One of the most unique festivals out there is Cruel World Festival in Pasadena, California, bringing together the likes of darkwave, synthwave, New Wave, and all the waves in between for one incredible day of artistry and apathy at the Rose Bowl.
One of the numerous outstanding artists on the bill for 2025 was She Wants Revenge.
Never before gracing the Cruel World stages, the band was a killer addition to the lineup and undoubtedly a major mover of ticket sales on behalf of the Goldenvoice team. Consisting of Adam Bravin and Justin Warfield, She Wants Revenge has been defining a new era of electronic darkwave music since their founding in 2004. And, by 2006, they were already a household name for emos, punks, and goth kids everywhere. Now, 25 years after their recorded debut with the release of EP These Things, Top Shelf Music was lucky enough to sit down with Bravin and Warfield before they took one of the Cruel World main stages. We didn’t waste any time either (see first question).
What can you tell us about the new album?!
- Adam: There’s not too much to say, other than we’re working on new music. [Music is] all we know.
It’s been a long time since your last release…
- Adam: It’s been about 13 years or so. We’re just taking it one song at a time and seeing how we are now, as musicians, and what’s changed in our lives and how we can bring all that into a new record. There’s still a ‘DNA’ that this music has and our band has… I’m sure it’s a thing that a lot of bands go through when making new music — what do you want to stay true to? What do you want to add or take away? So, we’re in the process of figuring that out.
You were one of the first bands to bring New Wave back, to get people excited for what was lost in the 80s. You started a 2nd Gen of New Wave and now there’s a even 3rd Generation! How do you feel about that? Do you feel your legacy is represented here at this festival?
- Justin: I do, yeah. I think it’s like a conversation we had with Marc Burgess of Chameleons and he described it as ‘we’re all links in a chain’. I feel, if you looked at Gang of Four or Joy Division or Siouxsie and The Cure and Depeche Mode… even The Damned, starting in ’77 through like ’82, there was this ‘first wave’ of things. Then, you have the more modern stuff that we grew up on in the 80s, like the Duran Durans and the B-Movies and the Wall of Voodoos and The Go-Gos. After that, there was really only a couple people doing — I don’t really use the ‘G’ word a lot, but — goth, New Wave, or darkwave; the immediate predecessors to us where really just Rapture and The Faint. The Faint was an indie rock band that decided to do dance music and New Wave
- So, all of those older artists — the 70s and 80s stuff — that we grew up on opened the door for us. Without The Faint and Rapture, there would be no She Wants Revenge. And without She Wants Revenge, there could be no Drab Majesty, Boy Harsher, Light Asylum, Urban Heat, Twin Tribes — just go down the list. Not because of ‘us’, but because it’s a lineage. We drew from the past to create something new and we reawakened something for an audience that wasn’t being fed something. I would also add Placebo with feeding that audience for years!
- We’re just a continuation of that… and I don’t mean musically. I mean the spirit of it and the feeling. When we continue that, we make it okay for other people to continue that. And so now, you have hardcore kids that put down their guitars and pick up synthesizers and lower their voices and you go ‘COOL’! Everybody should be making cool music that they like!
- But I feel really proud because we know our place in it. Sometimes, and I don’t want to be like the old guys who’s bitter, but sometimes, artists will come up like Molchat Doma and say ‘dude, we’ve been listening to you guys since we were in high school’ and then some bands don’t mention us, but we’re like that’s okay… because we know that we made it safe for the longtime goths to come out of the closet and support the music again.
When you list these new names and all your influences, with the new album in mind, can fans expect any changes to the sound? Especially, with changes in technology?
- [Justin and Adam silently shaking their heads]
- Adam: Technology had evolved to a place that we could’ve taken more advantage of it in the first record.
No! The first album is perfect already, don’t touch it!!!
- Justin: That’s sort of the point — we feel like it’s perfect.
- Adam: Yeah, we have things at our disposal from the 60s, 70s, and 80s and then there are things at our disposal that was just developed like a few weeks ago that could help someone develop their sound that no one has ever heard before. But I don’t think those are things that we’re interested in when Justin and I make music together. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
- The things we will add are just the things I mentioned before: we’re different human beings now than we were 20 years ago or 18 years ago or 13 years ago and it remains to be seen what that becomes in the new album.
- Justin: To add onto what Adam is saying, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ — when we made the first record, we found something. And then we evolved it over the second and third records, and the EPs subsequently and in between. And had we made a record in 2013 or 2016 or 2018 or 2020 (and we have written songs and recorded in those periods), it would’ve been a departure or an evolution. But, because we are where we are as a band, because we have seen all who have come after, I think we are more aware of who we are and what we do than we’ve ever been. So, whatever we do, it’s going to be very uniquely She Wants Revenge — not a departure or like ‘2.0’. You know what you’re going to get when you listen to a Depeche Mode record; now that we are elder statesmen, who have been around the block for 20 years, you know what you are going to get with a She Wants Revenge record.
Well, amen to that. It was around this time I should’ve told myself to “slow down, baby, or you’re gonna explode” because the conversation hence forth took a turn for the embarrassing, asking Justin and Adam off-the-cuff questions when I was too busy fan-girling in my head. Stay tuned for more coverage of She Wants Revenge at Cruel World 2025 alongside other visionary artists like New Order, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Death Cult, and beyond. To stay in-the-know for updates on the forthcoming album, follow the links below.
Artist links: Facebook | X | Instagram | Website
Cover photo by Michael Muller
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