Biography
Sloppy Jane channels theatrical avant-punk through an approach both unpredictable and gripping. The project surfaced in 2015 via the four-piece EP Sure-Tuff, whose proto- and post-punk leanings featured Phoebe Bridgers on bass. Project leader Haley Dahl expanded the palette on the 2021 concept album Madison, arranging volatile relationship songs for a 21-piece hybrid of rock band and chamber orchestra. Following a three-year search for suitable acoustics, the sessions took place underground at Lost World Caverns in West Virginia. The dramatic ballad “Cancer” appeared in 2023, followed in 2024 by the duet “Claw Machine” with Bridgers.
New York native Haley Dahl began performing under the Sloppy Jane name as a teenager after spending most of her childhood in Los Angeles. After playing frequent shows with friends on the Sunset Strip, she skipped college to concentrate on music and supported herself as a dancer at a strip club. That period sharpened the performative character of the project.
Drummer Imogen Teasley-Vlautin belonged to the steadier early lineup and appeared on Sure-Tuff alongside guitarist and backing vocalist Sara Catherine and bassist and backing vocalist Phoebe Bridgers. The cassette edition was issued by Lolipop Records in 2015.
Self-released debut album Willow was recorded in Los Angeles by Joel Jerome, whose credits include Cherry Glazer and Tashaki Miyaki, with Dahl and Sara Catherine each handling multiple instruments. Strings and additional guests contributed to a turn toward playful, theatrical material that incorporated glockenspiel, flexatone, spoken-word samples, and crowd noise. Dahl relocated to her native New York before the album’s March 2018 release, by which point she had already begun developing a concept album rooted in fantasy relationships and intended for cave recording.
With co-producers Al Nardo, Mika Lungulov-Klotz, and Jack Wetmore, Dahl surveyed caverns across the United States capable of accommodating material written for a 21-piece rock orchestra, learning to notate music along the way. She kept performing in the meantime, including a month-long residency at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn in 2019. The search concluded at Lost World Caverns in West Virginia, where the group spent two weeks tracking daily from late afternoon into early morning, engineer Ryan Howe operating a mixing board from a car parked 90 feet above. Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records released the completed Madison in November 2021.
To mark the one-year anniversary of Madison, Sloppy Jane collaborated again with Bridgers on the limited-edition 7" “My Misery Will Bury You,” which contained two versions of “Wilt.” Late 2023 brought the rock-opera-styled ballad “Cancer,” after which another alliance with Bridgers produced the more orchestral “Claw Machine” in 2024.
New York native Haley Dahl began performing under the Sloppy Jane name as a teenager after spending most of her childhood in Los Angeles. After playing frequent shows with friends on the Sunset Strip, she skipped college to concentrate on music and supported herself as a dancer at a strip club. That period sharpened the performative character of the project.
Drummer Imogen Teasley-Vlautin belonged to the steadier early lineup and appeared on Sure-Tuff alongside guitarist and backing vocalist Sara Catherine and bassist and backing vocalist Phoebe Bridgers. The cassette edition was issued by Lolipop Records in 2015.
Self-released debut album Willow was recorded in Los Angeles by Joel Jerome, whose credits include Cherry Glazer and Tashaki Miyaki, with Dahl and Sara Catherine each handling multiple instruments. Strings and additional guests contributed to a turn toward playful, theatrical material that incorporated glockenspiel, flexatone, spoken-word samples, and crowd noise. Dahl relocated to her native New York before the album’s March 2018 release, by which point she had already begun developing a concept album rooted in fantasy relationships and intended for cave recording.
With co-producers Al Nardo, Mika Lungulov-Klotz, and Jack Wetmore, Dahl surveyed caverns across the United States capable of accommodating material written for a 21-piece rock orchestra, learning to notate music along the way. She kept performing in the meantime, including a month-long residency at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn in 2019. The search concluded at Lost World Caverns in West Virginia, where the group spent two weeks tracking daily from late afternoon into early morning, engineer Ryan Howe operating a mixing board from a car parked 90 feet above. Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory Records released the completed Madison in November 2021.
To mark the one-year anniversary of Madison, Sloppy Jane collaborated again with Bridgers on the limited-edition 7" “My Misery Will Bury You,” which contained two versions of “Wilt.” Late 2023 brought the rock-opera-styled ballad “Cancer,” after which another alliance with Bridgers produced the more orchestral “Claw Machine” in 2024.
Albums
Singles
Live
