Q&A: Revenge Wife Steps Into Her Cosmic Power in Debut Album ‘Alien Witch’

MusicQ&A

Sep 29

INTERVIEW

STEP INTO THE REALM OF ALIEN WITCH — and everything feels a little more enchanted. Here, the stars become guides and femininity exists as an extension of the divine. This is the universe Liz Nistico has created with Revenge Wife, her fearless solo project and the next evolution of the artist best known as the magnetic frontwoman of indie-pop staple HOLYCHILD. On her debut album, out September 30, Revenge Wife steps fully into the world of Alien Witch, rooted in the mystical, the feminine and cosmic curiosity.

Across 12 tracks, each inspired by a different zodiac sign, Revenge Wife uses astrology not as a rigid system of prediction, but as a collection of archetypes through which she examines herself, her relationships and the larger collective experience. Revenge Wife explores the many archetypes that exist within us — the lover, the hermit, the empress and the fool.

“Art is spiritual to me. To make art is to connect with yourself, and connecting with yourself is the essence of existence,” Revenge Wife says. “I’m healing, I’m growing, I’m meditating in the mornings to be more loving and give light to people I know. I’m at the crystal shop looking at the aura quartz. I’m pulling the 8 of Wands in tarot, I’m ready for my life to change. Somewhere along this path, I read a quote in a book that said if a person made a song with healing energy, that energy would be palpable to the people who listened. That’s pretty much the impetus for the album, trying to heal myself and giving love energy to the people who connect with it. Inspired by ayahuasca ceremonies and old Ojai witch women, dreams of Andromeda and Pleiades, and mixed with the purity I felt when I was thrashing around at The Used concert in 2003. Maybe music can be everything.”

Throughout the making of Alien Witch, Revenge Wife embraced the idea that music could carry its own frequency and be a vessel for healing and intention. That philosophy became especially tangible during a trip to Milan, Italy, where Nistico began writing the album inside churches, intentionally immersing herself in spaces she associated with spiritual energy.

“While I was writing for the album, I went to Italy, and my whole intention was to meditate in churches and then write songs infused with positive energy,” Revenge Wife tells Luna. “Then I really took that into the production and then it all simplified and fell away. I realized spirituality is actually just being really present with yourself.”

Among the most intimate moments on Alien Witch is “Only 17 (Libra),” a song that holds an especially personal place in Revenge Wife’s heart as a Libra herself. Fittingly, the track strips away nearly everything surrounding it. While the rest of the record moves through cosmic textures, unexpected instrumentation, and off-kilter production, “Only 17 (Libra)” is reduced to its most essential elements: Revenge Wife, her piano and a melody left completely exposed.

“It's just me and a piano,” Revenge Wife reveals. “I think Libra gets a bad rap. People think it's just aesthetic for aesthetic’s sake, and that's why I wanted to have the Libra song be almost nothing.”

The restraint is intentional. Rather than leaning into Libra's familiar associations with beauty, balance, and aesthetics, Revenge Wife turns the archetype inward, finding beauty in simplicity.

“It's so pure. It's only the lyrics and this sweet melody and then my piano,” she says. “There's no other production on it, so it's very stripped back. It's very beautiful, but it's anti-aesthetic.”

Dark, magnetic and deeply spiritual, the record inhabits a world where feminine energy and the cosmos are intrinsically connected. Throughout Alien Witch, Revenge Wife looks beyond the zodiac and toward the vastness of the universe, finding inspiration in the Pleiades — the star cluster nestled within the Taurus constellation — and the ancient mysteries surrounding our connection to the cosmos.

LUNA: Welcome back and thank you for talking to Luna again. It's super exciting to have you back since the last time we talked around “Poseidon” earlier this year. I would love to catch up and see how life has been treating you and what have you been up to since the last time we talked.

REVENGE WIFE: Since “Poseidon,” this album has been funny because I've been saying that I'm almost done for so long. When we spoke in January, I was probably like, "I'm almost done with my album,” but I was still six months away, so it took me a lot to hunker down and finish it. I finished my album. I'm trying to be really disconnected from my phone. It's honestly been such a spiritual time for me this summer, especially. I think what happened is I met an artist who's really spiritually connected, and she inspired me. Then I had this wild dream where these aliens from Andromeda told me to find my witch coven, and then I connected with a women's group of really spiritual women, aging from their thirties to seventies out where I live, and so that's been really inspiring. I've been horseback riding, and doing Reiki training.

LUNA: You are just a few hours away from your debut album release. There’s a strong spiritual thread running through Alien Witch, from astrology and tarot to meditation, ayahuasca ceremonies, crystals and your fascination with the Pleiades. How has spirituality changed the way you approach songwriting and creativity?

REVENGE WIFE: I love that. I always did have a very spiritual way of songwriting, even before I understood that that's how I was writing. It's been really fun to use the mysticism as part of the art, and it changed a lot in the intention behind the songs and the production. A few years ago, while I was writing for the album, I went to Italy, and my whole intention was to meditate in churches and then write songs infused with positive energy and then I really took that into the production and then it all simplified and fell away. I realized spirituality is actually just being really present with yourself, so as long as I have my phone away from me and I'm super connected to myself, then it's like I’m done.

LUNA: Each of the album’s 12 tracks represents a different zodiac sign. What inspired you to structure the album around the zodiac, and how did each sign’s archetype influence the song associated with it?

REVENGE WIFE: It's so funny because I don't have any recollection of when that idea came to me to do the signs and the songs intertwined. It is one of those ideas that was always in existence, even though I know it was only a few years ago that I realized I wanted to do it that way. I don't know how that came about, but then once it did come about, it was just so obvious that this is the direction the album is taking. From there, I had so many songs that I have written over the course of the past eight years that I was pulling in. Does that song fit that sign? Does that match this? Does it make sense to be on the album?

LUNA: With your sign being in Libra, what does the Libra song mean to you off Alien Witch?

REVENGE WIFE: Libra's song is very special to me because I'm a Libra, and the song is a real understanding of Libra. It's called “Only 17 (Libra).” It's the only song on the album that has its zodiac sign embedded in the title, and it's the most stripped down song. It's just me and a piano. For a long time, I thought I was just going to use the original voice memo. It's a very sad song. It's about a cousin of mine who lost her dad when she was really young, and he came to me in a dream and gave me this song about his daughter, and so it's about her, and she's a Libra too. I just thought it has to be this song, and I think Libra gets a bad rap. People think it's just aesthetic for aesthetic’s sake, and that's why I wanted to have the Libra song be almost nothing. It's so pure. It's only the lyrics and this sweet melody, and then my piano. There's no other production on it, so it's very stripped back. It's very beautiful, but it's anti-aesthetic. Libra is such pure beauty and love, so it's such a special song. I can't wait for you to hear it.

LUNA: The record represents your first time taking on production for an entire album. What did producing yourself teach you about your own creative instincts?

REVENGE WIFE: I felt like Elle Woods after I produced the whole thing. I was like, “What? Like it's hard?” I kept saying that to myself because with any artistic thing that we do as artists, all of us, we have this task ahead of us, and it seems like a behemoth, and we're like, how am I going to do that? And then also organisationally, how do I even organize myself to do that thing? There's a lot of challenges when you're taking on a big project — whether it's writing a book or an album — it just felt like after I did it, I felt so empowered.

I've also been really living with the mantra: Everybody else has everything. What do I have? Because I think that when you're online, it just seems like everyone's so good at everything. I really wanted to wring out my brain of every single possible idea. That's what I have. I have tons of ideas, and I'm not short of ideas ever. That's what it was for me. There's a lot of layers on the album. I think it's going to be one of those things where people can listen to it thousands of times because you'll hear this part, then you'll hear that, and there’s so many parts.

LUNA: Do you have a personal favorite song on Alien Witch — one that feels closest to your heart or most revealing of who Revenge Wife is right now?

REVENGE WIFE: I'm going to say my favorite song right now is “In The Flowers” because that's the last song that I produced. When I first started producing, it's a little bit like songwriting where I almost feel like anytime I'm about to write a song, I don't know how to do that, even though I've written hundreds of songs. I felt that way for producing for a while. Then with “In The Flowers,” I really felt like I figured it out, and it's also just so wild and has so much going on, but it feels right. I'm really proud of that one.

LUNA: The album is deeply rooted in feminine energy. What does feminine energy and power mean to you personally, and how did you translate that idea into this project?

REVENGE WIFE: This album to me does feel so feminine. I do feel so feminine too. I love connecting with my femininity and my masculinity, but I really do love femininity and the beauty of it. I wanted this album to be a feminine pop-punk album. I love Taking Back Sunday and Brand New. I went to the Warped Tour on crutches when I was in eighth grade. In that space, it's hard to come through with soft femininity. It's not there that much. I can't tell you how many venues I go to where they think I'm the girlfriend. I also feel like as a woman, as a female musician, people always assume there's a guy in the background doing things. With Holy Child, I think a lot of people might have assumed that too, just because it was me and a man.

In producing, having my other songs produced, I'm very generous with credit. When I do work with people, I give generous percentages to everybody, which I'm proud that I do. Then it got to a point where people can take credit now for doing things that I actually did, and I want my people to know that I did all of that. I wrote all of those things. I came up with all those ideas, and I was leading the charge. I questioned for a long time: Is that ego to want people to know that, or is it just being empowered? At the end of the day, it really did empower me because, even the songwriting, I wrote all of these songs by myself, and I think that as women too, it feels like we need people all the time, and we're so open and collaborative. It's not our nature to even say no to that. I think I needed to pull it back and show what I could do on my own. I love rock music so much. I love thrashing around at a concert. I just love music so loud, and I wanted to make an album that would be that, but very feminine.

LUNA: Without giving too much away, what do you hope listeners take away from the story at the end of the album?

REVENGE WIFE: The last song on the album is a short story, and it's 11 minutes. I think that once you listen through to the album, and then when you get to the point where you are embarking on this 11-minute journey, I hope people really just feel super connected to themselves. That's what I wanted this album to be. I wanted it to be an experience where you can escape from everything and just really connect with the art and feel like you could do it too if you wanted, and feel inspired to work on what you're working on. It's really about being present and realizing everything is so much more simple than we think, and if we're just present, that just feels so nice.

LUNA: What is the ideal environment to experience Alien Witch? Is there a particular setting, mood, or time of day that enhances the listening experience?

REVENGE WIFE: love that question. I'm imagining going on a walk, listening to it, going on a run, being on a drive, putting it on in your room when you're on your own. I imagine the last song is a meditation where you take a hit of a joint and you're listening to the last song and letting the story wash over you. So, really, any way that you can be super connected to yourself and be having music time is the ideal way to engage in the album.

LUNA: How are you planning on celebrating the album release?

REVENGE WIFE: I'm so excited for my show on October 7 in New York. It's going to be really intimate, but I know it's going to be really packed. I also really want it to be a full immersive experience for everybody, so I'm going to have the lyrics playing, and everybody has seven days to learn the album because the album's out on September 30, and then the show is October 7. I'll be singing with my band, but I won't have backing tracks, so I will be leaning on the crowd, who I know are all so talented too, to be singing all the parts. I'm excited about my outfit for it. I'll be horseback riding the day that the album comes out, so I'll be with the horses, and that will feel really great. I'm going to try to not be on my phone so much because releasing music can be such phone days, and those phone days whip me around emotionally, so I'm going to try to not do that.

LUNA: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like that you would like to share with Luna?

REVENGE WIFE: I feel good. I feel really excited. It feels surreal. I wrote in my journal today, like I've been preparing physically, but also spiritually for the release of the album. Pretty much my entire album prep has all been energetic spiritual work, like doing Reiki training. I'm doing Reiki level two training this weekend. I think it's a real spiritual practice to just be outward, and I commend everybody who does that. I'm trying to feel grounded about that. The rest of the year, I'll be planning a tour for the spring. I'm sure I'll have more shows that come up. I'm scoring a cartoon that's going to be out in 2027.