Bodywash Signs To Luminelle Recordings

Montréal's Bodywash are the latest band to sign to Luminelle Recordings and we're delighted to welcome them into the world. Their debut album is heading our way later this summer, it's a heady, gorgeous mix of shoegaze, trip hop and IDM and for fans of Beach House, Deerhunter, MBV and Slowdive.

For starters you can enjoy the nocturnal bliss of Bodywash's first single 'Eye to Eye', as launched on The Line of Best Fit earlier today. As with the whole forthcoming debut, Nigel Ward from Seoul recorded 'Eye to Eye' and Braids' Taylor Smith and Austin Tufts are on mixing duties. Fronted by the band's Rosie Long Decter and Chris Steward, their otherworldly harmonies rise over a fog of synth and guitars, deceptively peaceful on the surface, hiding the roiling chaos underneath.

Over to Bodywash's Chris Steward for his take on the track: "Eye to Eye was conceived on a rainy September night back in 2017. When there's a particular emotion I need to convey in song form, I'll often stay in the same place, both mentally and physically, until that emotion hits a kind of saturation point. In the case of "Eye to Eye", I think nearly the entire song was recorded in demo form that night. The song draws upon the idea that reciprocity governs all our interactions with the external world. Reciprocity is the lifeblood of all human relationships, whether romantic, platonic or somewhere in-between; "Eye to Eye" expresses what happens when that understanding is thrown off balance. I wanted it to feel like layers of synths and guitars woven in concentric circles, like a centre that can't hold itself."

Bodywash was formed in 2014 when Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter began jamming in a basement rehearsal room at McGill University. Bonding over a shared affection for shoegaze and dream pop, the two found an immediate chemistry. "There is an excitement that comes from having people of diverse backgrounds and personalities in one room," says Steward, "trying to make something beautiful together." Tom Gould joined soon after on bass, and they recorded an EP in 2016.

Photo Credit: Cassidy Johnson