Josephine grew up in an unconventional family north of London. Returning home from a summer holiday with a donkey riding in the back of the family’s 1927 Rolls Royce was not considered at all bizarre. Wiggs studied cello as a child, segued from college in London to undertake a master’s degree in Philosophy, and then in a move few would have predicted joined a rock band.
After making three albums with The Perfect Disaster (1987-1990), Wiggs left to join Kim Deal (Pixies), Tanya Donelly (Throwing Muses), and Britt Walford (Slint) in forming The Breeders. With the release of Pod (1990) the foursome were instantaneously dubbed an indie supergroup. Following a shift in line-up—with Kelley Deal on guitar and new drummer Jim Macpherson—The Breeders released Last Splash in 1993 with its hit singles “Cannonball” and “Divine Hammer” and became alternative rock superstars.
During the same period, Wiggs released two lower-key albums: Nude Nudes (1992) with Jon Mattock (Spacemen3, Spiritualized) working under the name Honey Tongue and Bon Bon Lifestyle (1996) using the moniker The Josephine Wiggs Experience. She also recorded and produced Klassics with a K (1996), the beloved and only album by the Kostars (Luscious Jackson’s Jill Cunniff and Vivian Trimble). During a brief run of shows, Wiggs joined the band on drums, showing her range of musical ability.
In the late 90’s Wiggs collaborated with Vivian Trimble as Dusty Trails, whose eponymous 2000 album is an homage to neo-noir soundtracks, spaghetti westerns, and Gallic pop. Time Out described it as “one of the most subtly suggestive, understatedly elegant…things likely to have caressed your cochlea in years.”
Allusions in Dusty Trails to film music foreshadowed the next stage of Wiggs’s career, writing scores for feature and documentary films—from Happy Accidents by Brad Anderson in 1999 to Appropriate Behaviour by Desiree Akhavan in 2014. Her new album We Fall began as a shorter suite of pieces for the documentary film Built on Narrow Land. Wiggs has also composed and recorded music to accompany live performance and short films by the acclaimed Brazilian choreographers chameckilerner.
In 2013, following the 20th anniversary of Last Splash, the classic lineup of The Breeders reunited for a world tour. Five years later in 2018 they released All Nerve, with Wiggs co-writing two songs and singing lead on the standout track “Metagoth.”
We Fall, Josephine Wiggs’ third album of her own design and ninth album in a career spanning three decades will be released on vinyl and available for download and streaming on May 17, 2019 by Sound of Sinners.