In Conversation With #289 - Housewife
2024 was a big year for Canadian artist Housewife with widely praised releases 'I Lied', 'Wasn't You' and 'Divorce'. So what a way to kick off 2025 with the release of new EP 'Girl Of The Hour' via Submarine Cat Records.
Still only 21, Housewife credits her liberal upbringing as helping to make this process of both artistic and self-discovery as seamless as possible. Having recently been diagnosed as autistic, she jokes that her neurodivergence was on display and understood from the first moments music entered her life as a child when, unlike most three-year-olds, she became obsessed with classical composers and begged her parents not just for a kid's violin, but also a collection of busts of Bach, Beethoven and co. When the classical music fixation gave way to more contemporary tastes, she would join her family at the folk festivals they regularly attended, playing her first non-classical performance at a Greenpeace fundraiser.
She took a moment to talk to us about how the EP came together.
Hey there, how are you? So your EP is out now – how does it feel to have it out there?.
I’m good! It feels great! I started sharing these songs a year ago so it’s great to have them out as a whole, complete thing.
It is called ‘Girl Of The Hour’ – what is the meaning behind that?
Is it bad to say that mostly I chose it because it sounded cool? I’m oversimplifying a bit, but that is a big part of it. I like to name my projects by choosing a lyric from one of my songs on the record- one that I find interesting and catchy but that isn’t a title of one of my songs. It’s a fun way to tie things together. I did this on my past two EPs, You’ll Be Forgiven and Better Daughter, which are lyrics from my songs Patrick Batemen and Meredith Palmer, respectively. Girl of the Hour is a lyric from my song Life of the Party and I thought it would be an interesting title!
Where was it recorded? Any behind the scenes stories you are willing to share with us?
I recorded Girl of the Hour in four different studios, over a very long period of time! Wasn’t You, one of the songs on the EP, was recorded in January of 2023. Work Song, on the other hand, was only finished in November of 2024. Three songs on the EP were recorded when I was still signed to a US label and were never even intended to be anything more than singles- but when my label closed down and I started releasing them independently and started recording the other three songs on the EP I realized I wanted to make it a more fleshed out project. So there’s been lots of different people who have had a hand in the EP. I think the difference in process for some of these songs is really interesting. Wasn’t You and Life of the Party were both recorded in Nashville, on very quick recording trips and in top notch studios with incredibly experienced producers. Divorce, on the other hand, was recorded over the course of over a month in the bedroom of my co producer for that song. So yeah it’s interesting that all these songs get to sit together in one project.
What are the key influences behind the EP?
I think it really differs from song to song- I can get kind of weird and specific with my influences. And a lot of the influences I hear in my music, other people won’t and vice versa. My dad, for example, calls Work Song my “Metric song” which is cool, because I love Metric and grew up listening to them, but I personally wasn’t thinking of Metric when I made it. One of their songs was an influence for I Lied though. I am greatly influenced by a lot of Canadian alternative and indie music.
If the EP could be a soundtrack to any film – which one and why?
This is a tough one to answer! I don’t watch a lot of movies that my music would suit, to be honest. I really like creepy horror movies and a lot of weird high brow sci fi. Her books have only been adapted into tv so far, but I could really see my music being used in a sally rooney adaptation. I love her books. I am also a big Buffy fan and I know they're making a reboot of it. I think my music could really suit that as well. So maybe the answer is that the film my music would be a soundtrack to doesn’t exist yet.
Do you have a favourite lyric on the EP? If so, which one and why?
Ooh I have a couple. I really like “I got all my cards on the table/ my sleeves are unraveling now” from Work Song. “You built a wall up in my house/ got your name on my deeds” is another good one. They’re both ones that have some double entendre/ multiple levels going on. I also think “in the lowlight holding everybody’s attention for ransom/ doesn't matter cause all the girls think you’re handsome” is a fun cheeky one.
Now the EP is out there – what next for you?
Now that the EP is out, I’m going straight to working on my first full length! I’ve been writing songs nonstop for it. I think I have something like 18 possible songs right now as well as a bunch of others on their way.
