Dream Wife Interview

Dream Wife are… frontwoman Rakel Mjoll, guitarist Alice Go and bassist Bella Podpadec.
Photographer Ellie Smith shoots the girls in our Autumn 16 collection, as styled by Paolina Alexandra Russo.

Bella: I guess growing up somewhere like Somerset, we were so isolated from any kind of cultural stuff that was going on so Alice and I started making and creating things for ourselves.
Alice: Yeah completely, in terms of coming to London now, it makes you search out creative likeminded people, who are all the more precious when you do find them. It definitely makes you fight for it more.
Rakel: Reykjavik is very different because it has a huge music culture – everyone seems to be in like 5 bands! But I really liked when I came to London, there’s a whole business mindset that I was introduced to, which is great at sculpting and pin-pointing what we’re doing, what image we want to portray, who we want to work with and how we can do more.

B: The old graveyard down the road? (laughs)
R: I guess the Bussey Building in Peckham - there are nice bars and I always bump into really good people there too.
A: Yeah it’s like a hub of activity – it’s been exciting to hang out there whilst we’ve been writing actually.

A: Yeah and my dad was playing drums on it! We were recording whilst we were in the middle of touring so we were playing the songs every night, which is a different relationship as to when you’re practicing – so we were trying to capture that energy on the record.
R: It was actually recorded in Alice’s old nursery…
A: They soundproofed it so you couldn’t hear the children screaming from upstairs! It used to be where I practiced with my teenage bands…so it was really nice to go back and actually record there with Dream Wife.

D: Bowie, Talking Heads…
R: In my house - Beyonce.
B: Oh and definitely Madonna, American life. We listen to that a lot.

B: That was years ago! People are still talking about that? For our EP launch party, our friend Aidan Zamiri (who also directed the video for ‘Kids’) designed the set to be like a space beach - we had this giant silver palm tree, pink glitter curtains and beach balls and stuff. That was really fun, the whole set got ripped apart and the palm tree crowd surfed around the room…
R: We got our friends ‘The Daughters of Reykjavik’ aka ‘Reykjavíkurdætur’… (a 16 strong all female rap collective) to come and support us at our show at Birthdays this Spring. We ended the show by singing ‘F*** The Pain Away’ by Peaches, with them all and tearing the set apart. That was very memorable. I’m always happy when we’re on stage playing a show and experiencing the crowd. Its always different every time – there’s no one great show, every show is great.

Dream Wife: We’ve worked with a lot of amazing artists, like our friends Meg Lavender and Joanna Kiely. And Rachel Hodgson who did the EP cover.
R: And we worked with the photographer Frenchie Jane the other day, she’s so funny. Alot of these artists are associated with Polyester Zine - representing really interesting modern day, mostly female artists. We’ve been so fortunate to work with people I really admire, and they’re all friends or have become our friends through this. It’s become a really wonderful community of artists around us, and I hope we get to work with them more – that’s what I want for the future.
B: I’d love to shoot with our friend Misha Margot - he’s incredible.

B: I really like the pink Heart Cord Skirt and Rainbow Striped Shirt.
R: The frilly socks are great…the ’Waste Of Time’ slogan is just perfect. This links to the Dream Wife visuals actually – we’re playing around with femininity by using pastel colours.

B: We’re showing that we can find strength in the feminine – because the stereotypical association is that feminine traits are seen as weak.
R: We’re turning it into empowerment…wearing frilly socks with ‘Waste Of Time’ for me is so full of teenage angst. Taking feminine styles and using them in a rebellious and fun way - I love that juxtaposition. That’s why we like what Lazy Oaf is doing too!
B: You can be angry and powerful as a woman without having to adopt any masculine stylistic choices. There are definitely parallels between this aesthetic decision and our music and the way we perform.
R: It’s fun to play with people’s minds, with what they’re expecting to see. There are so many different layers to femininity and being a woman.