Modern Woman sign to One Little Independent and announce debut album, Johnny's Dreamworld

Modern Woman was started in London as the songwriting project of Sophie Harris, but grew to include violinist and composer David Denyer, bassist and saxophonist Juan Brint-Gutiérrez, and drummer Adam Blackhurst. The band went on to release their debut EP Dogs Fighting In My Dream in 2021, and make festival appearances at End of the Road, Latitude, The Great Escape, and Green Man. Today, alongside the news of their very first full-length album on One Little Independent, "Dashboard Mary" arrives as the band's first new music since their 2023 single "Achtung".

Speaking about the new track, Harris explains: “This is a song that I wanted to write like a film. I wanted to confront the feeling of the ‘morning after’ and the decisions made during that time of exhilaration the night before.” Of the accompanying music video, which she directed, she adds: “This was the first time I had directed a video, we shot it on 16mm film, which was an experience. We went to Iceland to shoot the snow scenes, to the south coast of the UK for the beach, some scenes in London, and finally a scene in an apartment in the Barbican. It is essentially a dream sequence, waking up in different locations and falling back asleep to wake up elsewhere. I liked the idea of something following the main character around in her subconscious.”

Johnny's Dreamworld, produced by Joel Burton, is said to merge post-punk, avant-garde, and folk, drawing vocal inspiration from the likes of Björk, Sinéad O’Connor and Cat Power. Discussing the inspirations behind the album, Harris comments: “A vital theme I’ve always wanted in Modern Woman is the idea of conflicting things, of the tender/harsh, loud/quiet and scrappy/polished. The style of everybody’s playing, drawing from a melting pot of influences, coming together to form something new.”

On Monday (19 January), Modern Woman are set to hit the road supporting Ezra Furman on her UK and Europe tour, starting in Vienna with dates in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Belgium before they arrive in the UK for shows in Glasgow, Manchester, and Bristol, concluding at London's O2 Forum Kentish Town.

Johnny's Dreamworld tracklist

"Johnny’s Dreamworld"
"Neptune Girl"
"Offerings"
"Killing A Dog"
"Daniel"
"Fork/Heart"
"Blessed Day"
"Dashboard Mary"
"The Garden"