Dream Wife was planned to be nothing more than art project. Attending Brighton University, Rakel Mjöll, Alice Go, and Bella Podpadec at the time were studying visual arts when the idea came about. The concept centered around a Canadian girl’s memories back in the 90s. Bands like Bikini Kill, ESG, and Pat Benatar were on heavy rotation for the young lady, thus starting a band naturally blossomed.
Little did the trio that makes up Dream Wife would see was how electric their chemistry was.  In their eyes, the band idea simply couldn’t be a one off. It needed to be fleshed out and pushed to become something more. The band soon began hitting the road, hitting areas all around Europe and yes, even Canada. Dream Wife only had four songs and they were booking shows without any assistance. It was simply DIY in its truest form. Dream Wife still continues to keep their deeply rooted ways when performing. At their shows, a wild DIY-influenced set leaves you hungry for more.
Dream Wife has a clearer vision with how they want to go about their work. Their days in art school are still present; the band collaborates with young creative people that work in photography and video. Dream Wife also stand tall when it comes to recent feminist movement. It’s all about taking care of one another, in their opinion. Taking this time to flip the script of what the social norms have dictated for many years.
Ghettoblaster recently caught up with the band to talk more about their past, their music, and their mission for the foreseeable future.
What would you say if I feel like the band’s debut LP will be already one of the albums of 2018?  It’s absolutely brilliant.
Thank you! We are so proud of this debut, feels like an introduction and statement of where we are at right now.
What’s the mood like with everyone as the debut is about to be released?
Everyone in our team is super excited for the world to hear this body of work, and get down with Dream Wife’s message of girl power.
Although it was started primarily as an art project, how much did everyone want to make this something more?
Since it’s art project beginnings this band has just kind of snowballed to the point it’s at now, and it’s always been way too fun to stop. When we started out we were a wild feral band, doing DIY tours internationally and sleeping on coaches. Now we work with an amazing team of people who help us take this baby to the next level, touring with a tour manager is a luxury to us. Things have continued to grow very organically since the art school days, this trajectory feels right, there is an energy and momentum to everything right now, it feels like we’ve found our groove.
From what I’ve read, the live shows are a can’t miss.  In some ways, does everyone feel that it’s important to still keep Dream Wife’s visual side from its humble beginnings alive? 
Our live show is so important to us, it’s a conversation between everyone in that space together and it’s also a high energy rock show. Playing with what’s possible at a gig, and thinking about what is possible in creating safe and immersive spaces for music, is always on our minds. We collaborated with our friend Aidan Zamiri, on a Space Beach themed set for our EP launch last year, and are currently working with groups like Girls Against, to highlight and encourage safe spaces at our shows.
You have an instituted a community titled the Bad Bitches Club.  Could you talk more about that?
Our friend and photographer Meg Lavender came with us on a UK tour in January, during which time she began documenting all the fabulous women (and sometimes men) that were coming out to our shows. This was the origin of the Bad Bitch Club. Meg came out with us again on our most recent UK tour and continued to capture this scene of queens coming to rock out. There is also a point  in our set where Rakel calls forward the bad bitches, to take up their space (a girls to the front type summoning of women) and that moment of the show is totally everyone there together, us wives and amazing women and girls rocking out all on the same level, screaming bitches together, and it feels totally powerful.
The bad bitch club is a thing of solidarity, community, and conversation.
Has the band come around much sexism when setting up dates for shows and/or tours?
 Of course, just as we have as three women going through life as three women.
Sexism is so normalized and casual that we have to start standing up and calling out sexism when we see it, men need to call out other men on this too.
What does everyone think needs to happen to allow more females to feel comfortable within the realm of music?  For example, attending shows, being in bands, etc.
Female role models that are just real women, in control, rather than any outdated and stereotyped representations of what women should be, and more often than not in music, a product, crafted by a team of men.
The normalization of strong, real, female role models.
For men to also feel a part of this conversation in encouraging women in music.
Find your people, find your sisters, and make cool stuff together. Feel strong in the solidarity of that.

How long did the writing for the debut take?
Some of the songs on our debut were slightly older or from our EP, but we actually wrote most of the album in a windowless practice room in Peckham, about a year ago. We write quickly when we are in the room together, we lock into the vibe together. We like to test songs out live before thinking about recording them, so even though most of the songs on the debut were written in a practice space, we came to explore them and understand them equally through playing them at shows and to a crowd, before recording anything.
Did everyone feel that writing became easier when the vision to make Dream Wife more than just an art project?
We all came from musical backgrounds, so to form this project in art school, so to realize this project as a band in its worn right,  outside of the art project origin, felt natural and we don’t question it too much, we understand as we do it.
I saw that the album was recorded on tape instead of multi-tracking.  What was it about laying the tracks on tape made it important?
On tape, you have to get the track right in the moment, there are no drop-ins, it’s about getting what a performance of a song is in the moment, rather than being too clinical about making a song perfect in the studio. We really wanted to capture our live sound on this record, so getting the basis for the songs down on tape felt like the right way to lay this foundation.
David Bowie and Madonna are huge inspirations for the band.  Besides them being incredibly talented and amazingly gifted musicians, what makes the duo so important to you?
It’s about what they stand for. Both Bowie and Madonna question outdated structures, they question the expectations we have for ourselves and others, they play with persona, gender and are beacons of personal expression. Inspirational Icons in so many ways.
The band has played a slew of shows in the US.  What has been like playing away from home?
We love the challenge of winning over a new crowd, and we’ve been savoring taking our show out to new places and new people.
Speaking of playing in the US, please tell me that Dream Wife is putting more dates on the schedule.
We are back in January! We will be playing a couple of dates in NYC in the new year, come on down!
Dream Wife’s debut LP is out today.
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