Midwife is the project of Madeline Johnston, a self taught multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer, currently based in Southern New Mexico by way of Denver, Colorado, where she spent the last decade+ developing her sound and community. Midwife began while Madeline was a resident of the beloved/infamous DIY space Rhinoceropolis in 2014. She has released three albums with The Flenser, most recently, Luminol (2021), which received national and international acclaim. On stage, Johnston is known for her sparse, emotionally charged experimental pop music that can silence a crowd of hundreds. On record, she produces intricate and lush sonic environments in her own little corner of the heavy music scene. She describes her sound as “Heaven Metal,” AKA emotional music about devastation: catharsis. Johnston writes primarily about grief, and the many faces it can inhabit.

Johnston says of the track, “I started collecting globes. Sickworld was written in late 2021, during a long, cold winter. The world is sick. I’m coming down with it. I wanted to relate the unrest and ailments experienced externally with the general malaise I had been feeling emotionally for a long time. The lyrics are a culmination of festering thoughts I was carrying around, and digestible pieces of larger ideas like faith, sobriety, and death. It is also largely about being homesick for another time. Timesick. But this is being homesick for a place you can never return to, because it doesn’t exist. The world is sick, it needs medicine. This song is about healing.”

Midwife 2022 Tour Dates

Fri. Oct. 07 – Porto, PT – Amplifest
Sun. Oct. 09 – Barcelona, ES – AMFestival
Mon. Oct. 10 – Paris, FR – L’international
Tue, Oct. 11 – Angers, FR – Joker’s Pub
Wed. Oct. 12 – Bruxelles, BE – Botaniqie
Fri. Oct. 14 – Ramsgate, UK – Ramsgate Music Hall
Sat. Oct. 15 – Nottingham, UK – The Chameleon Arts
Sun. Oct. 16 – Glasgow, UK – The Hug And Pint
Mon. Oct. 17 – Manchester, UK – YES Basement
Tue. Oct. 18 – London, UK – Cafe OTO
Thu. Oct. 20 – Groningen, NL – VERA Groningen
Fri. Oct. 21 – Berlin, DE – Urban Spree
Sat. Oct. 22 – Warsaw, PL – Chmury
Sun. Oct. 23 – Brno, CZ – Kabinet Muz
Mon. Oct. 24 – Prague, CZ – Nová Libeňská Synagoga
Tue. Oct. 25 – Dresden, DE – Container
Thu. Oct. 27 – Nurnberg, DE – Musikverein im Künstler*innenhaus
Fri. Oct. 28 – Köln, DE – Blue Shell
Sat. Oct. 29 – Utrecht, NL – EKKO
Sun. Oct. 30 – Tilburg, NL – 013
Mon. Oct. 31 – Karlsruhe, DE – Dudefest

order “Sickworld” by Midwife HERE