SO.CO Team
New Artist Spotlight: Wynona Bleach
This week, we're focussing the New Artist Spotlight on another hotbed of UK music - Belfast, and in particular the soon-to-breakout Wynona Bleach. We've been tracking this lot for a while, and it's hard not to be impressed.
Wynona Bleach @ Shiners, Austin during SXSW 2023
Why book a studio to record your debut album, when you can find an abandoned Portuguese warehouse, haul a studio's worth of kit (as well as Bill Ryder-Jones) to it, and emerge a month later with an absolute stone-cold banger of a record? The resulting collection, Moonsoake, was released to critical acclaim on Fierce Panda Records in 2022. It's an assured, focussed album and a stunning declaration of intent. Screaming with ambition, it promises much and delivers on every count.
Wynona Bleach @ The Courtyard, Austin during SXSW 2023
The band started out life as R51, and under that moniker played Reading and Leeds Festivals, as well as a 6,500 mile, 12 gigs in 12 days tour of the Russian Federation. That would be enough to break most bands physically and mentally, but it just sharpened their resolve. A lineup change and a name change followed, and Wynona Bleach was born.
Wynona Bleach @ Shiners, Austin during SXSW 2023
Words and photos: Thomas Jackson