Modern Woman – Johnny’s Dreamworld
Modern Woman —the London art-rock band fronted by primary songwriter Sophie Harris—release “Johnny’s Dreamworld,” the new single from their debut album, Johnny’s Dreamworld, out May 1st via One Little Independent Records.
The title track and album opener is driven by band members Juan Brint-Gutiérrez’s serpentine bassline and Adam Blackhurst’s shifting grooves, providing a rhythmic backbone that anchors its surreal energy. Written collectively by the band, its layered strings and spoken-word passages conjure a world built from fragments of film, memory, and imagination. Harris reflects, “I spend a lot of time in my head, and I like thinking of my mind and other people’s minds like a location sometimes, a dreamworld – I like that reading and particularly music can take you into spaces in those places you haven’t explored before.”
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 Brint-Gutiérrez on bass and saxophone and 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. April 11 – Bristol, UK @ Outer Town Festival
Wed. May 6 – London, UK @ The Lexington
Thu. May 7 – Wrexham, UK @ FOCUS Wales
Sat. May 16 – Leeds, UK @ In Colour Festival
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
Fri. Sept. 4 – Dorset, UK @ End of the Road Festival
Fri. Oct. 23 – Brighton, UK @ Mutations Festival
Tue. Oct. 27 – Leeds, UK @ Hyde Park Books Club
Wed. Oct. 28 – Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete’s
Thu. Oct. 29 – Manchester, UK @ Now Wave Pub
Fri. Oct. 30 – Bristol, UK @ The Croft
Wed. Nov. 25 – London, UK @ The ICA
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