Modern Woman have announced details of their track ‘Juniper’ along with details of their debut EP ‘Dogs Fighting In My Dream’ out via End of the Road Records, the recently launched label arm of the British festival. The EP wasrecorded and mixed by Shuta Shinoda (Anna Meredith, Jehnny Beth, Hot Chip) and mastered by Jason Mitchell (PJ Harvey,Aldous Harding, Dry Cleaning).

London based Modern Woman began life as the songwriting project of Sophie Harris, a literature graduate who started playing the songs solo at spoken word nights she ran. “I had a firm idea of the direction I wanted the project to go in, and I knew that couldn’t be achieved without a full band.” Harris says speaking ofthe band’s beginnings. “It was important to me to keep the tenderness and lyricism of folk music but blend this with heavier and weirder experimental elements.”

An introduction through a mutual friend led her to meeting David Denyer, an Anglo-German-Armenian composer by trade whose interests include Merzbow records and building his own instruments and pedals. The two started playing together with Denyer playing an array of homemade violins, synths, effects and percussion – including a battered wooden table with a metal colander nailed into it and jagged remnants of cymbals that take a pummeling throughout the band’s live show. Explaining the set up Denyer says; “We always talked about being influenced a lot by Tom Waits and there are lots of stories of him smashing up doors and using it as percussion so we gave it a shot. Thecolander was Sophie’s idea. I love pasta though so it sits really well with me.”

After a period of comings and goings of different line ups theband was completed after meeting Madrid-born bassist plus occasional saxophonist Juan Brint Gutiérrez through an ex-bandmate of his, who in turn introduced drummer Adam Blackhurst.

Playing their first show in the later half of 2019 the band quickly built a word of mouth following around their incendiary live performances playing alongside the likes of Dan Carey’s Scotti Brains, Tiña and Automatic, before lockdown cruelly stopped them in their tracks. After being invited to play End of the Road’s streamed digital edition in 2020 it helped introduce the band to a wider audience outside of the smattering of shows they’d played in pre-pandemic times and earned them fans in peers like Squid and Black Midi.

The band’s music, still based around Harris’ songwriting, explores a diverse range of sounds drawing from their melting pot of influences from post-punk and 60s folk music to free-jazz and noise. Lyrical nods to myth and folklore sit amongst songs that range from poetic monologues, stripped back folk songs to theferociously experimental. End of the Road founder Simon Taffe says of the release “As soon as we accidentally stumbled upon a Modern Woman live show, we were obsessed. They were so fully formed. We were stunned to discover they hadn’t even recorded a song.”

“Whilst the pandemic has been devastating for the live music industry as a whole, we also really felt for new bands and artists just starting out in their career. Artists who might get a bump from playing festivals like ours and the many other great events around the world, exposing them to a whole new audience and helping them build long lasting fan bases. Starting the label as a way to showcase the new bands we love to our loyal following ofmusic fans, and we’re ecstatic to be working with Modern Woman on their first release.”

Sophie Harris – Vocals, Guitar, Percussion David Denyer – Percussions, Violin, Tape Samples Juan Brint – Bass, Backing Vocals, Saxophone Adam Blackhurst – Drums