Naarm/Melbourne artist Simona Castricum details murdery new album, releases post-punk drag single

“Rupture” is about the mess of holding a relationship together and knowing when to let it fracture. “It’s about trust, truth, and trying to work from a place of repair when mistakes are inevitable,” Castricum says. The video casts her as the leader of a fictional band alongside Anetta Nevin, House of Furia’s Māhaia and Silva, and Maxine Sawyer. Shot with the unstable grain of late-analogue music television, it pulls references from Robert Palmer’s choreographed cool, Nine Inch Nails’ physicality, and the chic severity of Helmut Newton.

Where 2020’s Panic/Desire mapped queer survival through contest and 2023’s SINK traced grief, Villain steps into the hours that follow – songs about relationships written at fifty. “These songs don’t arrive at easy answers so much as form a different set of questions,” Castricum says. “Villain is serious fun with teeth, even bigger songs for bigger stages.”

Castricum, a mainstay of Naarm/Melbourne’s underground, fuses post-punk and dream-pop with cold-wave electronics. She’s picked up multiple Music Victoria Award nominations for Best Solo and Electronic Artist and an AIR nod for SINK, while both that LP and Panic/Desire were longlisted for the Australian Music Prize. Live, she performs as a duo with drummer Anetta Nevin, and has appeared at Golden Plains and Dark Mofo, as well as supporting Lydia Lunch, Drab Majesty and Peaches.

Villain was written by Castricum with contributions from Ebony Rattle, Anetta Nevin, and Becky Sui Zhen Freeman, performed by Castricum on vocals, guitars and programming alongside Nevin on drums, and mixed by Jorge Elbrecht. The eight-track collection was produced by Castricum, with vocal production by Sui Zhen and drum engineering by Jonnine Nokes.

Villain artwork

Villain tracklist

“The Dolls Know”
“Sweet Relief”
“Outgrown”
“Reveal”
“Rupture”
“Reset”
“Villain / Reckless”
“Spiritual”