Blending dreamy textures, DIY grit, and recursive logic, Nashville duo Total Wife craft music that’s as emotionally grounded as it is sonically adventurous.

Total Wife is the Nashville-based project of Luna Kupper and Ash Richter, whose music sits somewhere between noise and clarity, distortion and beauty. On their upcoming album Come Back Down, they draw from the surrealism of half-sleep, the patterns of the Julia Set, and the grounded rituals of DIY culture. In this Q&A, they discuss everything from glitchy gear and transcendentalist writing to strawberry obsessions and the comfort of creative community.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

Hi Total Wife is Luna Kupper and Ash Richter. We’re based in Nashville, TN and we make music that has guitars and drums but also electronics and samples and it’s loud but quiet also. Our live band consists of Ryan Bigelow (Rig B), Sean Booz (Celltower), and Billy Campbell (Make Yourself at Home).

You describe Come Back Down as being born on the edge of sleep. What does that dreamy half-awake state unlock for you creatively?

Luna: I like the way thoughts blend together and connect freely and honestly in that state. I accidentally fall asleep mixing or recording sometimes and it slips me into different perspectives of objective listening. It can snap you out of ear-fatigue and roadblocks, or make you hear new things you normally couldn’t.

What drew you to the concept of the Julia Set, and how does that idea of repetition and recursion show up in the album?

Luna: I’m drawn to how there are so many structures (both natural and technological) that are made from this rule. I was curious about how applying these rules to processes like recording, production and arrangement could build a unique world from a single point/idea fed back into itself over and over.

Ash, your lyrics on this record feel incredibly direct. Was it a conscious decision to move toward more straightforward storytelling?

Ash: It was definitely a conscious effort to kind of reel myself in, I love creating highly imagistic lyrics but I wanted to portray the metaphysical in a more literal and accessible way.

‘Still Asleep’ captures the euphoria of touring and the strange paranoia that follows. How do you each come back to earth after a run of shows?

Ash: It honestly is kind of different every time. Sometimes there’s this sort of afterglow and I’m like, so fulfilled that I’m in the dish pit singing to myself scrubbing a pot as big as me very zen, sometimes I can feel so existential and restless trying to access that part of my brain feels impossible. The community we’re in really helps to alleviate some of that though, a lot of people can relate to the working class artist struggle.

You’ve said you’re drawn to magical realism and transcendentalist writing. Which authors or books have had the biggest influence on your songwriting?

Ash: I also quite enjoy modernism and post-modernism! Here are some pieces of writing that made an impact on my style.

“The House of Spirits,” by Isabel Allende

“Love in the Time of Cholera,” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

“Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman

Allen Ginsberg (“America,” “Howl,” “Understand That This is a Dream,”)

“La Ultima Niebla,” by Maria Luisa Bombal

“Agua Viva,” by Clarice Lispector

Luna, you mentioned selling all your synths before this record. Did working with a limited palette push you to be more inventive in unexpected ways?

Luna: I like to let my decisions be affected by limitations cause it stops me from getting lost in the infinite possibilities that come with making music these days, but in this case I definitely had to sell all my synths to make rent. By a certain point I all I had left was a guitar and a voice, so I started sampling from those two things. I would just go through hundreds of audio files in ProTools from songs we had started recording, trying to collect as many clear single notes as I could. After you stack more than like 4 or 5 samples and pitch them together, you’ll get these really complex tones and resonances that on a synth might take me an hour to dial in. It just instantly feels exciting which what i’m always looking for. Now if I wanna make a “synth” sound I know what parts of a voice or a guitar’s frequencies I can use to build that sound.

Your DIY approach feels central to what makes Total Wife so compelling. What part of the process brings you the most joy

It’s the process itself that I love most. I love to be patient and take my time to experiment when recording and mixing for that reason. Also process-based art like screen printing, film photography, and digital video/photo editing has always been my favorite to do. I just get curious how anything is made which makes me want to take part in every step of something. Whether it’s making tapes, t-shirts, music videos, throwing house shows etc. you realize between you and your friends you can get anything done.

You’ve formed a full live band for the first time. How has that changed the way you write or think about your songs?

Luna: I like making sounds that are kind of overwhelming and sensory-blending, but in the vacuum of a recording that can mean something completely different than in a live band. Having a band made me want the those sensory-illusions that sounds make be just as “real” in a room with a bunch of people as they feel in a DAW with infinite control. Considering both worlds helps me stay true to the original intent of an idea.

The track ‘Peaches’ started as a reaction to a storm cancelling a session. How often do real-life interruptions turn into inspiration for you?

Ash: I think a lot of the time the interruptions can really just be a distraction but whenever there’s compelling imagery, coincidences or otherwise ways to create meaning from, it can be a cool way to save the potential energy.

Luna: Incorporating interruptions and mistakes into making music is always fun for me. I’ll always let sounds from equipment breaking or glitching out stay in a recording, then usually try and emphasize it. Like if a channel on my mixer fries out for a sec or there’s some noise at the end of a take and it makes some horrible buzzing nightmare noise, I’ll just make it louder or sample and loop it.

You’ve carved out a space in Nashville’s underground music scene, far from the city's industry image. What makes that world feel like home?

Ash: Sharing similar goals and uplifting one another in our endeavors makes me feel comfortable with getting creatively vulnerable, and for someone like me who’s always sort of felt like an outsider - I feel like we all kind of do - it feels easy to be sort of oppositional, or counter-cultural. But this is encouraged in Nashville, the DIY scene is very experimental and open-minded.

Luna: Music can feel like such a meta thing in Nashville with the looming presence of its huge music industry. It’s literally called “music city.” I’m not saying that’s always a bad thing but i’m also saying some aspects of it feel like either business school or Kid Rock’s version of times square. The people who want nothing to do with that world but still want to make music must REALLY want to. This ends up forming an extremely supportive, motivated and creative scene. It feels really special and honest.

If you could stage an immersive listening experience for Come Back Down, what would it look like and where would it take place?

Luna: A sensory deprivation tank at Coachella.

What do you love right now?

Ash: Oatmeal, lilac, trip hop, enlightenment era artwork.

Luna: Strawberry, Apple Music’s ambient sleep playlist, kitty paws, Sheetz gas stations, Pittsburgh.

What do you hate right now?

Ash: American imperialism.

Luna: Irony-poisoning, fear-parasites.

Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?

Luna: I’m sorry I have to mention two, cause I heard “Either/Or” by Elliott Smith when I was 13 which completely changed my brain forever, but so did “Replica” by Oneohtrix Point Never when I heard it towards the end of high school. I still listen to both these albums often and feel inspired.

Ash: One of the first bands I ever got into on my own was Bright Eyes, and “This is the First Day of My Life,” absolutely still holds an important place in my heart. I think up until that point, I listened to a lot of music that other people recommended but it was the start of my music discovery journey. Bright Eyes was one of the first artists that Luna and I connected over as teenagers.

What do you hope people take from your music after hearing it for the first time?

Ash: I just hope it connects with people! I know it won’t be for everyone but I hope some people feel seen by the work.

Luna: I really hope people hear it and then have a nice day afterwards.

Start Listening To: Total Wife