How do you describe a sound too drenched in circuitry for shoegaze, yet too gloriously unruly for dream-pop? Total Wife’s unofficial South by Southwest showcase two months ago set me astray, as I squeezed my way towards the front of my local convenience store turned DIY music venue, eager for a glimpse of one of my most anticipated acts from Nashville. While the festival crowds had mostly vanished after the weekend, Austinites packed Friendly Rio Market shoulder to shoulder, drawn by an incredibly stacked Julia’s War showcase that also boasted scene favorites like Cashier, MX LONELY, Marni and Stab.
After Luna Kupper (whose pink hair matched her equally pink pedalboard) and Ash Richter, together with the rest of Total Wife’s now full-band, closed their set with a ten-minute, sweat-soaked, senses-shattering wall of sound, I stood there in awe and ringing ears. As the band loaded their gear into the van, I found Richter outside, where I snagged their very last black t-shirt and confessed, “I don’t wear any other color.” Applause and hurried goodbyes followed, as an electric promise of an interview to come lingered in the air.
Fast-forward two months and I’m sitting on Zoom with Kupper and Richter, the inseparable friends and creative engine behind Total Wife, ready to dive into their latest September-born album, come back down, as well as what comes next from a band whose third studio album just skyrocketed into a new universe of pioneered fame.
Let’s start with Rio Mart. How was your overall SXSW experience?
Luna Kupper (composer/producer): It was interesting. That was definitely the most fun show. Rio Mart was really cool.
Ash Richter (lyricist/vocalist): The venues in Austin are super cool. We had never been there, so playing Mohawk and Chess Club was a whirlwind. The venues themselves, and the people working sound, bar and door were so chill, and that part was really fun. We didn’t meet that many people.
Kupper: It was exhausting because you’re just hopping around from show to show. But it was fun.
Richter: We’re shy [laughing].
That was your first time in Austin, correct?
Kupper: Yeah, that was our first time.
Richter: You played there with another band, right?
Kupper: Yeah, but that was our first time playing SXSW.
How did you feel going into it? I’ve talked to a lot of bands that played the festival, and most of the time they don’t have the most positive opinions of it.
Kupper: It’s a very mixed opinion for me.
Richter: It was really fun, just super expensive.
Kupper: It’s very expensive. There’s a lot of traffic. The whole industry side is pretty overwhelming, and it’s crazy. But the actual shows and seeing all your friends from different cities there is really cool.
It’s weird being here during the festival because of how many people are here from all over, and you never know who you’ll run into or be talking to. It’s a crazy experience as a fan, though.
Kupper: Yeah, I bet it’s cool to live there. That sounds super fun.
Absolutely. One day you should come experience it as fans.
Were you guys an official SXSW band?
Kupper: Yeah, Rio Mart was the only unofficial show we did, which is probably why it was the most fun. It was totally packed. I remember the guy at the front was like, ‘We are at capacity!’
That’s awesome.
Are there many DIY venues in Nashville?
Kupper: Yeah, there’s a really good local DIY scene here. There are a few house venues. There’s this place, Drkmttr, that’s the main DIY venue. It was a house venue that became mainstream, and it’s been around for about 10 years.
Do you play a lot of those local DIY shows?
Richter: We have been for sure. It’s been a little less these days.
Kupper: Mostly when we’re playing in town, it’s at Drkmttr. They created that crossover where it’s a lot of touring bands that we want to play with. Pretty much anybody plays there. Usually, bands in our world will play there, so the whole year is Drkmttr shows.
What is the scene like over there? Because I have a very stereotypical view of it all being country music.
Kupper: That’s a good jumping-off point, then. The easiest way to explain it is not in opposition to it, but just because there’s so much music here, it ends up creating a subgenre of indie music and DIY stuff.
I’ll have to come down there one day.
Kupper: Definitely. It reminds me of Austin in a lot of ways. It’s a cool southern city with a bunch of cool music.
Are the people cool as well?
Kupper: We are staying here because of that. The scene, and all our friends and the younger bands, they’re all so cool and sweet. It’s hard to leave because of that. It’s just hard to live in the South because it’s so hot for me [laughing].
Because you guys are from up north?
Richter: Yeah, from Connecticut. Also, the guitar player for our band, Ryan. We’re all longtime friends from high school.
Did you all move to Nashville together?
Richter: At different times, yeah. We moved here because of him.
Kupper: He moved for school, and we visited him two times and saw how connected the community was here, and that’s why we’re here and why we stayed so long.
Richter: Also being able to play with people that you’re close with, and I used to play in bands with Ryan in high school, too.
The power of friendship.
Going off that, how would you describe your relationship dynamic outside of being bandmates?
Kupper: We’re all best friends.
Richter: We’re super busy, so a lot of the real hanging out time is on the road. When we’re home, we’re working a lot and trying to get music stuff done. It’s sometimes hard to see anyone else but them.
Kupper: We’re just all best friends. It wouldn’t really work any other way. Sean (Booz; drummer) is our roommate.
You mentioned touring, and I’d love to talk about that. How has the rollout process been since releasing come back down?
Richter: It feels like we’ve been it touring quite a bit. Everyone’s been responding really well to the album, and the shows have been increasingly cool.
Kupper: It’s definitely all new for us. We’ve been making music for a long time, and no one really cared.
What do you think made people care about it this time around?
Kupper: We put it out with Julia’s War, and that was super helpful. It sounds the most cohesive of an album we’ve done so far, so it just lined up right timing-wise.
Richter: I think because of how introverted we are, it caused us to be very shy about putting out music. At the same time, the music wasn’t as good. A lot of that stuff we took down from the internet.
Kupper: Some of it.
Richter: A lot of it!
When did y’all first start making music?
Kupper: The first album we put out was in 2015 or 2016.
And that’s one of the ones taken down?
Kupper: Yeah, that one’s been gone forever. That hasn’t been on streaming for years [laughing].
What kind of music was it?
Richter: We were trying to do a bedroom pop sort of thing.
Kupper: Like psychedelic dream pop.
Richter: We loved MGMT, and I still love MGMT, and Youth Lagoon.
Well, if you ever put that back up online, let me know [laughing]. You’re like, ‘Never.’
Kupper: One day I’ll feel okay with it. I know I will.
Has your relationship with the album changed at all since touring it and performing it so often?
Richter: Honestly, in the past couple of weeks, we’ve been learning new songs that are going to be on the next album as a band. I feel a little rosy-tinted, and come back down feels like the past.
Kupper: It does feel a little old.
Richter: In a way where I love it, though. I can subjectively be like, ‘Wow, I love that.’ But I’m mostly thinking about the new stuff.
Kupper: I have a tendency to just look towards the new stuff and reject past stuff. I’ve spent a lot of time with those songs live, so they make me happy. I still like them a lot. That’s probably what’s different for me about looking back at that album versus past ones. Usually, I look back and I’m like, I don’t like this.’ But not this time. I look back happily.
I read that you started working on your next album while you were still finishing come back down. What motivates you to get music out and move forward so quickly?
Richter: There’s this compulsion to make the song better, but for me, instead of dwelling on making that song better, I want to make the better of what that song means to me at a core level. Like a new song that’s the best version of this core idea.
Kupper: Versus getting stuck on one song or one album forever. Trying those ideas over and over, it feels like you get better at them.
Richter: I think about the lyrics psychologically. There’s always more room to delve deeper into yourself in any area you’re interested in.
What kind of lyrical themes are you leaning into on this next album?
Richter: I’m really reflecting on being an active touring musician. I’ll go into different themes and ideas within that, but it’s what we’ve been doing for so long, so it feels super obvious.
Kupper: It feels inevitable because I think about bands that were touring a lot and then they write an album called It’s Been a Long Drive or something, and it’s like, ‘Oh, that makes sense.’
Richter: [Laughing] The Road Less Traveled.
Aside from lyrically, how else has touring shaped your sound/the way you go about your music?
Kupper: Since the live band thing, it’s really affected the sound and what I like about how a live performance sounds; wanting to capture that in the recording, and then vice versa. At first, I was trying to get the recording to sound good live, but then there has to be some kind of, not sacrifice, but things are just different live, so allowing that to influence the recording. So for this album, it’s been cool to see how we can further blend the full band electronically. I realized that before we were a full band, it was just guitar and electronics. Then going full band, I’m like, ‘Oh, you can just rely on it being two guitars, and the bass and drums and that sounds good,’ but that’s not what I’m interested in. We are interested in more than that. So adding as much of what I can do in a recording setting to a live performance is what I want to do more with this album.
Is it going to feel like a shift away from the past album?
Kupper: I don’t think so. I’m interested in how my perspective is different from other people’s. From my perspective currently, some of these songs were written at the same time as come back down, so there’s a lot of overlap, and I don’t feel like what I’m trying to do or what we’re trying to do is any different. I don’t think it’s going to sound different.
How do you go about actively working on an album while also touring and performing so much?
Kupper: It’s hard.
Richter: We sacrifice things like socializing. When we’re home, all we do is go to work and then work on this stuff. At least we’re self-aware about it. There’s going to be a point where we’ll have to reacclimate to normal society.
Kupper: Yeah, I was thinking this summer we’ll acclimate to normal society for a couple of months.
[Dog meet and great intermission]
Kupper: This is another sad part of being on the road. I’ll miss my pets so much.
Richter: Maybe one day we’ll have an RV and then he can come.
Kupper: That’s exactly what I want. I’ve seen people do it.
Really?
Kupper: Yeah, Machine Girl would bring his dog around. It was a Boston Terrier.
How are you feeling going into the tour with Starling in May and then LSD and the Search for God in July?
Kupper: We’re super excited.
Richter: It’s a lot of new cities for both tours.
Kupper: Before this album’s second cycle, we’ve only done the East Coast. We started touring in 2023, and we’ve just been hitting the same cities over and over.
Richter: It’s been awesome because I love that area, and it’s where we’ve had the most connections.
Kupper: This time, we’re driving to the West Coast and we’ve never done that. Pretty much everything on that tour up to D.C. is new to us. Then in July, everything except Chicago is new for the LSD tour.
How do you think you fit in as a band with LSD and the Search for God?
Kupper: I think the audience overlap will make sense. We’re pretty different-sounding. Super different sounding.
Richter: I feel like we come from roots that are similar in a lot of ways.
Kupper: I think it fits, but in a varied way. I don’t necessarily think we fit perfectly on any bill, not that I want to.
Richter: I think the best bill for us is a really mixed bill. We can play with anyone in my mind. We can play with Charlie xcx [laughing], and that would be so sick. Charlie if you’re listening right now, I would love to go on tour and rock.
It’ll happen. Fingers are crossed.
As an introvert, do you find engaging with fans and being out challenging?
Richter: I feel like I have recently worked out a way to do it that feels good to me. I feel really open whenever somebody approaches me. I like to engage with the audience when I perform, that way [laughing] I’m signaling that I’m open to talking to them.
Kupper: I hope I don’t give off the vibe that I don’t want to talk to them. It’s just so overstipulating, like a show and that whole setting in general, and being in those all the time feels intense. But whenever I am just talking with somebody, that’s always really nice. That’s when I feel good. Those interactions end up meaning a lot because of how crazy everything is.
[To Kupper] Whenever I saw you play at Rio Mart, I was obsessed with your pedal board being all pink. Do you buy them like that or customize them? How does that work?
Kupper: Most of them are painted. There’s somebody who fixed some of my pedals, made a couple of custom ones, and was like, ‘Well, they have to be pink,’ because I was already painting them all pink and drawing on them. So they’re either things I bought and painted, or from this guy who built a couple for me.
I meant to ask this earlier, when we were talking about the new album, but do you already have a set release plan?
Richter: We’re going to start rolling out some stuff very soon.
Kupper: I want to put it out before the end of the year because they’re almost all done and I’m really excited to write new songs. I’m ready for the next thing.
This last question is more for me than anything, since I saw you like Twin Peaks and I want to know who your favorite character is.
Kupper: I’m so bad at these questions. I need a list of everybody, because part of me wants to include Andy for his redemption in the end and what he symbolized. Maybe it’s Norma, actually. I feel like Norma’s underrated and the best person in that whole world. She’s the sole mother figure. I think she might be my favorite. I watched it like seven times.
Richter: I haven’t finished it, and she’s watched it many times which makes it hard for me to watch. But I’m toward the end of season two. I think my favorite character is Dale Cooper.
He’s a stunner. He and Harry are my favorites.
Kupper: Yeah, I really like him. He’s a sturdy character.
Did you watch The Return?
Kupper: I did. Did you?
I’m halfway through that one. But I got a little bit scared, so I stopped watching it. One of the characters freaked me out. I was like, ‘I’m not used to this…’
Kupper: I know what you mean. It’s hard to sit through, but then at the end of it, I realized it was my favorite season, weirdly enough. At first, I really missed the old style, but then I was like, ‘Wait, this might be David Lynch’s best thing ever made,’ because it was all him getting to do it.
Diane, it is the end of the interview. Thank you for reading!