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Jan 25, 2022 By Caleb Campbell Photography by Raphael Gaultier

Work Wife is a new indie pop solo project from Brooklyn-based musician Meredith Lampe. In addition to her time in the dreamy Brooklyn trio Colatura (whose latest track we also featured), Lampe also has been diving into her own world of songwriting and music production, crafting a solitary bedroom pop sound. Lampe debuted Work Wife last year with her singles “Thought We Met Before” and “Plastic Windows.” Today she’s back with another single, “Creases,” along with an accompanying video, premiering with Under the Radar.

“Creases” strips Lampe’s sound back to its essentials, foregoing the sweet pop melodies and charming lo-fi synth arrangements of her past two singles for a more melancholic singer/songwriter effort. Lampe’s glassy vocals ring out over swirling finger-picked guitar, a hushed and vulnerable vocal performance that feels like she’s sharing long-held secrets and deeply held truths. The lyrics unravel the tension and distance inherent to loving an artist, with Lampe acting as a longing bystander to her partner’s love affair with their art. She confesses, “But those creases near your eyes are not for me / If I was your muse, they would be.”

Meanwhile, the accompanying video was filmed in Lampe’s hometown of Seattle, on the ferry lines to Bainbridge Island. Lampe says of the accompanying video, “I spent a lot of time on those ferries growing up in Seattle, going on field trips and weekend vacations from the city, so being on the ferry is really nostalgic for me. It’s also the first place I take people when they visit my hometown, which is how I ended up there with Justin Buschardt when he came to visit. Being a documentarian, he naturally films everything, and spontaneously shot the video on the spot without telling me what it was for. He sent it to me for my birthday a month later before I’d officially started Work Wife, and I’ve been looking forward to releasing it for this project ever since.”

She continues, saying of the song, “I actually recorded this song on the same island off the coast of Seattle…I’d been quarantining on Bainbridge the summer prior, having just flown in from New York, and was getting ready to move in with a pod of friends in Seattle who kept pretty strict covid precautions. It just so happened that a good friend’s house on Bainbridge was vacant when I flew in, so I lived on the island for a couple of weeks alone in that house to quarantine. Feeling really inspired by the nature on Bainbridge, and having lots of time for introspection, I wrote and recorded ‘Creases’ in one sitting, sitting on my friend’s childhood bed in that island house.

I went back and forth with Digo Best (Tessatura Studio) on production for this song for a long time. We got drums recorded and put a bunch of guitars and synths and stuff on it, and re-recorded all of the vocals, but couldn’t get it to have the right feeling, so eventually I decided to put out the original recording I’d made, as it’s the only one that captures the feelings from that time.”

Check out “Creases” and the accompanying video below.