London singer/songwriter Ella Walker aka WILDES has recruited The Flaming Lips for her new single “True Love (Make Me Believe)” – the final taste of her debut album Other Words Fail Me – out this Friday, 13th January 2023 via AWAL. The new album was produced by St Francis Hotel (Michael Kiwanuka, Greentea Peng, Little Simz).

More than a documentation of her artistry: WILDES’ debut album Other Words Fail Me is a testimony of hard-won survival. After a long period of false dependency ending with her leaving an abusive (both professional and romantic) relationship, Walker scraped together the shards of a world shattered, and at last, she has built herself an entirely new reflection. For its soaring closing track “True Love”, WILDES and producer St Francis Hotel (aka Declan Gaffney) wanted to perfectly capture the highs and lows of learning to love yourself.

Speaking more on the release, and the collaboration with The Flaming Lips, WILDES said:

This past year has been full of pinch-me moments, but today, releasing ‘True Love feat. The Flaming Lips’ is certainly one of the biggest. I wanted to add this final song to the album as an ode to self love and radical acceptance of yourself, no matter who you are, or what you have experienced. Never in a million years would I have believed The Flaming Lips would be the band to help bring this song to life – so thank you to the band, for bringing vivid technicolour to this rainbow of a song.

WILDES’ music sonically falls somewhere in a Bermuda Triangle of Angel Olsen, St Vincent and Mazzy Star, embedded within an entrancing skeleton of folk songwriting, all the while lifting the listener up on a storm cloud of cinematic electronics and her sharp, honest lyricism.

Citing the influence of PJ Harvey, Patti Smith and SASAMI on her new album, WILDES notes –

They are unapologetically honest women and musicians. They gave me permission to come out of the box I’d been cowering in.

‘Other Words Fail Me’ marks a new dawn for Ella Walker, where her future is entirely her own. Discussing the album’s title, Walker commented:

It was a name I’d had for quite a while in my head, but the album really grew into the name – it became a lot more symbolic than I ever intended, as writing this album was the only way I could safely and honestly talk about what was going on at the time. I quite literally didn’t have any other words to describe it other than the lyrics in these songs.

Since the release of her debut single “Bare”, WILDES has tenaciously carved out a path that has seen her release 2 EPs; ‘Let You Go’ and ‘Illuminate’ with over 60 million accumulative streams to date; firm radio support across BBC Radio 1, 2, and 6 Music, as well as Radio X, KCRW, and European stations 3FM, Flux and Radio Eins.

The success of WILDES grabbed the attention of Danger Mouse who became her publisher, and led to over 20 notable syncs on US TV shows like Suits, Scream and The Royals. On top of UK tours supporting Isaac Gracie and Ardyn (Katy J Pearson) and dates with acts such as Julia Jacklin, Hamilton Leithauser and Mr Jukes, WILDES’ music has received widespread press support from outlets including Consequence, The Line Of Best Fit, Metro, Stereogum, Notion, Clash Magazine, DIY Magazine and more.

WILDES’ debut album ‘Other Words Fail Me’ is out 13th January via AWAL. New single “True Love (Make Me Believe)” is out now.

London headline show at The Social – 11th January (tickets / guest list)