Lucky Number Music

London-based trio Dream Wife – vocalist Rakel Mjöll (she/her), guitarist Alice Go (she/her), bassist Bella Podpadec (they/them) – today announce that their highly anticipated third album, entitled Social Lubrication, will be released on June 9th and also share the brand new single “Hot (Don’t Date A Musician)”.

Social Lubrication showcases a band in electrifying form. An entirely self-written and self-produced album, with the only outside influence being the heavyweight mixing duo of Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Killers, Depeche Mode) and Caesar Edmunds (Wet Leg, Beach House), the incendiary and riotous record finds the band once again tackling big subjects in their trademark unapologetic manner where, with the band being adept at merging the political with the playful, vital statements are hidden within hot and heavy anthems about making out, having fun and staying curious. Social Lubrication, in the band’s words, is “Hyper lusty rock and roll with a political punch, exploring the alchemy of attraction, the lust for life, embracing community and calling out the patriarchy. With a healthy dose of playfulness and funthrown in.” The playfulness of the album is to the fore on “Hot (Don’t Date A Musician)”, the silly, sexy second single shared from the album to-date. Inspired by Rakel’s grandmother’s sage advice – advice that she, herself, didn’t follow – the track wryly pokes fun at musicians, themselves included. “Don’t date a musician,” sings Rakel over infectious, B52’s-style drums and jagged, angular melodies. “They’ll think you’re competition / I was never competition, I was just… hot.”

Rakel says, “Dating musicians is a nightmare. Evoking imagery of late night make-outs with fuckboy/girl/ambiguously-gendered musicians on their mattress after being seduced by song-writing chat. The roles being equally reversed. Having a laugh together and being able to poke fun at ourselves is very much at the heart of this band. This song encapsulates our shared sense of humour. Sonically it is the lovechild of CSS and Motorhead. It has our hard, live, rock edge combined with cheeky and playful vocals.”

“Hot (Don’t Date A Musician)” follows “Leech”, the album’s bold and explosive first single, a rock-heavy, call-to-arms for empathy, in a world still propped up by patriarchal systems and underhand codes of silence. These themes – exhaustion with the patriarchy, a rejection of the systems built to contain us – simmer and spit throughout Social Lubrication. In conjunction the album’s celebration of community is a middle finger to the societal barriers enforced to sever connection, playfulness, curiosity and sexual empowerment. “Music is one of the only forms of people experiencing an emotion together in a visceral, physical, real way,” says Alice. “It’s cathartic to the systemic issues that are being called out across the board in the record. Music isn’t the cure, but it’s the remedy. Calling the record Social Lubrication harks to that. It’s the positive glue that can create solidarity and community.” “The album is speaking to systemic problems that cannot be glossed over by lube,” says Bella. “The things named in the songs are symptoms of f-ed up structures. And you can’t fix that. You need to pull it apart.”

Today, the London-based trio Dream Wife – vocalist Rakel Mjöll (she/her), guitarist Alice Go (she/her) and bassist Bella Podpadec (they/them) – return with their first new material since 2020. A band with a reputation for a ferocious live show and championing bodily autonomy, their new song “Leech” addresses the double standards of power. “Do you hide behind the position you hold/ Do you hide behind the illusions of power/ The perception of power” Rakel sings before changing gears and screaming “The leech is out for blood.”

The band says of the new single, “It’s an anthem for empathy. For solidarity. Musically tense and withheld, erupting to angry cathartic crescendos. The push and pull of the song lyrically and musically expands and contracts, stating and calling out the double standards of power. Nobody really wins in a patriarchal society. We all lose. We could all use more empathy. As our first song to be released in a while, we wanted to write something that feels like letting an animal out of a cage. It’s out. And it’s out for blood…”

“Leech” is out now and is the first taste of what’s to come from Dream Wife in 2023. Watch the video below.

In addition, they have also announced a London show at Peckham Audio on Friday 25th November. You can get tickets HERE.

Following their Top 20 charting second album So When You Gonna…, Dream Wife (Alice Go, Bella Podpadec and Rakel Mjöll) today announce the release of a live album, IRL (Live in London 2020), and share the previously unreleased “Cheap Thrills“.

Fortuitously recorded by their front of house engineer at London’s Peckham Audio this past January, it documents what was expected to be the band’s first of many shows of 2020. Featuring highlights from both of their albums, plus Cheap Thrills, the recording has undoubtedly captured a blistering performance that showcases the trio’s trademark ferocity.

Dream Wife say that: “The rock show is the beating heart of this band. We cut our teeth as a unit playing relentless DIY tours before ever releasing music. We often describe recordings as a snapshot of a song at a moment in time, but understanding them as living, breathing, transforming entities through the rock show. Kicking off this year we imagined 2020 to be seriously getting back to touring, to playing shows, to letting these songs live. But… 2020 has not been what anyone expected it to be. 
 
When we put on this small intimate ‘sort of’ secret gig for fans & friends at Peckham Audio back in January we thought it was the first but, as it turns out, it was going to be the only for a very long time. We truly believe in the transcendental power of live music; that you have the power to go somewhere together. We can’t wait to commune with you IRL, at the rock show; to share sweat and joy and rage and grief and energy and love. But for now, we offer you a snapshot of our only rock show of 2020. We offer you a little bit of that energy and rawness and connection captured digitally. It’s not quite the same. But don’t worry we’ll be together, we will be loud, and we will be unapologetically present soon. Lots of love, Your Wives xxx”

Also announced today, the bands explosive second album So When You Gonna… has earned a Top 10 spot in Rough Trade’s Albums of the Year List. Produced and mixed by Marta Salogni, the album deals with topics such as miscarriage and gender equality, and followed the band’s 2018 critically acclaimed self-titled release. The record debuted in the UK Album Chart at # 18, the only album in the top 20 that week to be produced by a womxn and non-male engineering team, as well as the only non-major label release, and at #1 in the Official Record Store Chart of Independent Retailers.

Dream Wife – Rakel Mjöll, Bella Podpadec and Alice Go – have just released their  second album So When You Gonna…, earning Rough Trade’s coveted title of Album of the Month. Produced and mixed by Marta Salogni, the album deals with topics such as miscarriage and gender equality, and follows the band’s 2018 critically acclaimed self-titled release. The record has debuted in the UK Album Chart at # 18, the only album in the top 20 to be produced by a womxn and non-male engineering team, as well as the only non-major label release, and at # 1 in the Official Record Store Chart of Independent Retailers. Purchase, stream or download the record, HERE.

Today, Dream Wife share the music video for the emotive album closer “After The Rain”. Regarding the song and its subject matter, Rakel explains: “The song was originally a voice memo I recorded after having a conversation with my sister, she had just discovered she was pregnant, and she didn’t want to go through with the pregnancy. This was happening at the same time as The Human Life Protection Act/Alabama Abortion Ban last May. Going through these multiple waves of community shame, anger at these systems imposed by the patriarchy to own women bodies, lack of trust and feeling disconnected from your own body. And not being able to articulate those feelings.”

 With the video, created in collaboration between the band and director Helga Katrínardóttir, they explain “We have used water in both the song and video to symbolize and explore the singular yet collective experience of abortion. Water is the fundamental for all life. We are 75% water. Water is all and all pain is shared pain. It is our choice to craft the narratives of our own lives and fight the restrictions put on us by a society attempting to control our bodies. It’s feeling all the feelings and knowing that the storm will pass. 

Filmed across expansive Icelandic nature and intimate South London home the film takes the viewer on a journey from the internal to the external, from the singular experience to the collective. The dramatic differences between the interior and exterior shots also speak to the drastically different ways our home countries have mobilised in response to the current pandemic and how important it is to function collectively during times of dislocation”.

Dream Wife will release their explosive new album So When You Gonna…this Summer, and have now shared the album’s title track, accompanied by a music video directed by frequent collaborator Aidan Zamiri. “So When You Gonna…” follows the previously released singles “Sports!” and “Hasta La Vista,” and is accompanied by today’s 2021 tour date announcement and the release of episode five of the band’s womxn-centric podcast series.

Dream Wife on “So When You Gonna…”:

“It’s a dare, an invitation, a challenge.  It’s about communicating your desires, wholehearted consent and the point where talking is no longer enough. It promotes body autonomy and self-empowerment through grabbing the moment. The breakdown details the rules of attraction in a play by play ‘commentator’ style, inspired by Meat Loaf’s ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’.

For the video for we worked with our favourite elf prince Aidan Zamiri who filmed around a free sweaty, sexy, gig we did for ours fans back in January – shot as a first person POV from the inside of a mouth. Performing live is the beating heart of this band and we miss it, so please take this video as a little love letter to the rock show”

Today the band also announce a UK and European tour for 2021. The tour kicks off in April with the final UK date at London’s Electric Ballroom before they head to Europe for a string of dates. Full list of shows below and tickets for all shows are available on their website.