MisterWives

MisterWives is an American indie pop band based in New York City, consisting of lead singer Mandy Lee, percussionist Etienne Bowler, bass guitarist William Hehir, guitarist Marc Campbell, multi-instrumentalist Jesse Blum, and sit-in saxophonist Mike Murphy. Misterwives have opened for acts such as Twenty One Pilots, Half Moon Run, Børns, Bleachers, T-Pain, American Authors as well as Kesha and are currently signed to Photo Finish Records. The band's debut EP Reflections, was released in January 2014.

History

Formation

The band was formed in late 2012, when lead singer Mandy Lee wanted an 80s cover band for her birthday party. She partnered with fellow musicians Etienne Bowler and William Hehir. Lee met Hehir through a mutual friend, and was introduced to Bowler a short time later.^[4] At the time, the two had been working at restaurants just a block apart in Manhattan.^[5] Eventually the band would expand to its current set-up of five members by bringing Bowler's friends Blum and Campbell (not including the bands sit-in saxophonist Mike Murphy), and play its first show as 'MisterWives' (A gender-flipped play on the term for the 19th-century Mormon practice of polygamy, Sister Wives^[6]) on February 1, 2013 at the Canal Room in New York City.

Early Beginnings

The day after playing the Canal Room, the band was signed to Photo Finish Records. The band would spend the better part of that year touring and working on their first EP. The group began touring with Half Moon Run in October 2013 that ended with a performance at the 2013 CMJ Music Marathon. This would be shortly followed by a six week tour with American Authors and The Royal Concept.^[7] All the while, the group had been preparing songs for Reflections.

On December 24, 2013, MisterWives released a trap & bass version of "Coffins" with the Pegboard Nerds under Monstercat, gaining them a wider fan base.

Reflections EP and present

The band released its debut EP, Reflections, on January 7, 2014. The EP included 6 songs, including the title track, which was iTunes' free Single of the Week for the week of January 6. Music Engineer, Neal Avron was brought in to mix the EP while producer, Frequency, produced "Reflections"^[8]). The EP was met with mainly positive reviews and has sold over 20,000 copies. Alter the Press' Victoria Mier gave the album a 4.5/5 saying "Simply put, MisterWives is quite incredible and certainly has both the capacity and the talent to take over the pop world."^[9] Nick Krenn of EarBuddy.net wrote "All listeners hunting for more depth from current pop music will want to hear Reflections."^[10] The music blog, Pigeons and Planes said about one of the tracks from the EP: "MisterWives has only been in existence since 2012, but you would never know that by listening to the expertly written and masterfully produced “Coffins.”^[4] Reflections has sold over 6,000 copies since its initial release.^[11]

In July 2014, "Vagabond" was made the opening theme of the MTV Teen Drama, Finding Carter. Most recently, the band opened for Twenty One Pilots as part of the Quiet Is Violent world tour. The band has seen more notoriety in the media, being boasted by MTV Buzzworthy as the "next golden children of pop."^[2] The band has also performed on VH1's Big Morning Buzz and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live.^[12][13]

In January of 2015, the group announced a February 24th, 2015 release date for their debut album, Our Own House. The reveal coincided with the announcement of their 2015 tour of the same name.^[14] In February of that year, the band was featured in Kia Motors' web series Rediscovered, as they covered the Hall & Oates song "Out of Touch" before John Oates made a surprise visit in the studio.^[15]

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

References