Farmer's Wife

BIOGRAPHY

Picture an intersection of dark fairy tales, anguished love, technological nightmares and horror show romance. Brooding squarely within that crossroads sits the Austin band Farmer’s Wife. Influenced by 90’s dirge rock, 60’s psych and occasionally 80’s nonchalance, their songs are reminiscent of classic early records from Smashing Pumpkins, Slowdive, and Hole as well as the pained imagery of 2000’s emo pioneers.  Their songs are as powerful as they are frail, as ethereal as they are stark. 

If singer Molly Masson’s coquettish onstage performance distracts you from the despair, anger and confusion in her voice, that’s just part of the puzzle. The nuances of their music deliberately creep out at each listen. Lulling, intricate guitar lines traded between Jude Hill, Derek Ivy and bassist Jacob Masson. Hypnotic drumming from Jaelyn Valero that at times, when their live show spirals into free-form abandon and structure is left behind, recalls John Densmore.  

Farmer’s Wife however, for all their experimentation, are master songwriters, never more capably displayed than on gentle yet jarring songs such as “Keep Hate In Your Heart” or in lyrical lines that run from the epitome of sweet (“I miss having her hand here in mine”) to ghastly (“I chop you up in little pieces let you grow a little mold; My fungus worms and rats will eat at all your fats until you cease to exist”). 

It’s the purest of storytelling - both intensely personal and conversely voyeuristic. At one moment a world seen through their eyes, the next relegated to watching it play out through a window, isolated. That push-pull of intimacy and distance is central to the recordings and the live show, leaving you constantly off-kilter but always enraptured.