Posted on Tuesday 9th June 2020 at 14:00
Lauded as one of the best live acts in the world right now and less than a month away from releasing their highly anticipated brand new record, So When You Gonna..., we caught up with incredible trio Dream Wife to discuss working with an all femme-personnel, avoiding second album syndrome and more.
Firstly, your forthcoming record So When You Gonna… is out later this year – how are you feeling now you’ve released the news onto the world?
We just want it to be out. We absolutely loved the process of making this album, writing these songs, recording it with our team and we want people to hear it. So we didn’t wanna delay the release. During these times I feel like I crave more music in my life than usual, discovering new albums or old ones i’ve never heard before. Similar to when you were a kid growing up in the suburbs, listening to music in your bedroom, imagining seeing the music you’re listening to live and what life would be like in this imaginary world you create when you close your eyes with your headphones on. For me there was a lot of 60 & 70’s music going through my ears at the time and a distant picture of me grown up looking like Penny Lane from the movie Almost Famous, but not the groupie version the lead singer version, sitting in a parks in London, going to gigs with friends that were all heavily into music and listening to that same music on my walks through the city. Sorta got it right. That’s how I'm feeling now about listening to music, my indoor imagination goes wild.
What can we expect from your second LP?
Best thing we’ve ever written.
Your debut record was well received by critics and fans alike – was there a creeping thought in the back of your mind when creating So When You Gonna… that it would be compared to the first?
I think those kind of thoughts are the killer of creativity. So no, didn’t think about it. We just highly enjoyed coming together to write an album, got all excited and giddy about making these songs and how they ended up tying so well together as a whole. Being free to go into this creative rollercoaster of emotions and state of flow with your friends and to find sheer joy from doing so - it’s the best feeling.
You worked with Marta Salogni for the record – what did you learn from working with one of the greatest producers of recent times?
Agree with that statement. Marta is an icon. We were thrilled she wanted to work with us. The process was chilled, encouraging and just a beautiful time to create. Spent a full month together in the studio last autumn recording with Marta. We became such good friends and that trust you need between everyone in a recording space was there from the start. She’s also just so funny and also so precise in her work. Having been an engineer and mixer previously she’s got every ear to the studio. So when she pushed the record button we often got that magical take in first tries. And that’s a good relationship.
The record as a whole was created with an all-femme personnel (except your drummer Alex) – would you say that it is difficult to highlight this as a ‘success story’ when it should be a ‘norm?’
We had such a great team working on this record. It is fucked up that albums released last year, that only 3% of them had a female producer involved - so having an all femme team is an even lower prosentage to that. It was important for us to talk about this in the recording sessions and also now. We ourselves did not realise it was this low of a %, it’s shocking. We need more platforms for womxn interested in working behind the scenes in music and have an opportunity to do so. We need to talk about this. Hire more womxn to produce, mix, master, engineer. Practice what you preach.
Some festivals are pledging to offer festival-goers a gender balanced line-up – why do you think that certain festivals are still slow to agree to this when bigger festivals like Primavera have showed it is possible?
Primavera was by far one of the best festivals we’ve ever played at and attended. Walking between each stage seeing these incredible and diverse performers come alive on stage, only to realise the next day that I saw a majority of femme and non binary acts BY CHANCE. That’s how it should be everywhere. Representation is important for our future generation. Human’s need their stories told, not just one side to a story told by one group. And for diverse stories and gender balance to be present on stages around the world will just make a way more interesting and fun festival experience for all.
What else can we expect from Dream Wife across 2020 (and beyond)?
An album we’re so freaking excited about and for it to float through the airwaves and into people’s ears. Beyond; really hope the resurrection of festivals and live gig appear again when the time is right and it is safe to do so. Miss it terribly.
Fun questions
You Tweeted recently that you miss touring – even service stations. Which retailers would be in your ideal service station?
Damn straight. Taco bell, Whole foods and jamba juice. Mmmmm.
As festival season approaches (& fizzles away) – please give us your acts for the following sets:
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Main stage headliner: Madonna
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Late night DJ: Annie Mac
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Festival opener on a Thursday night: Dream Wife eyyyyy
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‘Secret set’: Christine and the Queens
If you taught a virtual class during lockdown, what would you teach and why?
I took some facetime classes in German. I like learning languages and the dream would be to at least know some phrases and to be able to talk to the audiences in different countries in their language. I learned fair bit stage banter and phrases in Japanese for our shows in Osaka & Tokyo and the people cheered and smiled so much! Saw what a big difference it made to put effort into learning some of the language of the place you’re visiting. I’m now teaching my partner to speak Icelandic, which is a tough language to learn but he’s actually a really great student. Gained a lot of process and confidence in speaking rather than getting everything right grammarly or written down. Learn one of the hardest and most uncommon languages in the world? At your service.
If you could only listen to three albums for the rest of the year, what would they be?
Ours, Christine and the Queens - La vita nuova & Billie Holiday - Solitude.
Buy your tickets to see Dream Wife at Rescue Rooms on 21st April 2021 here.
