Fräulein

London based new grungers Fräulein are back with their new single ‘By The Water’, joining previous single ‘Belly’ to complete their first double a-side offering. Built around a raw-yet-pensive guitar riff and a driving drum beat, singer Joni Samuels delivers a powerful vocal performance that shows why Fräulein are building a genuine buzz around their early music and are at the forefront of the next wave of guitar bands to break through.

Singles ‘Belly’ and ‘By The Water’ may be released as a double a-side record, but that’s where the similarity ends. ‘Belly’ teems with a brooding sense of frustration, according to Samuels “Belly is a song that is written around its lyrics. I’m talking about how creativity can be bloody and exhausting for some people but really organic and energising for some others”.

Fronted by Joni Samuels' snarling guitar and backed by Karsten van der Tol's thundering drums, Fräulein create an explosive sound which can be regularly found across alternative UK venues. Arguably the biggest weapon in their arsenal is Joni's intricate melodies, combining sharply observational lyrics with surrealist imagery. The duo are inspired by the wide range of genres they take in, ranging from trip-hop to grunge to latin.

With Karsten hailing from the Netherlands and Joni from Northern Ireland, they coincidentally met in Bristol at a mutual friend's jam night; where the pair instantly connected on a rhythmic level. In 2018, their early home demos circulated on the underground music scene, bringing the band early press attention. Since then Fräulein has made the move to London, performed at their first post-covid festival (Sound City, Ipswich), opened for Goat Girl at DIY Magazine's 'Big Bank Holiday Weekender’ and played sold-out shows across iconic venues like: The Windmill, Amersham Arms and The Old Blue Last. 

Their debut single ‘Pretty People’ won support from several influential publications (DIY Magazine, Louder Than War, Soundsphere), have featured on the Spotify ‘Fresh Finds’ playlist and have most recently gotten the seal of approval from BBC Radio 1’s Daniel P. Carter (The Rock Show). Latest single ‘Belly’ recently won plaudits from the likes of Clash Magazine, KEXP, Spotify ‘Hot New Bands’ playlist and Get In Her Ears, the latter of which called it their track of the day.

Production wise, the singles are a love letter to a bygone era, heavily utilising analogue recording techniques. According to van der Tol “We listen to a lot of material from the 70s and 90s which is all recorded to tape, but we also paid a lot of attention to Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek, both of whom released solo albums last year that were recorded using analogue methods. We love those albums and the warmth that tape provided to the sound, which is something we wanted to create our own version of”.

For this release the band chose to record again with ‘Pretty People’ producer Ben Auld at Canyon Sound studios in Bristol. Auld has a unique sound and his analogue wizardry can be tangibly felt on these singles. as van der Tol says “Tape seemed like the most natural way to get the raw, rough round the edges sound we were after, which is why we paired up with Ben and his TASCAM machine.”