Brix Smith to release solo album 'Valley Of The Dolls', forms all-female live supergroup
The Fall veteran Brix Smith has revealed plans to release a solo album called ‘Valley Of The Dolls’, as well as sharing details of an all-female live supergroup featuring members of My Bloody Valentine.
The punk legend, known for her work with The Fall as well as her own band The Extricated among others, was speaking at the AIF Festival Congress 2022 in Bristol earlier this week to discuss her work as as President of The F-List For Music – a not-for-profit organisation set up to help female musicians gain greater representation and professional opportunities in the UK music industry.
Towards the end of her talk, Smith shared information about an upcoming record made with Killing Joke bassist and esteemed producer Youth.
“Nobody knows about this in public, so hello – get ready,” she began. “During lockdown I was put together by a manager to write. I wanted to stop doing The Extricated, I wanted to do something else, I didn’t know what.
“I was put together as a songwriter with Youth. His manager said, ‘Youth is a Shaman and you’re a witch so you two are perfect together’. We’d never met before but we met on Facetime and we started to send files backwards and forwards.”
With Youth working from Spain and Smith in London, he would send her backing tracks while she would return lyrics and vocals before it “quickly developed into something special”.
“He said, ‘Brix – this is your solo album. This is not going to be for anyone else’,” said Smith. “Now I’ve finished the album with Youth, it’s just about to be mastered, we’ve got two amazing guest female vocalists on it.”
Smith also went on to tell the Bristol crowd that the album would be called ‘Valley Of The Dolls’ and “will hopefully be out by the end of the year and hopefully singles will be dropping quite soon.”
Discussing plans to tour the project, Smith explained how she “decided to put together an all-female band”.
“This is the announcement: I’m going out on the road with an all-female band,” she revealed. “Two of them are from My Bloody Valentine. I’ve got Deb Googe on bass and Jen Marco on keys and guitar. Then I have two other women from a duo that you may have heard of called from Deux Furieuses. They’re a mixture of Savages and Royal Blood and they’re called Vas and Ros.”
She added: “I’m going under the name Brix Smith or possibly Brix Smith Group, I haven’t decided yet. It’s time for me to put my money where my mouth is and take it out there! All of us are between 40 and 60 and they’re all top post-punk feminists.”
Smith went on to explain how “the dynamic of playing with all women” was “something I’ve never done”.
“I’ve always been a woman in a man’s world,” she added. “The Fall were dirty, ugly blokes, you know? The dynamic of playing with these women is just phenomenal. It’s just nice to be hanging out with great like-minded people.
“Deb Googe is just my wing-woman and an incredible bassist. I’m super lucky.”
Check back at NME for more from the AIF Festival Congress, where it was also revealed that the UK music festival industry has warned that a “perfect storm” – created by a live entertainment supply chain crisis, workforce shortages and the effects of Brexit, is likely to impact this summer’s events season.
Brix & The Extricated released third album ‘Super Blood Wolf Moon’ back in 2019. ‘Valley Of The Dolls’ follows her 2021 collaborative album ‘Lost Angeles’ made with Marty-Willson Piper, and 2007 solo album ‘Neurotica’.
Last year also saw Smith talk to NME about the brief 24 hour stint she spent as a member of Hole.
My Bloody Valentine meanwhile, are currently at work on two new albums. After signing to Domino Records and releasing their back catalogue on streaming, the band recently made headlines when they blasted Spotify for showing “completely incorrect and insulting” lyrics on the service.
