6 Things W/Farmer’s Wife
Photo Credit: Kylie Bly
Austin five-piece band Farmer’s Wife recently released their excellent, and second, EP Faint Illusions. Inspired by fairy tales, meat, cherry trees and dolls, it shifts between sweet and haunting. It brings forth feelings of nostalgia, with a creepy undercurrent that could whisk you away with it. Sonically, the roughly 21-minute release pulls from bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, bringing together some of the best elements of 90s grunge and alternative rock. The five piece band is Jude Hill (guitar), Derek Ivy (guitar), Jacob Masson (bass), Molly Masson (vocals), and Jaelyn Valero (drums).
We spoke to Farmer’s Wife about Pinterest, fairy tales, channeling emotions into music and more.
1/SOUND
Molly: Whimsigothic, Mazzy Star meets Hole, stadium rock and roll
Jaelyn: Bubble grunge, rock n roll, wrestle mania - Jaelyn
Jude: Wall of sound?
Jacob: 90s inspired devastated pent up limerence cheetah print disassociate post-grunge disco
Derek: Skate 3 soundtrack, rock n’ roll, yearning, vast open prairie
2/LYRICS
Jude: Once we started to hone in on what our collective sound and vision was, we began to take some inspiration from twisted fairy tales. Songs like “Goldiloxx” and “Swarm” handle subjects related to children’s stories with creepy themes. Additionally, “Discount Roses” off of our latest EP, Faint Illusions, has a lyrical throughline of comparing the feeling of falling in love with alien abduction.
Molly: Lyrics can come from anywhere. Like Jude said, we have had a bit of a dark fairy tale theme in some of our songs. A lot of my lyrics will start as sad girl Notes app musings, some dark thoughts that i don’t know where else to put, and then when we’re writing, I’ll revisit them. “The Ballet” has lyrics inspired by Patti Smith - “one pocket full of meat”, which came from reading Just Kids, where she talks about hanging out with Robert Maplethorpe, walking down the street with a raw steak in her pocket. I like to tell little stories, but also I like the stories to be non-linear and, at first listen, could just sound like nonsense.
3/VISUALS
Molly: I loooooove Pinterest. I’ll have an idea and then take it to Pinterest to kinda flesh it out more and get inspiration. We’ve played a lot with miniatures in our visuals: for the There’s a Monster EP cover, “Swarm” music video, and a little bit in the “Mildew” music video. A lot of it, for me, boils down to honoring my inner child and following what feels exciting to my brain. If the idea makes me jump up and down and squeal, I’ll follow it. The “Pool Song” & “Bleeder” music videos, those were inspired by movies. I had a really strong vision for ‘Pool Song” off the bat, and then Jaelyn showed me the movie Whip It. The underwater love scene turned into a huge hard reference for the music video. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a big reference for “Bleeder.” Alice in Wonderland & Coraline for “Mildew.” And we love bunnies. And bugs.
4/SUCCESS
Jaelyn: I think success can be defined by a band's happiness and eagerness to keep going. There’s also nothing more validating than traveling the country and even going outside of it and meeting people who are excited to hear our music live and sing along.
Jacob: When people ask about songs that aren’t out yet… like ooo it’s in your head already, huh?
Molly: It’s hard to define such a thing. Money? Maybe. Opening for Paramore? Definitely. People resonating with our music is the most important measure of success though. No matter how many people are in a room we play, if someone is moved, singing along, and smiling because of us, it’s a successful night.
5/CREATIVE HABITS
Jude: Not so much a firm habit as something that I’ve been dabbling in more recently, but experimenting with different tunings or unconventional noises on guitar has been my go-to for trying to get into a creative headspace. Again, to shamelessly plug our new EP, Faint Illusions, which you can stream on all platforms and recommend to your uncles, contains two songs in the Drop D tuning, as well as several songs with instances of pedal oscillation and feedback. Can you find them all???
Jaelyn: Pulling inspiration from unconventional places like different movies has always been a fun way to shape the writing music experience. I also think writing with the energy of a live performance in mind is extremely influential. Getting our start as an extremely active local band was a huge part in writing because we were writing music in a way that we thought people would really emotionally respond to.
Jacob: Tapping into pent up feelings, channeling what’s troubling us into how we play and what notes to play. Angry? I’m stomping the boost and beating TF out of my strings. Somber, vulnerable? Tap the reverb & delay, distortion, make a soundscape to paint a portrait of what feels like a safe space to touch on what hurts the most.
Molly: Collaboration is at the core of songwriting for Farmer’s. One habit of ours is locking ourselves in a room, or going out to the Farmer’s Wife Farm and disconnecting from the outside world for a while.
6/UNEXPECTED INFLUENCES
Jude: Faint Illusions, our platinum selling (lie) EP, has a different style of production than our previous works. More layered tracks and shoegaze-esque effects are everywhere, thanks to our wonderful producer, Jackson Baker. While not a direct inspiration to our musical style, albums like TANGK by IDLES and soundtrack composers like Akira Yamaoka and Trent Reznor inspire me to think about the whole of a song in the studio rather than individual instrument/vocal sections, which is easier to handle in a live setting. Zooming out from just the five or so melodies we’re able to play live and thinking about little details to accentuate the vibe of a song was a lot of fun in the studio, and even thinking about how to adapt such sounds into a live setting is a treat.
Jaelyn: Horror movies and fairy tales have always had an influence on our storytelling and songwriting.
Jacob: I didn’t expect it but I think that being on tour and seeing how other bands curate their live set has influenced how I view what makes a good track list on an album as well as thinking about moments during a live set influencing parts of songs as we write them.
Molly: Observing nature. Insects, the circle of life. Decomposition + decaying. Rotting.
Derek: Cooking food, extreme sports.
Imagine yourself walking through an eerie and enchanting world scored by the sounds of 90’s alt-rock. That’s what listening to Faint Illusions, the new EP by Austin grunge band Farmer’s Wife, is like. In our “6 Things W/”feature, the band dives deep into their songwriting process, DIY visual aesthetic, and touches on how skate games, horror films, and sad girl Notes app reflections all collide in their music.