Introduction – From Misty Countryside to Brixton Concrete
London-based folk post-punk quartet drainfly rises from the underground veins of the Windmill scene with their debut EP bracken of her bones. It’s a forked tale written by a band carried from rural silence into the chaotic noise of the city — a story about grief, connection, the body, family, and the fragile power of roots.
With the EP’s release, their first major step became the launch show at Windmill Brixton — a community long simmering in London’s dim back rooms is now firmly on the wider public’s radar.
Following in the lineage of Daughter, Wolf Alice, and mary in the junkyard while casting their own folkloric shadow, drainfly builds a universe that is both delicate and thorned.
Themes and Emotional Landscape: Roots, the Body, and the Weight of Being Human
The EP originates from vocalist Gwen Sutterby’s personal narrative — one that began in the countryside and took shape in London. The songs explore the residue the body carries from the past, the marks left by bonds, and the sacred yet painful nature of connection.
Gwen’s lyrics intertwine folkloric imagery with modern life:
people become “a bracken clinging to bone”;
the remnants of relationships sink into the soil;
new sprouts of connection grow upward through pain.
Her own words capture the core of the EP:
“Sometimes we forget to bless the things that make us human.” — Gwen Sutterby
And this EP is exactly that: a re-blessing of pain, love, loss, family, earth, and the weight the city leaves on our skin.
Musical Layers: Misty Guitars, Industrial Drums, a Folkloric Abyss
drainfly’s sound has carved out its own space in London’s underground:
- Ethereal guitars evoke Daughter’s melancholy, but rougher, more angular.
- Industrial drums carry the metallic air of the Windmill.
- narled bass lines anchor the band to their post-punk core.
- Gwen’s vocals are ghostlike and tender, yet capable of swelling and filling a room in an instant.
On the production side:
- Lorenzo De Feo’s sound design gives the EP a depth that is both pastoral and threatening.
- Nick Watson’s mastering allows the tracks to roar on stage yet feel like a dark room in headphones.
This aesthetic becomes even sharper live — stretching from breathless stillness to sudden breaks that pull the crowd into chaotic dance.
Standout Tracks and the Zine Universe
While each track carries its own story, drainfly’s creative collective spirit widens the borders of their music.
For every song, they produced four different zines, hidden across London record shops and venues. These zines act like miniature storybooks parallel to the tracks: folkloric sketches, fragmented sentences, collages, analog textures.
They also created a limited lighter series for the EP era — all handmade, all hand-distributed.
This approach makes drainfly’s aesthetic visible not only in their music but across London streets: zines left on bar counters, taped to walls, passed around in bags after a gig.
This living network strengthens that “Windmill tribe” feeling shared with Mary in the Junkyard and The Youth Play.
The Story of drainfly: A Collective Growing Like a Bramble
From the dark corners of the George Tavern to the pipe-hung ceilings of The Windmill, drainfly is slowly crafting its own folklore across London.
The band’s creative backbone:
- Gwen Sutterby — vocals & guitar
- Ben-Lui Simpkins — guitar/BV
- Samuel Black — bass/BV
- Ashleigh Seager — drums
drainfly is not just a band; it’s a self-sustaining creative ecosystem:
- Covering venue walls with their own illustrations
- Hiding their zines
- Hosting “merch day” events with independent artists
- Living in a world made entirely of discarded materials and handmade artifacts
This DIY spirit cemented them as one of the unforgettable new forces of the Windmill circle.
A comment from an independent music follower captures drainfly perfectly:
“Spacey floaty grunge sound that's easy to listen to on a Monday morning.” — Scene Bud
IndieBird Perspective
bracken of her bones walks between the city’s chaos and the ghosts of nature. drainfly doesn’t just write songs — they create their own folklore, their own visual universe, their own community.
Their music strokes the marks emotions leave on the body while simultaneously raising the thorns.
Such a collective spirit doesn’t appear often in the independent scene.
With this debut EP — both its music and the enchanted world orbiting around it — drainfly offers a beginning worth watching closely.
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| Artwork by: Gaïa Havord |
