Modern Woman – Neptune Girl
Modern Woman —the London art-rock band fronted by primary songwriter Sophie Harris—release “Neptune Girl,” the second single/video from their debut album, Johnny’s Dreamworld, out May 1st via One Little Independent Records.
Today’s single follows lead single “Dashboard Mary” which showcased a grander and more expansive side to the band, while “Neptune Girl” pushes toward something more immediate. Here, morality is examined through the lens of childhood: what it means to be good or bad before you understand those words.
“This was built off an image of growing up in England, playing in the roads and fields with a friend who later went up to heaven. Heaven is, I imagine, somewhere near Neptune,” Harris comments. Musically it’s nostalgic yet restless, echoing the coming-of-age unease of early 2000s films like Anita and Me or My Summer of Love, where the glow of adolescence hides an undertone of anxiety.
Johnny’s Dreamworld represents the culmination of Modern Woman’s journey from Harris’ early, intimate songwriting project into a full-bodied band capable of folding post-punk, avant-garde, and folk traditions into a live force of dynamic originality. At its heart, the record explores the strange poetry buried within the ordinary. Harris’ lyrics, steeped in literary detail and filmic atmosphere, draw from a fascination with the dark underbelly of the everyday and the contradictions of womanhood.
Modern Woman’s sound emerged from years of creative refinement. The band coalesced when Harris met violinist and composer David Denyer, who brought a background in experimental composition and textural sound work. Joined by Juan Brint-Gutiérrez on bass and saxophone and Adam Blackhurst on drums, the group forged a style that values the contrasting harsh edges of folk lyricism and noise that collides with melody. Working with producer Joel Burton (Naima Bock, Katy J Pearson, Vanishing Twin), they found a live immediacy that channels the raw intensity of their performances into a sound that is both rich and unpredictable.
Since their formation in London, Modern Woman have built a reputation for performances that blur the boundary between poetry and noise, commanding stages at End of the Road, Latitude, The Great Escape, and Green Man. Harris, a literature graduate, writes with a novelist’s precision and a performer’s urgency, while Denyer, Brint-Gutiérrez and Blackhurst bring the intensity of modern composition, jazz and punk backgrounds to the table. Johnny’s Dreamworld cements Modern Woman as one of the UK’s most distinctive new voices, a band intelligently and purposefully exploring the relationship between beauty and brutality.
Modern Woman Tour Dates:
Sat. March 28 – Reading, UK @ Beat Connection
Sat. April 11 – Bristol, UK @ Outer Town Festival
Wed. May 6 – London, UK @ The Lexington
Thu. May 7 – Wrexham, UK @ FOCUS Wales
Sat. May 23 – Southampton, UK @ Wanderlust Festival
Sat. July 4 – Catalonia, ES @ Vida Festival
Sat. Aug. 1 – Oxfordshire, UK @ Wilderness Festival
Fri. Aug. 21 – Brecon Beacons, UK @ Green Man Festival
Thu. Sept. 3 – Sun. Sept. 6 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
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