ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Bodywash

Photo by Kristina Pedersen

This week’s artist of the week goes to Bodywash, the pairing of Montreal musicians Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter.

Although Steward grew up in London and Long Decter grew up in Toronto, the two met in college back in 2014, and they used their contrasting musical backgrounds to form their own unique creative style. If you’re a fan of Wild Nothing, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, or Slow Pulp, you should make sure to add Bodywash to your rotation.

Bodywash’s sophomore album entitled I Held the Shape While I Could is slated to be released April 14th, as a follow up to the duo’s debut album Comforter and handful of earlier singles. The band has teased the new album so far with the songs “No Repair” and “Massif Central,” which was the lead single. The latter of these two tracks starts off with a quick-paced and hypnotic guitar riff that melds with Steward’s feather-light vocals to create a dreamy oasis. Steward describes the track as “the sound of wailing into a cliff and not knowing if you’ll hear an echo.” The track was written after Steward lost his legal status to work in Canada due to a typo in a government letter. “With the help of friends, family, music, and a few immigration lawyers (and the rest of my savings), I’m now a permanent resident here. But this song remains as testament to my experience with an exploitative institution,” he adds.

The sense of upheaval that Steward felt as a result of his situation, as well as similar alienating experiences in Long Decter’s life, continued to be a common theme for the new record. This theme gave the duo something edgier to explore in the new material when they recorded with drummer Ryan White and recording/mixing engineer Jace Lasek.

You can pre-order I Held the Shape While I Could here, and catch Bodywash on tour this spring. They’ll be playing a Free Monday show at the Empty Bottle this Monday, April 10th if you’re in Chicago.