WATCH: Wyldest - 'Tin Foil Girl'

Wyldest is back with Tin Foil Girl, the latest single from her upcoming album Feed The Flowers Nightmares, arriving via Hand in Hive on 9th September. One of my favourites from her so far, I reckon... catchy and empowering - the perfect combination. Not gonna lie, the video for this one has me kind of transfixed too, and makes me want to dig out all of my skateboarding games. Directed by Zak Watson, it showcases Wyldest (Zoë Mead) celebrating the joy of skateboarding alongside a community of skaters. 

On the track, Wyldest says that it is "about finding your own superpower to achieve a real state of flow and what I'm coining 'organic happiness.' The kind of happiness that can only be achieved by doing something active rather than passive, activities that truly encourage growth. 

Having dealt with more anxiety than ever in the past few years, I've really had to battle this temptation for 'quick fix' happiness, as it doesn't last and it can sometimes lead to worsened problems. I'm not particularly good at skateboarding, but it is therapy for me. I use it as a way of getting out of dark places and it works because I have no ego attached to it."

Wyldest will be performing for Rough Trade in London, Nottingham and Bristol in September to launch their exclusive silver edition vinyl, ahead of a UK headline tour through the rest of September. Dates and tickets here.

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ALBUM NEWS: Wyldest - 'Monthly Friend'

Another new artist for me today (if I do say so myself, really loving how much this is happening of late... discovering so much and loving sharing it here!) Wyldest has announced her second album Monthly Friend, releasing via Hand in Hive on 28th May. Wyldest, AKA Zoe Mead released a reimagined version of her 2019 debut record Dream Chaos, titled Redream Chaos, last year - a completely new version of the record featuring fragments of the original recordings blended with field recordings and demos. I'm yet to listen in full but I'm really keen to explore, and I'm loving brand new track Hollow, Zoe's self-defined 'empowerment song'. Recent single Wilting is ace too. 

Written, mixed and produced by Zoe herself, the forthcoming album documents her empowerment as a self-sufficient artist and a woman overcoming gender stereotypes and gender constraints. The title of the record itself refers to something which society harmfully teaches us from a young age to be ashamed of, to hide and to fear, but which she now sees as a blessing.

On the new track, Wyldest writes: "Society and corrupt governments are helpless to the strength of what we collectively will become. I like to think that we're all just sowing the seeds of what's to come and it's a pretty unstoppable thing. I wrote this song about change, something that I believe is the only way the human race can continue to exist, so I'm celebrating it, believing that it's happening." 

I'll try and post more on the record closer to the time but I am LOVING this quote from Wyldest and needed to share. 

"Throughout the album, I visit these feelings through metaphors, largely related to nature. I always found it really ironic that women commonly get compared to fruit. Peaches for example get over-ripe and people throw them away, discard them, when in fact they are probably at their most delicious and nutritious. A lot of the time, women are unfortunately subject to a similar fate. When they are young, they are sexualised and therefore their actual intellectual and creative worth can be overlooked. As they age, they get disregarded almost completely, and for what? Because they aren't as useful to men anymore? Perhaps. But why does our ability to reproduce have to dictate our worth? It doesn't and it shouldn't." 

Pre-order/pre-save Monthly Friend here.

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