themes of religiosity and the divine feminine, complete with original songs by Charli XCX and FKA Twigs. For artists whose entire ethos is rooted in ownership over their story, their image, and their voice, the situation lands with a particular weight. MOTHERMARY has spent the last decade creating their own mythos and identity, so with the confusing similarities brought by the film, it brings back those unsettling feelings of once again watching something deeply personal be reframed without them.
Larena and Elysse’s resilience has been tested their entire lives, so this latest indignation is not something the band is unable to take on—but like any David-and-Goliath type struggle, it does not come without added stress and fear. Which is why it’s been so striking to watch the band respond with such grace and humor. Since the film’s trailer began to gain traction, Larena and Elysse have been inundated with questions from fans and friends asking what the deal is. In response, they’ve been releasing short-form videos that playfully take aim at both the film and themselves—simultaneously making it clear that they were, in fact, the original MOTHERMARY, and that it will take a lot more than the latest Mother Mary to silence them.
Their supporters haven’t stayed quiet either. Nearly every social media post from the film’s official accounts is flooded with fans tagging the band, staking their claim to the original. “We have the coolest, sexiest, most intelligent fans,” Larena told me.
I caught up with MOTHERMARY to talk through all of this, as well as their newest single, “Set Me On Fire,” which they describe as a reflection of their continued, almost mythic resilience. Larena telling me, “burn us to the ground and we’ll just be reborn. You can’t stop us. We’ve been through things so much harder than this. We’re not going to give up. So fucking try and light me on fire.”
Before we talk about what's happening right now with the A24 film, I was hoping you could talk a little bit about your upbringing, which I know you've talked about before, but I'd love to hear what your thoughts are now, as you've been in this band together for a decade now.
Elysse: I was really angry at first, and I think I was processing a lot of anger. I was kind of using a lot of — we love to be sacrilegious — and I think a lot of that was coming from an angry place. But recently, I think I've actually allowed myself to find my own spirituality and not hate on literally any kind of spirituality. Not saying that I'm in any way Christian, but I'm just allowing myself to have a little bit of mysticism or a little bit of the unknown, and I think we're both kind of allowing that.
Larena: Yeah. I feel like the process has kind of gone from — when you're straight out of a high-demand religion, it's like we've talked about it before —
"it's like living your life in black and white, and then all of a sudden you see color"
, and you're just so angry and humiliated that you chose it. You're like, "I did this. I chose to live this way." And when you leave, you just kind of want to revolt against everything that reminds you of that thing. You need to distance yourself in so many ways from it and also give yourself an opportunity to stretch and to find your own values and beliefs and have experiences outside of it. But I think the natural thing, like Elysse was saying, is at first kind of going for sacrilege, using the anger as an energy force, because honestly, leaving Mormonism as a woman, you're really beaten down. You've been a sub your whole life up until that point, and you leave and you're like, I need to learn how to stand in my power. I need to learn how to believe that I'm worthy just being me, that I'm enough, because I've been told I'm not, and that really my only purpose is to be a mother. And if I'm not fulfilling that, I'm of little to no worth. So really you're grabbing onto anything that's like, no, I am worthy, I am a creator no matter what, I am holy. I don't have to win that. I don't have to have some man tell me I'm holy.
Elysse: I think originally it was anger and sacrilege, but then through that, I think we found that it was really healing to portray ourselves as saints or as gods and to reclaim our holiness and our worthiness, because we've been told since we were young that we were cursed by Eve with original sin, and that we are innately bad, innately sinners, and the only way back is through Jesus dying for us - always through a man.
I was raised with a similarly, and now that I'm older it's easier for me to look at Gothic or Byzantine architecture and art as just something objectively beautiful. There's so much cool imagery, magical realism, so many amazing stories once you zoom out and take away the systemic oppression.
Larena: Churches used to invest in artists. And a lot of these artists weren't even religious. They were just the great artists of their day, and churches had a lot of money, so they invested. So we're like, let's reclaim that. Let's reclaim the art that these churches that have done such horrible things try to claim is theirs.
Elysse: Can't we reclaim the beauty? I love Catholic art and Gothic art and architecture.
Larena: It's really inspiring.
I've been in cathedrals in Europe, and when you take in the sheer magnitude of these spaces, you're just speechless. You think about what human beings are capable of cretaing. That idea of devotion is very interesting.
Larena: The reason why religion is so successful is that it grabs onto myths that we all relate to, and they're ancient in human history. They changed them a bit and altered things so that it was more patriarchal or whatever for their means, but there's an essence there of something people hold onto and need. And that's something, again, leaving religion, we're like, oh, we kind of need ritual, symbolism, community. You need these things. Art and music — religion uses all these things. So we're just like, that is where we came from. That's what inspired us as kids. Why can't we look at it now and see that it's meaningful in all these other ways?
That's interesting — they don't want you to examine it, because then you'll start thinking for yourself.
Elysse: A lot of these stories are actually more ancient than Christianity. When you go back and look at the original symbolism and where they came from, that's really inspiring. It's like reclaiming ancient stories that have been co-opted and taking them back.
Larena: I don't think these stories are literal. If I look at it positively, maybe ancient people were writing scripture — women too — but they picked and chose what to include. And then they're like, take this literally. But it's just people's journals and perspectives. Take the story of Mother Mary — there's no evidence she was a virgin. That's something added later. She's amazing because she gave birth. Women create life — that's godliness. We truly believe everyone is.
When I hear your music, it sounds like someone who's been listening to Depeche Mode since the ’80s. Talk to me about how you got into the music that influenced your sound while you had this sort of intensely strict upbringing.
Elysse: We're actually lucky because we weren't as sheltered as some people are. Like, when people say "escape," they mean, like, did you literally have to take off your veil and run somewhere in the desert in Utah? No, it wasn't like that. We weren't wearing pilgrim dresses.
Larena: But our upbringing was very strict and violent and patriarchal and abusive, and both the religion and our family tried to prevent us from worldly things. Meanwhile, our dad had 11 children, and we are the youngest of 11. So I think we were kind of positioned in this place where, because our siblings were extremely rebellious — everyone except one has left the religion — we were really pressured early on like, "You have to stay. You're our only hope. Don't be like your siblings." But at the same time, our parents couldn't handle all of us. My mom had to do everything, my dad was working all the time, so because of that, our brothers showed us a lot of music and art on the down low. Our parents would come in and we'd change the channel. There was this sense that we were performing Mormonism. We were faking having to live this life. And we were listening to Depeche Mode from the time we were kids. Our brothers were making us CDs and ripping stuff, like, "Girls, listen to this."
Elysse: We grew up on metal, ’80s stuff, Alice in Chains.
There's only so much of the world you can keep out from seeping in.
Elysse: We went to church every single day. We had seminary at 6 a.m., so we had to wake up early for that, then regular school, then three-hour church on Sundays, and then activities during the week like Young Women’s. Our mom made us do scripture reading before seminary, and at the end of the day we had prayers for every meal, ending prayer — it was nonstop.
Larena: It was suffocating.
Elysse: And when we say "escape," it's really like, yeah, there's physical escape, but we were brainwashed. Our minds were trapped in a cycle of fear and shame and guilt, and we couldn't escape that because we were taught from such a young age that we couldn't trust our own thoughts. Any thought against the church was the devil. Even having that thought meant you'd done something wrong, like you'd allowed the Spirit to leave you.
Larena: We believed in the Holy Ghost, so if it wasn't in you, something was wrong.
There's no greater form of control than telling a child they'll burn in hell forever.
Larena: Exactly. Forever.
Elysse: And in our religion, it's called "outer darkness." You're alone in pure black emptiness forever and ever, suffering, isolated.
Larena: Which is basically the worst human torture imaginable.
Elysse: Removed from God forever.
Larena: Forever and ever.
Elysse: And they tell you you only go there if you have a perfect knowledge of the truth and then choose to leave. But they manipulate you into having these intense spiritual experiences — almost psychedelic — so you believe from a young age that you've felt the truth. Like, "I've been touched." And if you ever leave, you're going to be alone eternally.
It's no surprise then that the music and art you create - it's rebellious and sacrilegious — in this really exciting way.
Larena: Yeah, we get a kick out of it. We're like, are we going to be attacked for this? Probably. But it's fun. We don't take ourselves too seriously.
There are people who take themselves very seriously and dress like that in real life. I mean, look at the Pope [no shade to our Chicago pope]— it's theater.
Larena: Exactly. It's all a performance. That's what we found so fascinating — the constant performance. It's theatrical. We love theater. People act out nativities all the time. Why can't we act it out? I want to act out Jesus on the cross. And what's wrong with that? It's all our story. We grew up hearing it a million times. Why can't we reinterpret it?
This is why when we talk about your story, it feels even more unfortunate that you're dealing with the confusion created by A24's new film with the same title as your band - Mother Mary, which is about a pop star called Mother Mary who seems to take a whole lot of autobiographical and visual cues from you guys - this film is literally about a musician with your name using religious imagery and playing with the same ideas you are with sexuality, original sin, and the divine feminine. as a band whose entire ethos is about reclaiming your agency and identity, that’s got to be a really sick feeling to see this come out.
Elysse: It is really surreal, really. At first, you’re confused, and then almost flattered, because you’re like, wow, millions of dollars got put behind our idea. And with FKA twigs and Charli XCX writing the music — those are some of our favorite artists. But then it felt like we just didn’t get invited to the party that’s about us, which felt really bad. So many feelings.
Larena: We were the first ones — I think a lot of people are like, “Everyone says everyone’s copying everyone,” and we are the first ones to say everything’s a remix. Art does not exist in a vacuum, right? We are inspired by so many artists. It’s obvious — we love Madonna, we love FKA twigs, we love Charli XCX. We love all these people. We have been inspired by so many things. But the important thing is that we have carved, in a really difficult way, with no money, an indie section of our world, and we worked really hard. I can’t tell people how many times we’ve nearly given up and how many things we’ve had to do to keep MOTHERMARY going. That would be a novel. But to fight so hard to sell your story and your art in such a difficult time, and then to have a billion-dollar company come out — I’m not going to say anything specific — but it’s just like, it’s the same name. In trademark law, if it sounds the same verbally — Mother Mary. It’s similar enough it's confusing. And it’s like, if they made a movie about the Virgin Mary and called it Mother Mary, great. You can make a cartoon about a toaster that goes on a journey and call it Mother Mary, I don’t care.
I would watch that, god damn it.
Larena: I would pay my $25 ticket to watch a movie that’s basically The Brave Little Toaster. But the thing is, yeah, you name it Mother Mary, but then it’s also about a pop star named Mother Mary, and they make the same exact genre of music, and there’s imagery that’s very similar to the imagery that we had all over billboards in LA — with the red veils and the iconography.
I think it’s important because there are a lot of creatives in LA — ideas will overlap — but at the same time, the city is so small. Everybody knows somebody. I find it really hard to believe they didn’t see you.
Elysse: Yeah. I would agree. It seems strange.
L-R: MOTHERMARY, A24's Mother Mary, MOTHERMARY
Larena: We’ve worked in the film industry as well, in many different capacities, and I know how it works. When you’re naming something, you research — that’s literally a job. You research what other people are under that name. You do a little “Is anything too close?” There’s no way a multimillion-dollar production just didn’t Google. Because if you Google Mother Mary — up until like yesterday — we popped up first. So it’s not like people are like, “Nobody knows about you.” It’s like, okay, so you’re cool with a billion-dollar company taking from an artist as long as they’re small? Is that better for you?
Elysse: It’s a class war, guys. It’s not about how much you love so-and-so. It’s about people in solidarity with each other — those of us who are not billionaires standing together, because otherwise we’re totally fucked.
Well that's why it's been so nice as I've kind of watched this play out as a fan — every A24 post I see, people are tagging you, saying “Mother Mary did it first.” That has to feel good.
Larena: That has been the best. I could cry. We didn’t ask anyone to do that, and we didn’t expect it. It has gotten us through, because there have been some really scary things that have happened. You get threats in your DMs. You post something simple, and suddenly people are saying they want to kill you. But then you open Instagram and you see people standing up for you, and it’s just so sweet.
Elysse: It’s really, really sweet.
Larena: It’s just people choosing to support us, and it’s really touching. We kind of thought no one cared about us.
Larena: Fans are the fucking coolest. We have the coolest, sexiest, most intelligent fans.
I’ve seen some people say, “Well, at least now I know about you guys,” which is kind of a weird silver lining.
Larena: That’s been really nice. I love focusing on silver linings as much as I can, and that’s an amazing one. We’re like, great, maybe people will find us, and we’ll find more fans and more people who connect to the music. And honestly, it’s also forced us — because we’re really not good with social media — we usually avoid promoting ourselves at all costs, which is stupid. This has forced us. We’re like, well, shit, if we don’t talk about this and promote ourselves, then we’re really losing, and we’re going to lose our right to do what we do. It kind of put a gun to our head, and we’re like, okay, yeah, we have to show up.
You’re handling it with a lot of grace and humor. The videos you’ve been posting are really funny.
Larena: Yeah, we’re very silly. We like to not take ourselves too seriously and to try to have fun with it all. When things get scary or too hard, it’s really important to bring humor into it and hope people enjoy that and don’t take it the wrong way. I think it’s really important to tell your story and bring to light what’s happening. A lot of people are like, “Why don’t you just ignore it? Why don’t you just change your name?”
Elysse: Someone suggested that— change your name.
Larena: I’m like, okay, yeah, no. I’m not going to do that. But I think there are ways to fight back against the billionaire class that don’t kill you. We believe in revolutions that also make space for celebration and release and humor. You look back at things like the AIDS crisis or other movements — the people fighting were also living their lives, partying, seeing their friends. In everything we do, we’re like, we are fighters, but we’re also going to have fun. We have to make it fun.
Elysse: It is scary, though, because we’ve worked on this for 10 years, and we don’t want to be overshadowed by something that feels a little unembodied. It feels like they’re using edgy topics — sacrilege, queerness — but it feels a little empty, like it doesn’t have the deeper meaning behind why we’re doing what we’re doing. It feels like it’s using the spectacle without the substance.
Luckily, you’re not stopping. “Set Me On Fire" is out today and it's so good . The drop is insane. It makes me want to dance immediately. Talk to me about it.
Elysse: We’re really excited. Yeah, we love this song.
Larena: Yeah, we’ve been wanting to release this for a while, and I don’t know, we’re really excited about it. I think timing-wise it just ended up being around this time, and we’re like, great. I don’t want to sell the negative things, but some people are like, “You guys don’t even work on your music,” and I’m like, we have. What do you want?
You can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Larena: We are working on releasing a full album later this year. There are just — guess what, guys — you have to work out details in the background. There are specific things that have to line up, right dates, submissions. We’re working on it. It’s hard, but we are really psyched about the single.
Elysse: I thought it was a little funny because it’s called “Set Me On Fire,” and there’s something about it that reminds me of a phoenix rising from the ashes. And it’s interesting — A24's first single for their movie was called “Burial,” and we were joking, like, are they trying to bury the original Mother Mary? And we’re like, okay, we’re a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Larena: Burn us to the ground and we’ll just be reborn. You can’t stop us.
"We’ve been through things so much harder than this. We’re not going to give up. So fucking try and light me on fire."