Furious fatales Dream Wife exploded into being in 2016 and have been tearing up the live music scene on both sides of the Atlantic ever since. They’re now on album number three and treating both ends of Wales to gigs this month. Which was Hannah Collins’ cue to give them a call.
What’s the origin story of Dream Wife?
Rakel Mjöll [lead vocals]: The three of us became a band towards the end of uni [Brighton]. I met Alice and Bella there but those two knew each other from Somerset.
Alice Go [guitar, vocals]: Yeah [speaking to Bella], was it that we met at the Battle Of The Bands in Somerset?
Bella Podpadec [bass, vocals]: Yeah, it was the best thing I’ve ever seen in my life. In the slightly weird, Somerset music scene as teenagers. We were just reminiscing about this and it began as a bit of a joke on the dance floor, being like, “Oh I want to go to Canada to visit my friends and we can’t just travel for no reason. We must form a band!”
Rakell: We came back from Canada and our friends asked if we wanted to play in Brighton, London… We had like, four songs that we’d try and stretch to 10 minutes long. It’s pretty sweet how something you do with your friends – a joke because you want to travel together – becomes your career.
And where did the name of the band come from? Did you have a few in mind before Dream Wife?
Rakel: Not really. Being in art school is funny: we basically just met and we’re like, “OK, let’s start this band, which we call the band”, and then we threw around some names and one of the first was Dream Wife. We hadn’t even picked up an instrument at that point. We did write a manifesto, though. This really is art school, isn’t it? It’s quite fun to return to that beginning – wanting to do something, not really knowing what to do and finding a name, getting album art made. That was done by one of our friends from uni called Maisie Cousins.
Oh, that’s nice. So you’ve got a whole artistic community around you?
Rakel: Yeah, we’re really blessed to have been able to work with quite a lot of our friends. We made friends around the touring circuit and creative scene here in London. Our drummer [Alex Paveley] lives in Wales, actually. He’s doing a lot of hiking and foraging, living his best life. Bella’s family is also from Wales.
Loads of connections!
Alice: Uni really was a hub of connections.
Rakel: They should really pay us for how much we talk about it. I mean, it was a lot of money for that course. Those international fees killed me…
It sounds like putting the band together was quite impulsive, DIY… You weren’t really overthinking it, if it feels fun and it feels right, then why not? I feel like that comes through in your sound. It reminds me of 90s riot grrrl stuff but with a peppier spin. I think I read someone compare you to the B52s.
Alice: Yeah. Riot grrrl became a post-formation inspiration. Le Tigre is a big influence on us. They really embody the DIY thing and made it seem fun to be in a band with this really wacky, visual world. They were having fun but they were still making statements. And I think, being that we were all studying visual arts, we wanted to make a band that also had the capacity to encompass a visual world but also just be really fun.
Rakel: They’re really rocky but they also have this pop sensibility. And they’re silly! It’s wild because they’re going on tour for the first time in 18 years and they invited us to support them, which is a real full-circle moment. Hearing them when I was 12 was the first time I’d heard what non-binary was, because of [band member] JD Samson, and the idea of playing with gender. They had a massive impact on my suburban life, living outside of Reykjavik.
Also, the sense of community in the riot grrrl movement is something that we take to heart. If you have a platform, you have to share it, however big or small it is. We’ve done open calls asking for women and non-binary people in music to join us on tour, hosted charity events and worked with different charities. So it’s not just about the band or the music, it’s about how we can use the band as a vessel to be more involved in communities we want to support.
How do you balance the silly and the serious?
Bella: I think that tension between the two is a lot of fun. It’s the flipping around expectations and I think that makes it possible to talk about heavier things. It creates a stable base from which you’re able to be a bit more hard-hitting. In a way, being fun and silly and playful, that’s political.
There’s something really empowering about giving people a space to just let loose. Is that important to you at your live shows?
Rakel: That’s the beauty of the live show.
Bella: I love chatting about this stuff. All kinds of musical and dance spaces give us an opportunity to get together, feel our bodies and embody what it is to be free, what it is to be united, joyful, angry, sexy. It’s a huge honour to be able to facilitate those kinds of spaces.
One of my favourite new songs is Hot (Don’t Date A Musician). Does it have any basis in personal experience? Are you telling people not to date you?
Alice: It’s poking fun of ourselves. It comes back to that sense of humour and playfulness that we were talking about. That’s the one song on the record that’s definitely like, it’s okay to be silly.
Rakel: It’s a little bit political as well. We’re making fun of ourselves, our friends, our community. I’m guessing it’s relatable to you?
Not really! [laughter from the whole band] No, that came out completely wrong! I didn’t mean it was unrelatable. I meant I’ve not had that personal experience the song is talking about… but I still love it because I can imagine what’s it like.
Rakel: Bella, you were seeing someone recently that took an oath or something when they were a teenager never to date a bassist?
Bella: It’s teenage enough to state “I will never date a bassist” but I said I’d never date another Cancerian, and here we are…
Rakel: We’re always making these rules in our heads, being like “Oh yeah, never gonna do that”. It’s funny how human beings are. Listening back to the lyrics [of Hot], there’s one line in the song: “I was never competition, I was just hot” and it’s funny because what is competition in music? Or any field? Who are you really competing with?
Yes, especially in creative fields where everything is largely subjective. What metrics would you even use? It’s all personal taste and preference, isn’t it?
Rakel: It’s also one of those things where people say, “You’re the best girl band I’ve seen.” But we’re not even a girl band. Also, why can’t we just be the best band? Must we be pitted against other people in the scene just because of reproductive organs? I’m not in competition with them.
Any other careers or vocations people should avoid when dating?
Rakel: [Laughs] It’s about the person, not the career or star sign. Saying that, I’m dating a Gemini and people don’t like them.
Bella: Geminis get a bad rep.
Rakel: Yeah, but they’re just so hot. I love all those multiple personalities.
Any other vocations people should avoid when dating?
Bella: Don’t date a cop?
Alice: Yeah, don’t date a pig!
So you’re not fond of the ‘girl band’ label?
Alice: Yeah, certainly when we were teenagers in the 2000s, the idea of a girl band was this manufactured thing. Those kinds of bands are puppets having their strings pulled by middle-aged men in the music business. And I think there’s something in the idea of reclaiming the word and identity of being a girl band but for us, it just… [Alice leaves the video call abruptly. Later we find out her power cut out.]
Rakel: Oh, she’s so upset, she left the interview! For me, it comes down to this idea of not writing your own music. The equivalent to our band – let’s say Shame, for example – you’re not calling them a ‘boy band,’ are you? Language is so powerful. Bella is non-binary. So, having to pigeonhole music based on gender is so messed up. And the amount of times we’re asked if we write our own songs… Who else is gonna write them? We don’t have anyone on payroll doing it.
I can’t imagine anyone asking a band like Shame if they write their own music. It’s just presumed.
Rakel: It’s pretty wild, isn’t it? When we started this band, we all spoke about these kinds of things. We felt so safe in each other’s company, and that our voices were being heard. There wasn’t one person in this band directing everything, it was very much a shared, collaborative experience that we haven’t felt in other bands before. That’s very important to us – this trust between each other.
Speaking of other bands, on the back of Boygenius’ formation, if you were going to form your own supergroup, who would be in it?
Rakel: Ooh, I want Nova Twins.
I can imagine a Nova Twins/Dream Wife mashup would slap pretty hard.
Rakel: Jessica Winter, too.
Bella: Peaches.
Rakel: Lost Love. We met them a few weeks ago at SXSW and we fell in love with each other. I love it when that happens. This would be a really cool supergroup!
I’m looking forward to seeing you guys in Cardiff soon – and you’re in north Wales before that. Is it your first time there?
Rakel: Yes. I’m so hyped for that show. My grandad is from a couple of villages over from Wrexham so in an ideal world, I’d love to go there and get some nostalgic ancestor vibes and spend time walking. Hiking is one of my favourite things to do in the world. London is pretty flat. I miss mountains.
You’ll definitely be in the right part of the world for that.
Rakel: Our dream is to make an album that sounds even remotely close to our live shows, and this new one [Social Lubrication] is the closest we’ve gotten. That’s the best thing about this band: we get our energy and fire and all of our song inspiration [from performing live]. That’s how we write; straight after a tour or festival is musically the most inspiring time for us, the conversations we had, the crowd interaction… How we can change and understand song structure is based on the audience’s reaction to them.
Alice produced this album, too, which was us taking more of the reins and how we got closer the sound [we wanted on the album]. Who else knows your sound better than yourself?
That’s exciting to hear. When you’re coming off of a high and feeding all that natural energy into creating, the end product must be really satisfying.
Rakel: Yeah, I mean, we also cry, too. That’s what the energy can do to you. And again, the musical community we have is an important part of that. What do you want us to play on stage? How do you want to feel? How do you want to dress? What have you been talking to your peers about? What do you feel? This album also has such a lust for life. And just lust… sexuality, orgasms. I really want you to hear it!
Dream Wife play FOCUS Wales, The Rockin’ Chair, Wrexham, Sat 6 May. Tickets: £16 (or access with festival pass). Info: here
Celebrate This Place, Tramshed, Cardiff, Sat 20 May. Tickets: £20/£28 with Fri 19 May ticket. Info: here
Social Lubrication is out Sat 13 May (digital) and Fri 9 June (physical) on Lucky Number Music.
words HANNAH COLLINS
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