Known for their haunting yet grounding take on the shoegaze genre, Austin-based outfit Farmer’s Wife continue to delve further into the unknown. On October 1, the band released their newest single, a cover of Donovan’s classic hit “Season of the Witch.” A live show staple for Farmer’s Wife, the band dropped the cover just in time for Halloween, and just in time for the band to convey their newly evolved sound to listeners.
“It’s always just been our sound, but I think this was a part of our evolution,” says drummer Jaelyn Valero. “We just really delved into that eerie sound that we were putting in all of our songs.”
Offering a newfound grittiness on Donovan’s defining song, Farmer’s Wife brings “Season of the Witch” to new heights as fuzzy guitars and primal screams are infused. The band says that rehearsing and releasing this song allowed them to dive further into a more eerie and spooky sound, one they will continue to harness in future music.
“I think that a lot of the eeriness actually came from us having fun with it, which I think is kind of a weird place for eeriness to come from, but I think that combination of emotions and attitudes kind of makes that song what it is, for me at least,” says guitarist Jude Hill.
Composed of Molly Masson (vocals), Hill (guitars), Derek Ivy (guitars), Jacob Masson (bass) and Valero (drums), Farmer’s Wife heads out on their fall U.S. tour on October 19, and will tour throughout October, November and December, supporting Cloud Nothing on select dates. Since their 2021 debut, Farmer’s Wife has been praised within their local DIY music scene in Austin, and are renowned for their enigmatic stage shows and feeding off of crowd energy.
Similar to the Southern Gothic themes conveyed in their artistry, Farmer’s Wife is haunting yet inviting, as their music involves intricate storytelling and beautifully crafted stories pulled from everyday life. Reminiscent of some form of dark fairytale, Farmer’s Wife — through their grunge-infused tales of identity and romance — prove that there is often much more than meets the eye.
Thank you guys for taking the time today! We were just talking about your tour, where you’re supporting Cloud Nothings. What’s on your mind as you’re preparing to go on tour?
Molly: I’m kind of in this perpetual state of panic, thinking about what can we do to prepare or are we doing enough. But after talking to some of my friends who have also toured a bunch, I think that’s just a constant state of being. But I’m super excited.
Jaelyn: We’re really grateful to have the opportunity to see a bunch of new audiences that haven’t seen us before, and there’s a lot of cities we’ve never even visited. It’s a really great opportunity to reach new audiences, so we’re grateful for that, for sure.
Are there any specific cities you’re most looking forward to?
Molly: I’m so excited for Chicago. I’m also excited to check out what it’s like in Birmingham and Louisville.
Derek: Chicago’s cool. I can’t wait to check out Pittsburgh.
Jaelyn: I’m excited for Las Vegas.
Molly: I’m scared for Las Vegas! (Laughter)
Jude: I second the Chicago thing. I have a lot of family coming to that show for some reason, so it’s kind of kind of scary, but mostly exciting.
Jaelyn: And then we’ll be in Colorado for two nights too. This is just a good tour.
Molly: There are so many places that I just haven’t been at all. So that’s so exciting to be able to have the opportunity to see new places in this way and interact with new communities like this.
You said you’re kind of nervous about the tour. Is there any good advice that you’ve received about touring? What are some things you’re trying to do to maybe keep yourself grounded?
Molly: I’ve been making so many to-do lists. Obviously, no matter how much we prepare stuff is going to go wrong. Things will be forgotten and there’s no way to completely counteract that happening. But I think the good advice that we’ve gotten is to just breathe and enjoy it and be present through it all. Because this is the kind of opportunity that a lot of people never get the chance to see. So rather than freaking out and being anxious about it all the time, try to enjoy it. Our friend Chloe was giving me really good advice on stuff to pack. Her telling us to bring baby wipes was kind of a game changer. Or having way too much hand sanitizer.
Jaelyn: I think van tidiness is a big deal. I think that can really impact everyone’s energy on tour too. After a really long night at a venue and not feeling like you get any good space to yourself, going back to the van is sometimes your only chance to wind down. If it’s a gross, dirty place, coming back to that can make you feel like you have no escape. But also going back to just trying to make the most out of everything and enjoy the little moments we have together. Trying to remember the different ways we can have fun with each other as a band while we’re on tour. A really important thing to remember about this experience is that it’s a great opportunity to get closer with each other.
I did also of course want to ask about your new single, your cover of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch.” When you covered the song, how did it expand upon your sound?
Jude: We’ve been doing that cover for a while, technically since we were Sludge years ago with a different lineup and completely different sound. The new version of “Season of the Witch” really arose out of a rehearsal and just kind of messing around with the idea of the song rather than trying to play a straight up cover of it. I think that a lot of the eeriness actually came from us having fun with it, which I think is kind of a weird place for eeriness to come from, but I think that combination of emotions and attitudes kind of makes that song what it is, for me at least.
Jaelyn: And at the time, that was when we were playing shows all the time in Austin and we would play multiple shows in one weekend. So when we were rehearsing that day deciding to do the cover it was kind of like, what can we do to get the most out of the people who are listening at the show this weekend. So I think that’s why the twist on the chorus came out the way it did was because it was really about being energetic and still keeping that mysteriousness and eeriness while also being in your face at the same time. I think it’s a really cool balance to try to figure out.
Molly: I also think that what Donovan is singing really juxtaposes the way that his song sounds, because it’s so up-tempo and poppy but then he’s talking about feeling like he’s being watched and feeling really uneasy in his life no matter what he’s doing. It’s also just so fun for us to play.The way that this came about also became the way that we approached covering other songs. Now we want to “witchify” them.
Was it always a plan to actually record it and release it as a single before Halloween?
Molly: We’d consistently played it through past Halloweens. For a year we would just play it at the end of our sets because we wanted to be weird and spooky. And then last year, Halloween came around and we were like, we should release it. But then it was the middle of the month that there was just no way that was actually happening.
Jaelyn: We had a close friend, Michelle Moss, who has a small label in Austin called Moss Music Records, who put out a limited run of 45s for us. One side was “Greg Abbott’s Maxi Pad” and then the other side is our live recording of “Season of the Witch” from a South by Southwest show we did. We released that last year in November. There was only like 32 copies that were made and I think the reception to that was really good. Also it’s just a great thing to release right now right before we release a fuller project next year. That’s kind of a the next step into this newer sound we’ll have.
Speaking of kind of new music, what can you share with fans without giving too much away?
Molly: We are working on releasing another collection of songs. (Laughter)
Jaelyn: And if you were to come to any of our next few shows you are likely to hear two to three songs you’ve never heard before on any streaming services.
How has your sound changed over time? How would you describe this new sound and how is it different from your previous work?
Jude: I think that it’s different being on the inside of the band dynamic stuff, because to me it’s not so much that our sound has changed. It’s that little pieces have grown more. Again, back in the early days, our sound was generally overall really different. But I remember even then writing some songs including some just weird noisy parts. Those little noises grew into a lot of bigger noises, and the bigger noises happen more in our sound now.
Jaelyn: I think we’ve been taking a lot of inspiration from 90s grunge. Rougher sounding grunge, but also the prettier, dreamier sounding grunge. And then we add our own twist to it by having those noise aspects. We’ve been using that to evolve our sound.
Jude: I think also that playing live in different settings has really helped because we sort of gauge the audience’s reaction to different elements and songs, what we should include in studio recordings, or how we should play songs live going forward. The audience interaction and the reception that we get shape a lot of what we keep in the set and what we keep in a song.
Molly: I also think that traveling and touring and meeting new people and engaging in different kinds of music is really informative. In Austin, it’s very grunge-forward, and it’s all loud and awesome. It’s amazing to be a part of it and to be able to engage with that. But then being exposed to different ways that people play music and different things that people are inspired by is good too. Everything is informed by everything else.
Jaelyn: I think we have to do a lot of research when we know we’re going into another city to play a show just so that we know what kind of bands are there, and so we get an idea of what sound is more popular in different regions of the country, and I think that’s also pretty informative and educational for us. Derek’s kind of like a glossary of local bands across the country. We could probably name a city and he would name three bands there that are really good.
Molly: I believe that Derek has the best music taste in the world.
Derek: Thanks. (Laughter)
How has your local scene in Austin affected your music and how does it still affect your music?
Jaelyn: We’re really lucky to get asked to play special shows. They have Psych Fest and Levitation here, and that definitely brings out people to Austin that favor a certain sound. Going into shows like that, we get excited about the opportunity to be to be more experimental with our sound, knowing that people are going to be a lot more accepting of it. If we play a bill with a band who’s maybe a more hardcore band, we know that we could be a little more hardcore ourselves.
Going off of musical influences, you guys have also been praised for your very intricate storytelling in your songwriting. Where do you draw that inspiration from?
Molly: It’s hard to say one specific place. I mean, we have songs about Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Our song “Swarm” is about when I went to film school at UT and I had a voice class. The assignment was to create a piece of anything that reflected your voice. At the time, we were just starting and I had this boyfriend who was the sweetest boy in the world and I just broke his heart. I was in this phase where I was obsessed with the idea of being an evil woman. So “Swarm” kind of came out of that, because I wanted to be so hard and dark and mean and angry. But I feel like now that I am soft and sweet and tender and sensitive. But that can inspire me. I’ll look at the name of one of our guitar pedals and be inspired for a song.
Jaelyn: Yeah, I think the whole fairy forest tea party lifestyle is kind of a reality for us. We’re not really talking about fairy tales. We’re talking about our day-to-day life.
Jude: I think that one of the things that inspires me — and this is going to sound weird — is “The Lion King.” Because it’s one of those movies or stories that is basically just ripping off another story. It’s “Hamlet,” but it’s told in such a specific way that “The Lion King” is bigger than what “Hamlet” ever was. But I just like the idea of taking a story and or an event or something simple and changing it enough that it’s different but keeping the sort of same soul of it. I really like doing that with songs and lyrics and compositions themselves. It’s really fun to do a new take on something familiar that people will resonate with, but still find new.
Jaelyn: I think with everything that we do, there are stories. When we’re crafting our set list, we’re crafting it like there’s a story at the beginning, middle and end in a climax, and every music video we’ve done has been made like it’s a movie with a storyline. That’s what we were thinking about when we were making the order of songs for our EP. Film and TV are really important to all of us and we all can nerd out about it with each other, and it comes out through our songwriting and just how we structure a lot of our things creatively.
From your music as well, there are a lot of Southern Gothic themes. Why do you think people are drawn to that subject or aesthetic?
Jaelyn: There’s a lot of escapism associated with the South and big open spaces (laughs).
Molly: I think the West is also just very popular right now. Cowboys are huge, and I think that Southern Gothic definitely lives in that world. But it’s more like a subsect of it.
Jude: What Jaelyn said with escapism, I think of Southern Gothic stuff as being very lonely. Texas is some big cities like Dallas, Austin, and Houston, but a lot of it is just big open spaces with one house and then miles of nothing. I think it’s kind of creepy when you think about it, but it’s also kind of freeing in a way. It’s both, and I think that kind of resonates with people sometimes. Just stuff being scary, but also with things that are scary being kind of liberating.
Jaelyn: And just reclaiming something that’s rooted in a lot of tradition. Southern hospitality is a huge thing. You have to be kind to everyone and respect your elders. And I think Farmer’s Wife was a big deal as far as naming the band because it’s taking something that sounds traditional and domesticated, but we’re totally spinning it and making it our own. I think our version of Southern Gothic is just twisting the tradition, but still having those comforting aspects aesthetically, as far as Western culture goes.
As a band, with your music, your visuals, or your art, what themes or messages do you want to convey the most to people?
Molly: I feel like if people are able to see themselves in the music and relate to it, and then in turn feel accepted and comforted and home within some darker themes…
Jaelyn: That’s a job well done. If people can see representation when they see us and hear us, I think that’s huge. It’s the most important thing.
Jude: I think representation is a big part of it because I know when we write songs and when I write songs, whether it’s individually or as a group, we write towards not necessarily completely happy subjects all the time. But we do it in a way that, not normalizes it, but reassures. It sounds kind of cliche, but I think that making art about something that you might not be okay with admitting to yourself or to others is the first step in being okay with having flaws and issues.
Stream “Season of the Witch” by Farmer’s Wife on Spotify and Apple Music.
Buy tickets to see Farmer’s Wife on tour here.
Keep up with Farmer’s Wife: Instagram // Spotify // YouTube // Website
