Melbourne/Naarm-based Folk Bitch Trio deliver a point of view as undeniable as their songs and voices. Here is a fresh, young band pulling from traditional forms: in their vocals, in their themes, in their songs’ compositional structures. The so-called “trad” isn’t hidden; the harmonies are rich and timeless. But what makes Folk Bitch Trio exciting is they’re unafraid to get a little scuffed up, to be funny, to take risks, to subvert the genre’s expectations and pull it into the present. The result is lively, layered and beautiful; thoughtful and playful in the right places; serious, but never humorless.

Folk Bitch Trio formed five years ago, and its members – Gracie Sinclair (she/her), Jeanie Pilkington (she/her) and Heide Peverelle (they/them) – have been largely inseparable since. “We have three individual voices,” they say, “but the story we tell is unified because our hearts are very melded.” Their music comes from the  deep connection and collaboration that evolves between the three of them, encapsulating the growing pains they felt as people and a band in their early adult lives, touching on, as Heide says, “loss, fear, sex, rage, elation but most importantly love and laughs.”

The band showcase this during returning single “The Actor”, their first release for new label Jagjaguwar (Angel Olsen, Bon Iver, Sharon Van Etten). It’s a song about “falling hard and fast and breaking down quick too”, they explain, through lyrics that “flow down from affectionate details you notice about someone when falling in love, fighting and fucking, and ultimately the demise of a relationship at your partner’s solo theatre play”. There’s honest, confessional storytelling delivered via their signature resplendent three-part vocals, laced with barbs, humour and in-jokes of shared experiences.

After a 2024 which saw the release of breakthrough single “God’s a Different Sword” and worldwide shows from SXSW festival to support slots for the likes of Alex G, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Julia Jacklin and Courtney Barnett, the band are currently readying their debut album, due later this year via Jagjaguwar. 

Alex Amen is a twenty-five-year-old artist and songwriter from Texas. At eightee, Alex moved from Texas to California to study filmmaking. After one semester he dropped out and moved onto the “Dittman Family Commune”, a historic commune with ties to the anti war, civil rights, and psychedelic countercultural movements of the mid-60’s. It was here that he formed his first band, “American Slang” in 2017. The band broke up shortly after, resulting in Alex’s move from Southern California to an island in the Puget Sound of Washington State. Here he spent three years in relative isolation, taking up various interests in mycology, mountaineering, poetry, and wooden boat building. As years passed, Alex felt the increasing need to return to California to pursue music. In January of 2023 he self produced his first record (unreleased) in a self built studio at the historic Zorthian Ranch in Altadena, California. Alex now lives in Los Angeles and is performing and releasing music among the growing folk/Americana/country scene in the city.