Midwife folds grief and desperation into her haunting sonics

Initially releasing music under pseudonyms Mariposa, Sister Grotto and Mercury Tracer, Johnston creates her disarming sounds with a guitar, a pedal board and a customised telephone mic. When paired with her pensive lyrical motifs that are shaped by the profound nature of grief, the listening effect is a deep state of gloominess; like being blissfully lost in the ether.

Her debut record as Midwife, Like Author, Like Daughter (2017), introduced listeners to the possibility that this intense pain could be briefly pacified by dense reverb and Johnston’s gentle, gauzy vocals. Her follow up records Forever (2020) and Luminol (2021) were linked by a similar theme, each embodying a distinctive melancholy glow. On her fourth LP, No Depression In Heaven – released next week – Johnston pays tribute to life on the road as a touring musician, reflecting on the eccentricities of a transient existence and the characters that colour the views between locations on the map.

"No Depression In Heaven is maybe a little more cosmic and singer-songwriter-y than my earlier albums,” she tells me. “I think it sets me free from being defined by a certain sound. I’m proud of how it all came together as a cohesive body of work and the direction it puts my project in moving forward.” Shifting the momentum seems important to Johnston, who wrote most of her new record in the back of her tour van over the past few years. She was influenced by the physical energy of being in transit and this is reflected in the natural, uncomplicated flow of the seven tracks that form the new record.

“Touring is one of the circumstances in which I feel most present, most alive and most like myself,” Johnston shares. “I think that is because I feel able to live in the moment, uninhibited by the constructs of my daily life.” As dreamlike and enviable as this freedom may sound, Johnston is quick to counter it with a dose of reality. “It’s very inspiring, but touring can also be incredibly challenging. As wonderful as these times have been for me, we’ve been met with a lot of hardship.”

The logistics of touring have been made especially difficult for Johnston and her crew by unexpected theft. Whilst playing in DuPont, Washington, Johnston and fellow musicians Vyva Melinkolya and body/negative - who were supporting Johnston on tour - fell victim to a van break in. Most of their gear, merch and some personal items were stolen. Johnston’s faithful touring van - memorialised in the track “Vanessa” on her new album - also broke down numerous times. To help solve these issues, Johnston had to rely on the generosity of friends, fans and strangers to donate to a GoFundMe page to replace these essentials. “I feel proud of the support I’ve received when times are tough,” Johnston courteously offers, “the way our music scene takes care of each other is humbling and profound.”

Despite these sizeable bumps in the road, Johnston was able to continue touring, eventually returning to her studio in New Mexico to start piecing together the fragments that would form No Depression In Heaven. The process was an enjoyable one, because she spent less time on perfecting the production of the recordings and more time on capturing the true essence of ephemerality. “[I wanted to] get back to something more in tune with the Like Author, Like Daughter universe, where everything was new and free and loose, when I didn’t have all these rules for myself,” she explains. “I made decisions in the studio to not overwork the songs and to not overdo anything that wasn’t necessary. It was a big shift coming out of Luminol, in which every element was worked to death and highly produced. I tried to focus on most importantly getting the ideas out and shifting my process towards celebrating the imperfections of these songs. I think I needed to give myself a break, just make something easy. I had so much fun piecing together this record.”

Johnston’s relaxed approach to production – in comparison to Luminol – gives her new record a more breezy listening quality, paying homage to the true spirit of the songs that form No Depression In Heaven. This carefree spirit is personified in the ethereal opener “Rock N Roll Never Forgets”, a seven-minute lullaby that sees Johnston muse “Rock N Roll’s a fantasy / Rock N Roll remember me / Rock N Roll will never die.” These sentiments about memory, fantasy and grief permeate No Depression In Heaven, and are all filtered through the vessel of Midwife’s resonant guitar riffs and telephone mic.

Grief in particular is a recurring theme in all iterations of Johnston’s work to date. “I think these themes are constant because they are subjects I deeply wish to understand,” Johnston offers. “I make sense of the world around me through my art. It is our job as artists to ask questions and explore the human condition. I see the world through the framework of grief, because grief has shaped me into the person I am today.” This empathy is perhaps the most potent force that attracts listeners to Johnston’s music.

Whilst seeking to understand her own relationship with grief, Johnston often inadvertently shines a light on the experiences of others, but on “Killdozer” - the first single from her new record - she was directly inspired by the true story of Marvin Heemeyer, a muffler repair shop owner who lived in Granby, a small town in Colorado. Heemeyer was at odds with various people in power who he felt were interfering with his business, property, and liberty. In 2004, he went on a demolition spree through Granby in a modified bulldozer before killing himself. Heemeyer was the only casualty, and he left behind hours of cassette tapes detailing his motives, which he perceived to be a mission from God. The contrast of physical movement and the emotional lingering on these past events is what gives “Killdozer” and many of the tracks on No Depression In Heaven their resonant quality.

“Although controversial, Marvin Heemeyer ultimately put everything on the line for what he felt was right [by] acting out his fantasy in the most extreme way,” Johnston reflects, “[His] story at its core is about rebelling against ‘the man’”. Twenty years later, the musician is still struck by the familial feeling of discontent in the aftermath of gentrification in Colorado. It’s important to Johnston to use her art to share stories like Heemeyer’s that fascinate her. "'Killdozer' affirms my spiritual bond with Colorado, placemaking, and my role in the history of where I live,” she continues. “Having lived in Colorado for nearly 17 years, I have seen the place I love disappear, I have seen my community struggle with attempting to have a voice in these decisions. I can understand what would drive a person to take action.”

This feeling of desperation is conveyed in another, perhaps surprising addition to the tracklist on No Depression In Heaven. Johnston has re-worked Dutch vocalist Alice Deejay’s 90s eurodance hit “Better Off Alone” stripping all traces of the polished production of the original club anthem and transforming it into a gentle, buoyant guitar tune. “I had a realisation that 'Better Off Alone' is absolutely a Midwife song in its structure and simplicity of the lyrics,” she explains when asked about the song’s inclusion on the new record. “As much of my work up to this point has been super minimal, it made sense to cover it and make 'Better Off Alone' my own. It conveys a desperate feeling that is universal.”

Finding connection in unexpected places is all part of the mastery of Midwife, and this extends to the musicians and friends Johnston chooses to collaborate with. No Depression In Heaven features an impressive list of contributors, including Chris Adolf and Michael Stein of American Culture, Ben Schurr and Tim Jordan of Nyxy Nyx, Allison Lorenzen and Angel Diaz who performs as Vyva Melinkolya. In a previous interview, Diaz spoke with deep fondness about the time she spent working with Johnston on the pair’s collaborative album, Orbweaving, which was released back in 2023. Written and recorded at Johnston’s studio in New Mexico in the Chihuahuan Desert, the five songs that form the record are a beautiful byproduct of the idiosyncratic environment they were created in. From nights spent “herping” on empty roadsides looking for rattlesnakes, roadkill and orb-weaver spiders, to meaningful moments shared between the pair whilst in the studio, Orbweaving is laced with the shiver-inducing melancholy of desolate desert nights.

“I absolutely love working with Angel,” Johnston shares. “Our friendship was born through collaboration, and it’s very special to me to have a best friend like her. I often feel like I take on the role of a mentor for her, as someone who has gone through all the same things on my path, but in return, she also mentors me, and we help each other: bearing witness to the other person’s journey.” Working alongside kindred spirits like Diaz also strengthened the theme of interconnectedness of life on the road throughout No Depression In Heaven

“Everyone who plays on the album is near and dear to my heart,” Johnston muses. “Allison Lorenzen and I have been collaborating for a long time now, and she is also one of my best friends. Allison just finished up her new record that I play on as well. Same with American Culture, I worked with them on a few songs for Hey Brother, It’s Been A While, it was cool to work together on both of our new albums. Nyxy Nyx is a band I am very excited about, and I want everyone to hear how incredible they are. And of course, we also have some new collabs cookin'. I’ve known Ben Schurr for nearly 15 years, and it feels awesome to continue to collaborate.”