Cranking Up the Volume: A Deep Dive With Farmer’s Wife

Austin, Texas has been a city known for unique and boundary pushing music, and Farmer’s Wife is no exception. Led by Molly Masson, Jude Hill and Derek Ivy on guitar, bass player Jacob Masson, and Jaelyn Valero on drums, the band weaves together haunting southern gothic elements, dreamy haze of bubble rock, and the brooding weight of 90’s dirge rock. Blending their southern gothic sound with bubble rock, they’re proving that their sound is here to stay. 

Welcome. Congrats on your latest single, by the way. I have some burning questions. How would you describe your music to people who have never heard you before? 

Molly: We've been using the term bubble grunge quite a bit. But I'd say it's like rock and roll and shoegaze, hip hop. Alternative storytelling. Rock and roll. Wednesday night.

Jacob: Sorrowful. 

Derek: Gloom core, light fuzzy. Thursday morning. 

Jaelyn: If Farmer's Wife ever ends up on your Spotify day list, please send us a screenshot of what the title of your day list is, we would love to see some context.

When did you realize that music was going to be your path? 

Jacob: When I saw the School of Rock, when I was like five years old, I was like, yeah, I need to learn how to play guitar. And then I did. 

Jaelyn: When I was pretty little, I forgot who gave it to me, but we had a shakira live concert DVD that I would just watch every day. And then for Christmas I got a microphone stand and I would invite my brother into my room and then just perform.

Jude: It's kind of weird. I grew up playing piano because I come from a long line of piano teachers, but I never really considered music as a path until I went to a random kin show in high school and it was this older group playing music. I was like, there's not a huge turnout. They're not making a ton of money, but they're just playing the music they love whenever they want as they need to. And I find that really awesome. 

Derek: When I was a kid, my poptropica avatar. I dressed them up like a rock star and then I just played the game and decided that's what I want to do. 

Molly: I remember being really little and watching American Idol and the Selena movie with J-Lo and Lady Gaga on TV and that was always really fun and exciting to watch. I liked to put on little outfits and dance around in my room. I got a karaoke machine and then at Christmas, I remember vividly one year I had my cousin be my manager. My cousin Josh was my manager. And then I went out on this little platform and I sang white Christmas for my family and I was like, “oh my god, this is the moment.” 

Derek: In the summertime too.

Molly: Yeah. All the parents would make the kids do talent shows and we'd all sing songs. I sang “Santeria” by Sublime and I said, "I wanna dedicate this song to my dad.” And then I sang it and all the parents were like, “what the f***.” 

What makes you feel the most inspired to continue making more music? 

Derek: I'm continuously inspired by new bands I get to see and listen to on YouTube, Spotify, or in person. I'm just always influenced by the way music's changing around me. 

Jude: For me it's a really inconvenient way to be inspired, but music gear really pushes me to experiment with different pedals, amps, or guitars and just making different sounds. Watching bands that I love use equipment in weird ways makes me think about how I could be inspired by that. Not replicate it but do my own thing inspired by it. Anyone who asks me about my gear at shows always knows that I'm switching everything out on a weekly basis. I go through so many pedals that it's causing me to go into debt. But it's really fun to experiment with them. 

Jaelyn: Just experiencing people respond to the music that we've written is really inspiring and just makes it so much easier to keep on going in a way that's not doubtful or insecure. It also influences the way we write because we just feed off the energy. When we see people respond to the way a certain song sounds, we totally lean into that. 

Jacob: I think being in Austin's really cool because you get to go to so many nice local shows and maybe see an act you've never heard of and then it just completely changes what preconceived idea you had about a specific sound. It makes you want to explore it more and just have fun with it. Kind of put your own twist on it. 

How has being based in Austin influenced your music? 

Molly: I think that being in a place where there's just so many opportunities at so many different levels to play and also experience live music makes it very exciting to really lean into it. There was a certain point where we played a couple shows and then it was like, oh we have a show every weekend. And then to have opportunities like that makes it feel more encouraging to continue and to grow. It's like you're not doing it for nothing because people keep asking you back, you know? And also to be surrounded by so many different kinds of music all the time. It's just so cool to be able to go out to like three clubs on the same street, see completely different things.

Jaelyn: It's such a high energy environment for live music in Austin. There's almost like a pressure to keep getting out there and keep creating more and that makes me very excited 

Jude: I think the way the scene thrives too is really good. There's a lot of different scenes in Austin, but I think we're really lucky to live in a city that has such a thriving alternative community that's able to experiment, and audiences respond to experimentation and they encourage it. I think that's really special because it allows us to approach in different ways, branch out. For me that's where a lot of the fun and music comes from, just branching out and doing things that you wouldn't really expect to do on a daily basis. 

Derek: I think being a band in a city that's so rich in music and has so many bands kind of pushes you to be more unique and individual, because it's harder to stand out with so many bands around you. So I know trying to be more unique in a city like that. Something we try. 

What lyrics or songs hold the most personal meaning to you as individuals? 

Molly: I feel like “Swarm” and “Sugar” are very personal to me because they kind of represent where I was at in very different parts of my life. But I feel like those were songs that I really let myself go crazy in lyrically and I didn't hold back.

Molly: “Discount Roses.” It's like falling in love equated to being abducted by aliens. 

Jude: For me, I think it's “keep Hate in Your Heart” off our EP there's a monster. That was kind of the first song I wrote with the band in a group context. It was one of our earlier songs. I remember debuting it at Spider House Ballroom years ago and it was kind of the first time I branched out in lyrics to be a little less literal and just be a little bit more in my own world about it. And just kind of let the lyrics affect people. People can interpret it however they want it and I have my story behind it. I like the subjectivity of music and that people can just kind of know the meaning of it or not know the meaning of it, but it means something different to them. 

Jacob: I like the opening lyrics to “Bones,” “Everyone in this bar is a spy, operation Barbie, tell me pretty lies.” I can get very paranoid sometimes, so I just, I love those lyrics. I feel so validated. 

Jaelyn: Any song we've written at the ranch has a very special place in my heart, because it just takes me right back. 

Molly: We have the farmer's wife farm. It's in Columbus, Texas where our parents live and we will go there and rehearse or write music sometimes. 

Jaelyn: It's in a literal barn. 

Molly: It's been like a year and a half since we've released a project. We've had a couple singles since then, but this EP that's coming out this year, I think we're all really excited to just share what we've been working on and what we've been playing live, because we've been playing these songs since. 

When you're making music, do you approach it collaboratively or individually? 

Jaelyn: Very collaborative, It just happens in a shared space. Every part of the song is discussed, and almost every aspect of the song is everyone's mind power working together. 

What is your dream venue to play and have you played it yet? 

Jude: The Paramount Theater in Seattle is a historic, beautiful theater I've always wanted to play. Hopefully we'll get to play it. Fingers crossed. Knock on wood. 

Molly: There's definitely been a lot of venues at earlier times in our process of being a band that plays music. Like in Austin, when we got our first show at Hole in the Wall, we were like, oh my God. And then when we got our first hotel Vegas show, we were like, holy shit, it's happening. And then whenever we got our first Mohawk show we were like, oh my God. And then Mohawk Outdoors, we were like, no. I think big venues like Red Rocks would be insane in Colorado. But even this year when I was in LA for school, I would go to Zebulon all the time. I'd be like, oh my gosh, I wish I could play here one day. And then we played there. 

Farmers Wife isn’t just carving out a space in the Austin music scene, they’re building something lasting. With their upcoming EP in April, this show felt like a glimpse into the future. They’re doing something special and I can’t wait to hear what’s next.