Fresh from their 2022 support slot with Dream Wife, Manchester-based female-fronted Chemtrails are gearing up for a busy gig and festival season as they record their third album  — which promises to be their weirdest yet most danceable record to date.

With plays on BBC Radio 1, 6Music and KEXP under their belt, the unstoppable garage-punk and acid-corroded new-wave machine Chemtrails formed in 2016 as the as the lo-fi bedroom recording project of long-term lesbian lovers Mia Lust and Laura Orlova. They were quickly snapped up and signed by Swedish label PNKSLM Recordings, having only played one gig — at Trans Pride Brighton.

Served on a bed of fuzzy guitars and polychromatic pop, their lyrics tackle alienation, love, the human condition, the impending apocalypse and, occasionally, on Mia Lust’s place in the world as a transgender woman.

The prolific band have built up a die-hard following and released five  critically-acclaimed DIY records, most of which were recorded in their living room. Their three 6-song EPs and two full-length albums have garnered praise from the likes of Stereogum, DIY Mag and The Line of Best Fit, with four Chemtrails tracks selected as KEXP’s “Song of the Day” — one of which also featured on the soundtrack of the US version of the hit TV show “Shameless”. Both of their LPs appeared in the “best albums of the year” lists of Swedish music magazines Gaffa and Hymn.

The band cites their biggest influences as the Pixies, Blondie, Oh Sees, Fat White Family and sixties psych and garage punk, but what really holds the whole project together is an endless supply of catchy melodies and hooks.

2019 saw Chemtrails play a live session for KEXP as part of their International Clash Day celebration in London and relocate from London to Manchester, where they re-spawned with a new line-up. They’re now building up a cult following on the Manchester music scene and recently opened for Dream Wife at Gorilla, having been chosen by the band themselves as a local support act for their Manchester tour date.