Biography
Scottish singer, songwriter, and guitarist Rose McDowall established the ethereal synth-pop duo Strawberry Switchblade and earned modest chart success through her buoyant yet melancholic compositions. Although the partnership proved brief, McDowall later explored markedly divergent styles, lending her voice to neo-folk projects including Death in June and Current 93 while also appearing on Shawn Pinchbeck’s eerie, atmospheric soundtrack for the 2019 film Far from the Apple Tree.
She assembled Strawberry Switchblade in Glasgow, Scotland, during 1981. The original four-piece took its name from a fanzine focused on Postcard Records; by the following year the lineup had narrowed to McDowall and guitarist Jill Bryson. Radio sessions for a pair of deejays attracted label attention, after which Bill Drummond of Warner Bros. and ex-Teardrop Explodes member David Balfe assumed joint management. Aztec Camera’s Roddy Frame played on the group’s debut single, “Trees and Flowers,” issued in 1983. Strawberry Switchblade released a self-titled album in 1985; its single “Since Yesterday” reached the Top 10 before the duo disbanded the next year.
Thereafter McDowall aligned herself with less mainstream, often darker artists such as Current 93 and Nurse with Wound, whose work spanned gloomy neo-folk and industrial noise, and supplied backing vocals for Felt, Coil, and additional acts. In the 1990s she joined Boyd Rice in Spell, which issued a 1993 Mute collection of cover versions, and recorded a series of spooky gothic-folk albums with then-husband Robert Lee under the name Sorrow—Under the Yew Possessed (1993), Sleep Now Forever (1999), and The Final Solstice (I/II). After maintaining a lower profile, she resurfaced in 2015 when Night School and Sacred Bones issued Cut with the Cake Knife, a compilation of material recorded between 1986 and 1988. Two years later McDowall released the three-song EP Our Twisted Love, featuring the eight-minute ethereal title track alongside a fractured interpretation of Burt Bacharach’s “Make It Easy on Yourself.” In 2019 she contributed vocals to the haunting soundtrack for Grant McPhee’s film Far from the Apple Tree.
She assembled Strawberry Switchblade in Glasgow, Scotland, during 1981. The original four-piece took its name from a fanzine focused on Postcard Records; by the following year the lineup had narrowed to McDowall and guitarist Jill Bryson. Radio sessions for a pair of deejays attracted label attention, after which Bill Drummond of Warner Bros. and ex-Teardrop Explodes member David Balfe assumed joint management. Aztec Camera’s Roddy Frame played on the group’s debut single, “Trees and Flowers,” issued in 1983. Strawberry Switchblade released a self-titled album in 1985; its single “Since Yesterday” reached the Top 10 before the duo disbanded the next year.
Thereafter McDowall aligned herself with less mainstream, often darker artists such as Current 93 and Nurse with Wound, whose work spanned gloomy neo-folk and industrial noise, and supplied backing vocals for Felt, Coil, and additional acts. In the 1990s she joined Boyd Rice in Spell, which issued a 1993 Mute collection of cover versions, and recorded a series of spooky gothic-folk albums with then-husband Robert Lee under the name Sorrow—Under the Yew Possessed (1993), Sleep Now Forever (1999), and The Final Solstice (I/II). After maintaining a lower profile, she resurfaced in 2015 when Night School and Sacred Bones issued Cut with the Cake Knife, a compilation of material recorded between 1986 and 1988. Two years later McDowall released the three-song EP Our Twisted Love, featuring the eight-minute ethereal title track alongside a fractured interpretation of Burt Bacharach’s “Make It Easy on Yourself.” In 2019 she contributed vocals to the haunting soundtrack for Grant McPhee’s film Far from the Apple Tree.
Albums
