Q&A: Echoes and Illusions: The Sound of Farmer’s Wife
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY SHERIDAN AGUILAR ☆
IF YOU’VE BEEN TAPPED INTO AUSTIN’S MUSIC SCENE — chances are you’ve heard the name Farmer’s Wife. Formed in 2021 by a group of UT students and creatives living in a West Campus co-op, the band quickly carved out a niche with their theatrical live shows, bold visual aesthetics, and genre-defying sound - blending noise rock, shoegaze and experimental pop.
The band consists of vocalist Molly Masson, guitarists Jude Hill and Derek Ivy, bassist Jacob Masson and drummer Jaelyn Valero. Their 2023 debut EP There’s a Monster introduced audiences to a project equal parts raw and cinematic, and their recent follow-up, the 2025 EP Faint Illusions, marks a bold evolution in both sound and vision. With vocalist and guitarist Masson’s haunting delivery layered over darker, more textured themes, Faint Illusions emerges as a rich, multidimensional work that brings Farmer’s Wife’s eerie, dreamlike world to life.
Fresh off a chaotic South by Southwest and riding the momentum of their new EP Faint Illusions, the band is gearing up for their biggest stage yet: Austin City Limits. The Luna Collective sat down with Farmer’s Wife to talk growth and the fun of making music with your friends.
LUNA: So, your EP Faint Illusions dropped about a month after SXSW. Tell me about the creative process behind it?
MOLLY: This is our second EP, and we’ve grown a lot since the first. Our style has evolved. The first track, “Dirty Shirley”, is actually one of the first songs we wrote with Jaylen—it’s been with us for a while. Our writing process is super collaborative. We wrote “The Ballet” and “Discount Roses” in one day during a rehearsal session at Farmer’s Wife Farm. We were in a barn, it was raining—super vibey. Jacob started “The Ballet” with this amazing bassline, and then Jude started playing the guitar part for “Discount Roses”. We all just built on it in real time.
JUDE: With this EP especially, a lot came from the live setting. We'd been playing these songs live for months before tracking them, so we had room to experiment. For example, “The Ballet” would sometimes morph into this long, intricate noise jams.. Capturing that energy in the studio was a challenge, but also really fun. Recording after debuting the songs gave us a clearer vision for how we wanted them to sound.
LUNA: It looks like you will be taking these songs on tour this fall. How does it feel to be doing ACL this year?
MOLLY: It's awesome. Really exciting. Me and Derek both grew up in Austin.
JACOB: It's something I never thought I would play growing up, but yeah, we’re really excited.
LUNA: How exciting?! Are there any bands you're excited to see there?
JACOB: Yeah, The Strokes! That’s a big one.
LUNA: Speaking of the Strokes. Do y’all have a dream band you’d want to open for?
FARMER’S WIFE: Paramore!
JAYLEN: We even bug our agents—“So… Paramore?” They’re like, “Keep dreaming, buddy.”
LUNA: Speaking of SXSW, how was your SXSW experience this year?
JACOB: I don’t remember anything!
MOLLY: I get all the SXSWs mixed up—what was last year? What was this year?
JACOB: It was fun. We had a couple of shows at Hotel Vegas and The Patio that were good.
JAYLEN: Yeah, biggest takeaway: we love our fans.
MOLLY: This year, we were more intentional about what shows we took on. In our first South By, we played like two or three shows, and we were just saying yes to everything. That was awesome, but the next year we did ten shows in a week, and it was chaos. This year we cut back.
JAYLEN: Yeah, last year everyone was sick. It was horrible. We were all malnourished and exhausted. This time around, we actually felt excited to play each show.
JACOB: Because we were more selective, the shows felt more meaningful and intense.
MOLLY: This year we played this house show- so fun. Jacob parked his truck somewhere he definitely shouldn’t have. Mid-song, this neighbor comes up and literally grabs the mic and screams, “Whose f# Tacoma is in my driveway?”
JAELYN: He described Jacob’s truck in detail—
JACOB: silver, busted, First Light Coffee sticker… I dropped my bass and immediately moved my truck. But our friend—who helped produce our music and knows all the songs—jumped in and finished the set.
JAELYN: The timing was perfect. It felt like he waited for the exact right moment in the song to jump in.
LUNA: That is so great. Wanted to ask how y’all manage life and touring?
JACOB: Take a lot of time off work.
JAELYN: Don’t expect to make any money—that’s the joke.
JACOB: With summer, work slows down, which gives me time to practice for all the projects I’m involved in. But yeah, sometimes you just show up, give it your all when your there.
JACOB: It’s definitely a privilege to be able to do this. Playing music for people is amazing, even if it doesn’t pay well.
MOLLY: We don’t feel super screwed over by the industry—yet.
JAELYN: We still feel lucky to be touring at all.
MOLLY: Yeah, going from co op show to managing a business is wild. Like, I don’t know how I’m in Canada dealing with taxes and currency conversion—I still feel like I’m 16.
JACOB: Even on a shoestring budget, it’s so costly—mentally, physically, financially.
MOLLY: Touring is like clocking in for a 600-hour shift where you make almost nothing—but it’s still worth it.
LUNA: Do you get to enjoy cities while on tour, or is it just go-go-go?
JAELYN: It’s a blur. But the people we toured with made it so fun—we just looked forward to seeing everyone again, even if we forgot what city we were in.
MOLLY: When you have somewhere free to stay, it's way more fun. On our last tour, we had two days off in New York, stayed with a friend, did a live session, and it was great.
LUNA: Your music videos are so creative—tons of production value. What’s your process there?
MOLLY: I studied theater and film at UT, and most of our videos have been made with friends from school. They help out because they love making stuff—often just for food and fun.
JAELYN: It’s less about getting free help and more about collaborating with people who want to work together.
MOLLY: Yeah, I just graduated. We’re not exploiting students, I swear! It’s all mutual and respectful.
LUNA: Anything else you want to share? Upcoming shows? Other news?
MOLLY: We’re playing Hot Summer Nights soon. And maybe more music in the fall ... and tour with Paramore, get signed to an awesome label...
