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Dry Cleaning's post-punk ode to Meghan Markle was one of the best songs of 2019

English band Dry Cleaning

The band's Florence Shaw tells us about the band's unexpected breakthrough

One of the best new songs of 2019 was a pro-royal anthem.

Well, pro-royal might be a stretch. But given how British royalty have generally been treated in modern rock'n'roll, Dry Cleaning's 'Magic Of Meghan' – written in tribute to Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex – seems like a love letter in comparison.

'You're just what England needs," vocalist Florence Shaw intones dryly during the song. 'You're going to change us.'

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YOUTUBE: Dry Cleaning Magic Of Meghan

While she definitely respects the Duchess, frontwoman Florence Shaw told Double J's Zan Rowe that the song is more of an attempt to celebrate positive role models and contribute to a more optimistic dialogue around public figures.

"It's not so much her in particular," Shaw said from her London home. "It's more just trying to draw attention to the fact that women like her in the public eye get a lot of flak, and I think people often don't really notice it.

"We're so used to hearing women being talked about in a critical way that people sort of stopped seeing it, and I just wanted to flag it a little bit, but also say something positive about her."

"I'm not particularly a royalist, but at least she has a positive message. She likes to stick up for people. That can only be a good thing."

Shaw's spoken word delivery, over the top of sharp, dizzying post-punk guitar and a rock solid rhythm section, suggests a cut-and-paste approach to her lyricism. Which is precisely how the song came about.

"They're taken from different articles I was reading at the time about the engagement," Shaw said. "So, they're kind of little half sentences and sort of little couplets of words that I took from articles and rearranged and stuck together.

"So, a line will be half something of mine and a half something from a magazine.

"But it came together very quickly. I had an idea that I wanted to do a song about Meghan just because I was really preoccupied with the story at the time. So I thought, 'Oh, I might as well write something about it'."

It was a hell of a debut single for Dry Cleaning, a band who emerged from nowhere but have known each other forever.

"We've all known each other in different ways for about a decade," Shaw explained.

"I met Lewis [Maynard, bass] and Nick [Buxton, drums] when I was about 18. Then I met Tom [Dowse] when I was in art school in about 2010. And then Nick, Lewis and Tom, all kind of know each other through other ways.

"As you get older, I feel like everyone starts to kind of cross over. Everyone winds up knowing everyone else in a few different ways. It's one of those things where we've all just been around in the same kind of social circles for a long time."


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Listen to the full interview above

The three men started the band some time ago, but it took a while to find the vocalist they wanted.

"They kind of formed just because of a mutual love of making music," Shaw said. "I think they all were craving something that was kind of a social thing. They basically wanted to hang out, as far as I can tell.

"They were looking for a vocalist. They all tried singing, I think each of them tried. And they also tried together, kind of singing as a trio. Then lots of friends of theirs offered up their services as vocalists. But I think they just they kind of weren't into it."

Shaw has no previous musical experience. She was the perfect choice.

"I think the idea was to ask a non-musician, just to try and make something a bit experimental," she said. "To try something that none of them had tried before. So that's, that's kind of how they end up asking me."

Their debut single exploded, they released two EPs – both of which sold out in a flash – and, all of a sudden, they were a genuine, in-demand band.

"It's very different to everything that filled my days about six months ago," Shaw laughs.

"I do a few different things. I do quite a bit of teaching. I'm a visiting lecturer, so I go in and teach drawing at a few different art schools around the UK.

"I also do picture research in an office. Sitting in front of a computer, sifting through lots and lots of images. Those are my two main things I earn money doing.

"Then I've got my artistic practice, I've got a little studio where I make drawings and things. So, there's a lot going on."

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YOUTUBE: Dry Cleaning Live

It has meant learning a lot, very quickly. A strange position for a band of friends who are older than your regular buzz band and who had no aspirations beyond hanging out in the garage.

"That first EP we recorded before we'd ever played a show, we'd never played live," Shaw says. "That was just straight from the garage where we were rehearsing into a recording studio.

"That was really one of my first ever live performances, I guess, that recording. So, it's been a big learning curve since then."

Only one question remains: has the Duchess of Sussex heard this surprisingly positive song from the fledgling London quartet?

"I have no idea!" she says. "I would imagine probably not.

"I wouldn't be surprised if some of her people have, because I know that they're quite litigious. They're really on it. If there's anything in the public eye – in any way, at any scale – that references them, I think they probably employ people checking that kind of thing.

"So, I'm sure some lowly person who works for her has probably given it a listen, just to check."

"It must be so weird being a person like that and there being so many things said about you. But also, because of the position she's in, she can't really say very much can she? It must be really strange.

"It's hard to know whether she ignores all the stuff written about her, or if she would kind of indulge in it a bit. I think if I were in her position, I'd probably try to insulate myself as much as possible."

You can hear Dry Cleaning's two EPs here