ANCHR's Artist of the Week: Dry Cleaning

This week’s artist of the week goes to South London’s Dry Cleaning, in honor of their brand new sophomore album entitled Stumpwork.

Photo by Guy Bolongaro

Dry Cleaning is composed of vocalist Florence Shaw, guitarist Tom Dowse, bassist Lewis Maynard and drummer Nick Buxton, and the group has garnered popularity since their formation in 2018 thanks to their unique mix of experimental rock, post-punk and Shaw’s signature spoken-word vocal style. In the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to catch the band in a couple of different settings—from a packed and sweaty performance at Empty Bottle to the main stage at Pitchfork Festival, Dry Cleaning put on an unforgettable show in both environments.

The latest record Stumpwork was just released on Friday, October 21st, and the band actually started working on these songs even before their debut album New Long Leg was released. Dry Cleaning worked with producer John Parish on Stumpwork, and before they recorded, they rehearsed for two days at Bristol’s Factory Studios alongside Parish and engineer Joe Jones. Dowse says the group felt more confident during this project, saying, “We could see the bigger picture and knew where to focus our energy more efficiently.” Buxton also stated that their time performing in front of audiences allowed them to think differently. “The cracks show clearer, but the strong elements shine through,” he says. From that new lens, the band set out to make the songs much richer in parts and continue to explore space and a wider dynamic.

Part of that broadened scope included some additional spontaneity from Shaw on her vocals, as she actually improvised many of the lyrics straight to the recording. Shaw says she wrote a lot of lyrics on walks around London in Bristol, and she recalls writing most of the lyrics to “Hot Penny Day” at a flea market.

“I wrote about the things that preoccupied me over this period, like loss, masculinity, feminism, my mum, being separated from my partner for little stretches in the lockdown, lust,” Shaw says. “I think if you make something observational, which I think I do, it’s political. There were two murders of women in London that were extensively covered on the news, and the specific details of one of those murders were reported on whilst we were at Rockfield. That coverage influenced some of my writing and my state of mind,” she adds. The entirety of the band also agreed that some of the musicality may have pulled in some influence from the current political climate. “I do think these things seep into the music if you’re an observant person, even unconsciously,” says Dowse.

Stumpwork also includes the reflections of loss that the band experienced in the past year, including the devastating loss of Lewis Maynard’s mother, Susan. New Long Leg was released a week before she passed away, so she was able to see it reach number four in the charts. “The success of the band became a distraction for the whole family while grieving. And it gave even more importance to what we are doing,” Maynard says.

The end result of the album is a winding road paved in part by loss, darkness, and grief, but intertwined with spurts of optimism and shimmers of joy…Much like life has been throughout the past couple of years; the dark times have forced us to cultivate the brighter times. Shaw says it best on the track “Kwenchy Kups”— “Things are shit, but they’re gonna be OK.”

Listen to Stumpwork in full here, and see where you can catch Dry Cleaning on the road here.