Fay Milton is no stranger to reinvention. As the drummer of the incendiary post-punk band Savages, she made a name for herself channeling raw, visceral energy from behind the kit. Now, several years after Savages went on hiatus, she’s stepping into a radically different creative space with Goddess—an ambitious, genre-defying studio project built around collaboration, experimentation, and a deep reverence for female and non-binary artistry.
“It started with me and [Savages bassist] Ayşe [Hassan] just writing some stuff together,” Milton recalls. “Maybe it was going to be for Savages, maybe not. We were trying things out.” Those early sessions led to offshoots and side projects—Ezia, Ultimate X—but it wasn’t until Milton began diving into production that her next true creative chapter took shape. “I started using production software and just fell in love with it,” she says. “I had the same fascination I had with drums. That real need to crack open the process.”
The result is Goddess, a record crafted in the studio with a rotating cast of vocalists—many of whom Milton met during her years touring. Some, like Shingai Shoniwa (Noisettes), Eleanor from Daughter, and Isabel Muñoz-Newsome (Pumarosa), are longtime friends. Others, like rising artist Harriet Rock, came into the fold during the project’s evolution. “It’s a bit of everything,” Milton says of the selection process. “You’re drawn to people whose work you love, but making music is also so vulnerable. Sometimes it’s harder to do with someone you know.”
Despite the fluid lineup, Goddess is anything but scattered. The album pulses with rhythmic cohesion—unsurprising given Milton’s drumming background—and a signature aesthetic that fuses fierce basslines with delicate piano motifs and shimmering production. “I love twinkly sounds,” she laughs. “And everything is super rhythmic because I can’t help that. It’s in my DNA.”
The two lead singles, Shadows and Animals, embody this duality. The former, a collaboration with Eleanor from Daughter, melds melancholic beauty with understated ferocity. “It’s about loss, and all the complicated feelings that come with it,” Milton explains. “But it’s also got this fierceness, a sort of edge. That’s what I love—putting ingredients together that maybe shouldn’t work.”
And while Goddess defies easy genre classification, that ambiguity is part of the project’s essence. “I’m not a genre-focused person,” Milton says. “I love music, and I love mixing things that shouldn’t go together. It’s more like a playlist or a compilation. That’s the spirit behind it.”
Thematically, the record touches on isolation, connection, and identity—feelings that began surfacing just before the pandemic and gained new resonance during it. While Milton didn’t pen the lyrics herself (“that’s the vocalists’ world,” she says), her touch is present in the emotional terrain the songs cover. One lyrical motif even appears twice across the album—an intentional easter egg for eagle-eared listeners.
But perhaps the most defining aspect of Goddess is its commitment to platforming female and non-binary voices. Every vocalist on the record fits that remit. “It wasn’t about being a purist,” Milton says. “There are men involved in the production side. But I’ve always found something very special in the way women and non-binary people work together. There’s a kind of gentleness, an openness. And a lot of women are still not used to working with other women in music. I wanted to create that space.”
Live performances for Goddess are rare by design. “After so much touring with Savages, I started to feel a bit conflicted about the environmental impact,” Milton says. “I don’t want to be jumping on planes all the time.” As a co-founder of Music Declares Emergency—an organization raising awareness around climate change through music—Milton is deeply invested in sustainable artistry. The group’s campaign No Music on a Dead Planet has rallied support from names as big as Billie Eilish and Radiohead.
Still, fans will have at least one chance to see Goddess live, at a special Rough Trade in-store show on June 3rd. “It’ll be a stripped-back version—me on drums, Ayşe on bass—but it’s going to be a really beautiful night,” Milton says.
So, what’s next? For Milton, Goddess isn’t just an album—it’s a living, evolving platform. “There are so many vocalists I want to work with. This is only the beginning,” she says, beaming. “I’m already lining up new collaborations and also producing for other artists. I think there’s endless potential in this space.”
Ultimately, Goddess is less about a fixed sound than a feeling. “I just want to move people,” Milton says. “Whether it’s emotionally—making someone cry—or physically—getting them to dance. If a song takes you somewhere, lifts you or shifts something inside you, then that’s the magic. That’s the whole point.”
Goddess is out May 30. The launch show takes place at Rough Trade on June 3. Keep an eye out for future collaborations and releases via Fay Milton’s official channel.
