Written by Shea Roney

Work Wife, the creative project of Meredith Lampe, has become a facet of the Brooklyn DIY scene, both as a band and as a community patron. Coming up on a supporting tour with Husbands and new music to be released in 2024, Meredith Lampe and newbie member Isaac Stalling, called me from their rock climbing gym to discuss lyrical goals, building a community, and functioning as friends who also happen to play in a band together. 

After moving from Seattle to Brooklyn, Lampe was a member of the Brooklyn trio, Colatura, but with too many songs to share, she began her own project, calling it Work Wife. Upon the release of her 2022 EP, Quitting Season, Lampe added Cody Edgerly (drums) and Kenny Monroe (bass) to the project, allowing Work Wife to find its fullest pop band potential. “Ever since then I’ve been thinking of it more as a band rather than just my project,” Lampe shares. “There are some things that are easier with just me, but it isn’t nearly as fun.”  After meeting Stalling on tour, when it came down to it, Lampe and the band said, “we should get that fun kid from Oklahoma City,” and soon Stalling was moving to Brooklyn. 

As a musician, and a lyricist in particular, Lampe relies on the hidden details. Choosing brief moments to command feelings of both grief and comfort, Lampe’s writing offers up open arms. With songs that break down emotional trauma into digestible, and oftentimes, darkly humorous stories, tracks like “Brian Eno” and “Apathy” are on the cusp of perfection. With a song like “Too Young To Understand”, a nod to a family caught up in addiction, Lampe is able to form years of distrust and heartbreak into a four minute song. “When I wrote [“Too Young To Understand”], I had no intention of putting it out, which is, I think, the right way to go about writing a song that is so sensitive,” Lampe admits. “To just say, I’m never going to put this out, I’m gonna give it the honest treatment and then decide after the fact,” allows for more sincerity and less internal deliberation. “I think being honest like that can be really fucking scary,” Lampe says, “but everyone always handles it better than you think they’re going to, as long as you have a one-on-one conversation with them about it. And in this case, I think it improved our relationship in the long run.”

Going from being an additional singer in Colatura and then transitioning to a solo project, Lampe is now the leader and front person of her own full band. “Now that I have these guys, we’re kind of figuring out this new writing process as we go,” she shares while adding, “it’s been so much better. The music is so much better now that I have people to work with.” With Stalling as the newest addition, he responds, “I felt so lucky to be added. Everyone’s just immediately chill and there is no proving grounds or anything like that.” For as tightly constructed the band sounds when playing both in studio and live, the environment of Work Wife could not be looser. “It’s funny as a front person”, Lampe says, “it feels like you’re always trying to balance showing the band that you know what you’re doing. You have to be artistically opinionated enough for them to believe in your leadership, but not so much that you’re a dictator or then it’s kind of like limp noodle vibes,” she laughs.

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Sometimes it can be a fine line between work and play that can ruin a band, but in the case of Work Wife, the work has become the play. “Music is hard enough. It sounds like bullshit, but one aspect that is often forgotten is that we are very lucky to do this. So, maintaining a fun situation makes it a lot more achievable for longevity,” Stalling shares while Lampe adds, “the odds that you’re really going to do anything bigger are so slim that if you aren’t enjoying the process, you’re making a horrible bet.”

Having first seen Work Wife on a supporting tour with Fenne Lily and Christian Lee Hutson at Chicago’s Thalia Hall, it was clear that the band loves what they do. Whether that be sharing members amongst the three groups, crying and hugging to Hutson’s emotionally ripping songs behind the curtains, or sharing humorous stories on stage, as an audience member, I felt fortunate just to be there. That being the first time touring as a full band, Lampe and Stalling couldn’t hold back their excitement of remembering those shows and the time spent on the road. “This is just so hard to come by and with just newly joining the band, at the time, I felt so lucky,” Stalling says while Lampe adds, “it was kind of like when you are dating someone and you’re like, ‘is this just really good for me, or is this like actually really good?”. 

The effects of a reliable and neighborly network are not lost upon the members of Work Wife. “If you have an idea of the community that you want, no one’s gonna make it for you. You just have to make it happen,” Lampe tells me. As roommates, Lampe and Monroe have turned their house into a venue called No Hassle Castle. Getting friends to play sets, the No Hassle Castle has hosted artists such as Fenne Lily, Katy Kirby, Sister., and They Hate Change along with many other Brooklyn staples and travel-throughs. With a welcoming and overtly cozy environment, Lampe and Edgerly have created a safe space for artists and fans alike to enjoy and build upon the Brooklyn music community. “After people started going to shows again, I was kind of the weird girl where you meet someone really briefly, but not well enough to hang out. And then I would be like, ‘hey want to get lunch?’” Lampe shares with enthusiasm. “Every time I did that, we ended up fostering a very close friendship.”

With an official EP set to release in the spring of 2024 and rumbles of the first Work Wife full-length in the works, Lampe shared what she has planned in the coming months. “I really wanna just sort of pare it back, which is, I feel, like the usual trajectory of someone’s music career,” she shares. In regards to the album, “I’m hoping we can record the full length this spring. It all depends on how fast I can write all the songs. But fortunately for the band, I just lost my job. So I’m on a roll,” she says as her and Stalling laugh. 

You can catch Work Wife playing the Turkey Slamdown Benefit Show (11/11) for Make the Road NY as well as on tour with Husbands for their East Coast Run.

Support Work Wife here: bandcamp