Dry Cleaning talk ‘Secret Love,’ working with Cate Le Bon, burnt garlic & more (BV Interviews)

“I like to challenge myself,” Dry Cleaning vocalist Florence Shaw says of incorporating more actual singing into her talky, sprechgesang style. “Singing, I feel more vulnerable when I’m singing. For that reason, it lends the words a different edge. Maybe this is an unusual word to use for it, but I feel like my spoken word, vocals, they’re quite confident. They’re not faltering necessarily, or if they are, it’s very on purpose. The thing I like about singing is I just have way less control, and I feel much more at sea with it, but that’s an ingredient that it’s nice to use sometimes.”

There’s definitely more singing and melody on Dry Cleaning’s just-released third album, Secret Love, which was made with producer Cate Le Bon at Black Box Studios in France’s Loire Valley. “It was so nice, like a second home,” Florence says of the farmhouse studio. “The food was amazing. Highly recommend it.”

It was a circuitous path to France, though, with sessions at Wilco‘s Loft Studio in Chicago and sessions with Gilla Band, before hooking up with Cate who encouraged the band to start recordings from scratch. “We’d done demos. Fancy demos,” Shaw tells us. “They were done in studios, which is not normal for us. In the past, we would have recorded stuff just onto a phone or whatever. You’d never be able to really put it out. But these demos were releasable. They were nice. For a while, it was about deciding whether we put them out as they are. But understandably, Cate was like, ‘Nah, we should record the songs in one place, all together,’ which was definitely a better idea.”

I talked to all four members of Dry Cleaning — Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard, and drummer Nick Buxton — on the new episode of BV Interviews and other topics of conversation include Jeff Tweedy‘s contribution to Secret Love, burnt garlic pasta and other culinary talk, the different production styles of Le Bon and John Parish (who produced their first two albums), the album’s artwork by artist Erica Ayers (and the Grammy-winning design of 2023’s Stumpwork), their first US show which happened just days before covid lockdown in 2020, their upcoming rescheduled North American tour, albums they think everyone should own and more, and more.

You can listen to the whole conversation via Apple, Youtube and Spotify below or wherever you get your podcasts.

Dry Cleaning’s tour hits NYC on May 7 at Brooklyn Steel. All dates are listed below.

Dry Cleaning – 2026 Tour Dates
7 April 2026 – Berlin, Germany – Festsaal Kreuzberg
9 April 2026 – København, Denmark – VEGA
10 April 2026 – Hamburg, Germany – Mojo Club
11 April 2026 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg
13 April 2026 – Bruxelles, Belgium – Box Brussels
14 April 2026 – Paris, France – Le Trianon
17 April 2026 – Dublin, Ireland – Vicar Street
18 April 2026 – Limerick City, Ireland – Dolans Warehouse
20 April 2026 – Cardiff, United Kingdom – Tramshed
21 April 2026 – Birmingham, United Kingdom – XOYO Birmingham
22 April 2026 – London, United Kingdom – O2 Academy Brixton
24 April 2026 – Glasgow, United Kingdom – SWG3
25 April 2026 – Manchester, United Kingdom – New Century Hall
30 April 2026 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
1 May 2026 – Toronto, ON – The Concert Hall
2 May 2026 – Montreal, QC – Foufounes Électriques
3 May 2026 – Hudson, NY – Basilica Hudson
5 May 2026 – Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
6 May 2026 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer
7 May 2026 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
8 May 2026 – Washington, DC – Howard Theatre
10 May 2026 – Nashville, TN – The Basement East
11 May 2026 – St. Louis, MO – The Duck Room
12 May 2026 – Omaha, NE – Slowdown
13 May 2026 – Denver, CO – Meow Wolf Denver | Convergence Station
15 May 2026 – 17 May 2026 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party 2026 16 May 2026 – Boise, ID – Shrine Social Club
17 May 2026 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
18 May 2026 – Seattle, WA – The Showbox
20 May 2026 – San Francisco, CA – August Hall
21 May 2026 – Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco Theater
22 May 2026 – San Diego, CA – Casbah
23 July 2026 – 26 July 2026 – Southwold, United Kingdom – Latitude Festival 2026
24 July 2026 – Southwold, United Kingdom – Henham Park
26 August 2026 – 30 August 2026 – Saint-cloud, France – Rock en Seine 2026