Monday Mixtape: Florence Shaw of Dry Cleaning
"Music makes me incredibly emotional so I have to be careful what I put on."
Monday Mixtape is another path towards music discovery, featuring people whose taste I admire answering a series of questions and prompts with songs (which might change from time to time).
Florence Shaw is primarily known as the vocalist and lyricist for the band Dry Cleaning, a band I was admittedly late to but now am low key a little obsessed with. She is also a visual artist, a fellow master’s degree holder (hers, much cooler than my MBA, is in visual communication), a former arts lecturer (this is me…reading Wikipedia), and as is truly fitting for someone whose birth name is Florence Cleopatra Shaw (nominative determinism), is a creative and fascinating person with really beautiful hair and exquisite taste (this is me…admiring from afar). Here is a post she did on Substack last year about her (glorious) sticker collection.
Dry Cleaning released their third full length album Secret Love earlier this year and it’s very good. Here is Florence’s Monday Mixtape:
Florence Cleopatra Shaw
Aries
LondonHow do you find/discover music?
I mostly discover music through recommendations from friends. Clotilde Bayle who manages Clarissa Connelly and Curbside Lambsear always knows new interesting music. Also my band mates ofc.
What was the first song you put on when you woke up this morning?
“Slippery People” by Talking heads. I saw David Byrne a few days ago and this song live is insane.
What song have you listened to more than once this past week?
I’m always, always listening to “Mother Nature’s Bitch” by Okay Kaya.
What is a recent song you think everyone should know about?
“Man The Door” by Curbside Lambsear.
A song off your work-out playlist:
Ok I don’t work out, but if I imagine someone working out it’s to The Knife, “Like a Pen” haha.
What song can you do at karaoke without looking at the tv screens?
“The Power of Love” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood. I just can’t believe how beautiful that song is. I like to watch people do power ballads or torch songs at karaoke, “I (Who Have Nothing)” by Shirley Bassey and things like that.
Song you associate with being 13 years old:
Definitely Placebo “You Don’t Care About Us”. Without You I’m Nothing is such a great album and it sums up a gothy and very exciting period of time for me. They were the first band I saw live.
What song do you listen to when you want a lobotomy?
“Lazy” by The Primitives. They did that song “Crash” that’s well known, but this tune is better!
What song do you use to indulge your wallowing?
“Agony” by Yung Lean. Music makes me incredibly emotional so I have to be careful what I put on, I can’t go full tilt with something like “Feela” by Lamb, which I honestly can’t get through without completely falling apart. (ed note: this song just ruined my life thanks a lot Florence). “Agony” is perfect for a quick wallow because for me it’s surreal and wistful and funny rather than devastating.
What is a song that reliably brings you emotional catharsis?
“Don’t Let This Feeling” by Vanessa Amara or “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” by Split Enz. Aotearoa, rugged individual, glisten like a pearl at the bottom of the world. I listened to it in the back of the van in New Zealand recently and it brought me to tears quick! Got to put “Is It Cold In The Water” by SOPHIE here too actually.
What song do you use to renew your spirit?
“I’m Not Sayin’” by Nico. Maybe it’s meant to be a fallible narrator kind of thing but I’ve always taken it at face value as a song about being carefree and untroubled by the expectations of others. Which is the goal. (ed note: amen sister).
What is your favorite cover song?
“Private Life” by Grace Jones1. Or Janet Kay’s cover of “Loving You” (the 1978 version!). Or Devo’s cover of “Satisfaction”. Or “Jambalaya” by The Residents2 ohhh my god that’s a good cover!!! The first three of those came out within two years of each other. Golden age of the cover!
What song would you like to hear just before you die?
Something ambient to be honest. This is a way pretentious answer probably but “#3” or “#19” by Aphex Twin. Genuinely if I’m going to die I want something that makes everything seem like it’s in its right place. I don’t want to be crying or raging, I want to be meditating and extremely relaxed. I’m not a go-out-with a bang type person I’m a dissolve-into-the-universe kind of person. That’s the plan!
All of the song on Florence’s Monday Mixtape can be found HERE
“Private Life“ is a 1980 song written by Chrissie Hynde, and released by both the British band the Pretenders and the Jamaican singer Grace Jones in 1980 (on her album Warm Leatherette).
"Jambalaya (On the Bayou)" was written and recorded American country music singer Hank Williams and originally released in 1952
This is predictably great and I now know that Ms. Shaw is on Substack too! Dry Cleaning is absolutely one of my favorite bands of the last 10 years and there is truly no one like them. It is also worth checking out Shaw's interview with Jenny Eliscu where she speaks endearingly about being an obsessive fan of the Strokes as a teen.
As a fellow Dry Cleaning fan I find this fascinating!