Every week, the Milwaukee Music Premiere connects the city’s artists with our listening audience. If you’re an artist with a track you’d like us to debut exclusively on Radio Milwaukee, head over to our Music Submission page to learn how.
The five members of Red Quean knew they had something good cooking when they gathered for a pre-pandemic jam session and started throwing together the ingredients that would become their first single, “Red Queen.” So they did what any eager, excited group of creatives would do in that situation.
They created a multi-year roadmap that would allow the project to develop at an appropriate pace, at which time they would reconvene and discuss the most effective rollout strategy.
OK, it wasn’t quite that intentional. But when you’re talking about a group of talented musicians, each of whom have their own projects to work on, the years can fly by before you know it. In a way, that’s how you know you have something good. No matter how much time passes, it sticks in your brain and won’t give up that valuable real estate.
The idea was so promising, in fact, that these individuals so recognizable to Milwaukee music heads decided it called for a new band — the curiously spelled Red Quean (“Quean” being an old English word for a disreputable woman).
Lauryl Sulfate (lead vocals), Mark Zbikowski (bass/synths), Ashley Altadonna (guitar), Isabella Gargiulo (bass/drums/guitar/vocals) and Mary Benetti (drums) came to that conclusion after laying down “Red Queen” at Honeytown recording studio in Neenah. It’s a song with a sneer that sprung from Sulfate’s admiration for Game of Thrones villain Cersei Lannister.
“She lives in a world where women have so few paths to survival that, in order to survive, she has become wicked,” Sulfate explained. “I don't actually think that’s so different from the real world at any point in human history, including this current moment. Women are given so few paths to survive. One path is complacency or ‘goodness.’ The other is defiance, wickedness. So the song is really an ode to wicked women.”
The band wrapped that inspiration in something that’s both sparse and layered at the same time. It’s an uncluttered production that finds room for “beep-boop” synth, biting percussion, well-placed guitar licks and Sulfate singing:
The queen takes what she can get
Ain’t much left to be taken yet
She clicks send to launch the jets
Off with their heads, off with all bets
One of the other benefits of letting the project develop at its own pace: We get to premiere this new song from this new band, both aptly named to debut right before Valentine’s Day. In fact, Friday is the official release day for “Red Queen,” but you can hear it on demand using the player on this page and catch it on 88Nine throughout today (6:30 and 10:30 a.m.; 2:30, 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.).
