The Roulettes make noise on purpose. Their new single “Wife Is Talking” hits like a feminist alarm clock: jagged guitars, chant-fueled fury, and a rhythm section that hits back. Rebecca Keith (guitar, vocals), Alice Danger (bass, vocals), and Rachel Hass (drums, vocals) turn the word wife into a weapon, part satire, part manifesto. The song swings between irony and exhaustion, because pushing against sexism, power, and the idea of “being polite” takes its toll. Recorded loud and raw at Studio G with Jeff Berner steering the chaos.
★ Your new single “Wife Is Talking” just dropped yesterday. What’s the story here, and what does it mean to you and the band?
Rachel: “Wife” is about silencing and repression of female and LGBTQIA+ voices, and we will not be silenced. It speaks to violence against women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and reproductive rights. It’s about sexist ideals that keep undoing progress and reappearing. What is equity in a marriage with kids?
Blah blah blah is the voice unheard, overlooked, dismissed.
JD and wife, dismissing her, her culture, her religion, his possession of her. Not even going to get into Trump and women.
It’s about rage that protects. Who is in possession? Who is legit possessed by rage, and why is that necessary? Rage can be mobilizing. It can inform our clear and decisive choices to build something new that works for us. It’s destruction and reconstruction of constructs. Rage can be thoughtful. We are anti-fascists and believe women, duh. I also feel like wife is mutual aid to me. We root for the wife.
Rebecca: Yes, dear! Does anyone really aspire to be a wife? The word feels strange in the mouth. While I admit, much to my feminist chagrin, I more or less always wanted to get married, I’ve always struggled with the connotations of wife. Holiday cards taunt you with microaggressions. My aunt and uncle’s would arrive from “Dr. and Mrs. Husband’s Name,” and we sometimes get “Mr. and Mrs. Husband’s Last Name,” though I kept my own. Even with the most supportive partners, it’s hard to escape the associations (similar to mommy, of course).
Wife = mental load = not mistress = barbiturates = perimenopause = property = possession = victim of elaborate murder plot on Columbo = “Mr. Vice President, I’m speaking.”
Wives = “What do you suppose our wives are up to?”
But listeners, rest assured, no husbands were harmed during the making of “Wife Is Talking.”
Alice: I think the song highlights this trope of men becoming victims to women once they get married, like a woman voicing her opinions, or God forbid, her desire to be equal, is somehow this huge cross a husband has to bear. We tried to capture that not only in the lyrics but in the music as well. The riff is a call and response between Rebecca’s “nagging” guitar and my “yes dear” bass line. By the end of the song, Rachel is really driving it in her drumming while we chant “wife,” highlighting the anger of fighting the patriarchy and maybe even cheering on wife in this scenario.
And then the song just ends in complete exhaustion because, God, if trying to push against a patriarchal society isn’t just that.
★ Describe The Roulettes in three words:
Mommy, messy, passionate.
★ New York can be a love-hate city. What’s something you absolutely adore about it, and what drives you crazy?
I love that my neighbors and the local small businesses look out for each other. I get so mad when people say New Yorkers are rude. I mean, we are when we need to be, but as a rule, I think our realness means we’ll also reach out to help people. I also adore all the remaining classic diners, like Waverly Diner and Landmark Coffee Shop.
And because I’m a lifer, I love the smell lingering in the humid air when you come home from anywhere out of town in the summer.
What drives me crazy? Finance bros. Finance bros discovering Brooklyn.
★ What albums have been your creative fuel, and how have they shaped The Roulettes’ sound?
Rebecca: I keep coming back to our friends’ albums. Leathered’s A Reckoning has been a constant source of joy. Their release show at Main Drag felt like old Williamsburg, loud, raw, and alive. We’d just come from the Roe v. Wade protests, and watching Amanda, Eddie, and Carter play with that kind of power was pure catharsis. Anytime I see Amanda play, I’m inspired to work (way) harder at guitar… and then I don’t.
Same goes for Power Pose and their record I’m Looking from that same month. As a two-piece, Jackie and Kelly always blow me away, and now with Julie on bass and harmonies, they’re unstoppable.
Lately I’ve been returning to Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). Rachel and I both grew up with toes in the hip-hop scene (Rachel more so), and for The Roulettes, it’s that sense of humor, inside jokes, and longtime friendship that feels familiar. I know it sounds absurd, but our first EP was basically all diss tracks.
Rachel: Current moment of listening: Sleater-Kinney’s Dress Yourself (on repeat), Patti Smith, and the K-pop Demon Hunters album because my kid is obsessed — Takedown is on constant play. Yeah, Wu-Tang!
★ At some point, someone wrote “It’s about time they shut the f**k up” on your poster at Kelly’s Olympian Bar. What’s the most unbelievable moment you’ve had as a band?
Hearing Alisa Ali read part of our Mommyfesto on WFUV last fall on Mommy Comes Back release day, followed by her playing “Batter Up” on air, dream come true. Our kids are the same age, so she truly gets it. Also, seeing the final cut of our “Batter Up” video after Jen Meller finished it.
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