A collaborative feature between under100k and Sweetastic FM
The Femcels are Rowan Miles and Gabriella Turton. An electronic pop duo out of London who, as of right now, sit at around 44,000 monthly Spotify listeners. They make music that sounds like it was beamed in from a version of MySpace that never died. Glitchy, frenetic, funny, rude, sometimes kind of beautiful in a way that sneaks up on you. The kind of project that makes you wonder how it even exists in the current landscape. I think that’s exactly the point.
Two Girls, One Band Name, Zero Songs
The origin story is almost too perfect. Rowan and Gabriella met on Instagram and later connected through one of those awkward “girly sleepovers” in 2023. Turton was working as a stylist for Maria Manow of Bassvictim at the time, which eventually put them in the orbit of producer Ike Clateman. On February 24th, 2024, they walked into a studio with absolutely no music prepared. All they had was a band name. The Femcels. That’s it. No demos. No chord progressions. No plan.
They got really drunk because they were terrified to sing in front of someone. Then they recorded four songs in a single night. All four ended up on the debut album.
I keep coming back to that detail because I think it tells you everything you need to know about this project. Most artists spend months agonizing over whether their first single is “ready.” Rowan and Gabriella got drunk and accidentally started a band. The spontaneity is baked into the DNA. You can hear it in how loose the music feels, how the vocals wander between whispered jokes and full screams, how nothing about I Have to Get Hotter sounds like it was overthought. Because it wasn’t.
The Clateman Factor
You can’t talk about The Femcels’ sound without talking about Ike Clateman. He’s the guy behind Bassvictim, and he’s essentially the third member of this project in everything but name. Rowan described it in an Interview Magazine piece by saying Ike understood exactly who they were and built beats for them in what felt like 45 seconds. That tracks. The production on I Have to Get Hotter is simplistic in the best way. Chiptune textures, drum machine grooves, saw waves, telephone-filter vocals. It sounds cheap on purpose. Like the instrumental equivalent of filming something on a camcorder when you could’ve used an iPhone. There’s a deliberate lo-fi quality that makes the whole thing feel intimate and a little unhinged.
What Clateman does really well is give Rowan and Gabriella room to be chaotic without the music falling apart. The beats are structured enough to qualify as pop songs but loose enough to let the duo talk, scream, whisper, and go completely off the rails whenever they feel like it. “Indiest Girl At School” and “A & Arnold” were co-produced by Worldpeace DMT’s Leo Fincham, and those tracks lean a bit more into structured melody. But the core of the album is Clateman’s playground, and Rowan and Gabriella are just vandalizing it in the best way possible.
From Feature to First Single
Before The Femcels even existed as a proper release entity, they showed up on Babymorocco’s Amour in late 2024. Their feature on “Club Amour / Intro” was short, but it was enough to get people asking questions. Who are these two? The catty delivery, the playful energy. It felt like stumbling onto someone’s private joke and wanting in.
Then came “He Needs Me” in February 2025. A cover of the Harry Nilsson song (you probably know it from Popeye, the Shelley Duvall version). The Face called it a bouncy, chiptune update of that cult 1980 cut, which is a solid description. It’s got this Y2K phone bleep quality that feels nostalgic for something most of their audience never actually experienced. The music video leaned hard into the duo’s visual identity: kitschy styling, “Ban Sex NOW” wallets, using a fork as a comb, fast food as props. It all looked like it cost twelve dollars and a favor from a friend with a camera. I mean that as a genuine compliment.
“Not ur friend” followed as the second single, pushing further into the duo’s spoken word tendencies and showing a slightly moodier side. Between those two singles and the Babymorocco feature, The Femcels had built a small but loud pocket of attention by late 2025. NME started paying attention. So did Pitchfork. The Face. Interview Magazine. Clash. For a duo that had technically existed for less than a year with two singles and a feature credit, that’s kind of wild.
The Album, The Titles, The Chaos
I Have to Get Hotter dropped January 24th, 2026, on the duo’s own Getting Hotter Records. Sixteen tracks. Thirty two minutes. Self-released after they initially pursued a record deal and then pulled back. As Gabriella put it, they “reclaimed their indie-ness.” That decision alone tells you a lot about what The Femcels value. They could’ve signed. They chose not to. In a music industry that treats a label deal like the finish line, walking away from one before your debut even comes out is either incredibly brave or incredibly stubborn. Probably both.
The tracklist reads like a series of threats, and I’m not exaggerating. “No One Will Fuck Me When I Wear Two Different Shoes (One Jordan, One Gucci Flip Flop).” “Please Don’t Stab Yourself (Like Elliott Smith).” “You’re Gay And You’re In Love With Me (Please Let Me Touch Your Boobs).” “She Seems Kind Of Stupid (Draft).” If you can get past the shock value of the titles (or if the shock value is precisely what draws you in), there’s actual substance underneath.
The lyrics come from real life. Rowan has talked openly about a period of heartbreak, about being flown out to New York by some rockstar and trying to harness the creative energy of people around her. Gabriella has spoken about body dysmorphia, about the pressure to be effortlessly skinny, about how pop culture doesn’t really let women talk about that stuff without packaging it as empowerment. There’s a track called “I’m So Fat” that sits right in the middle of the album and kind of dares you to laugh. You might. But you’ll also feel something.
The album opens with them literally introducing themselves. “You are now listening to The Femcels. We don’t have sex. Ever.” It’s funny. It’s confrontational. And it sets the tone for everything that follows. This is a band that names itself after involuntary celibacy culture, wears the label like a costume, and then uses it as a vehicle to talk about loneliness, desire, insecurity, and friendship in ways that feel genuinely honest. The “femcel” thing is a bit, but the feelings behind it aren’t.
The Anti-Strategy Strategy
Here’s what I think makes The Femcels a perfect under100k story. They don’t want to be optimized. They told Interview Magazine they hope Pitchfork pans their record. They want to be hated. They aim to antagonize. That’s a direct quote from the people who write about them, and based on everything I’ve read and heard, it checks out.
Most artists at this level are desperate for any crumb of critical approval. They’re tweaking their Spotify bios, pitching to playlist curators, calculating which single to release first based on what the algorithm favors. The Femcels walked into a studio with no songs, got drunk, and recorded an album’s worth of material in scattered sessions over two years. They didn’t release it until they felt like it. They turned down a record deal because it didn’t feel right. They’re currently auditioning go-go dancers for their live shows. One has black hair and one is blonde, which they think is “kinda perfect.”
This is what it looks like when artists refuse to play the game while somehow still getting invited to the table. It’s refreshing, honestly. In a scene obsessed with metrics and positioning, The Femcels are proof that personality, chemistry, and a willingness to be weird in public can still break through the noise
Rowan Beyond The Femcels
It’s worth mentioning that Rowan Miles has a creative life outside this duo. She’s connected to Worldpeace DMT, a project by her boyfriend Leo Fincham. She appeared on their 2025 album The Velvet Underground and Rowan, essentially playing the project’s resident Nico. Her vocal style, these rugged yips and whispered asides, doesn’t sound like anyone else doing pop music right now. That solo work adds dimension to what she brings to The Femcels. She’s not just half of a duo. She’s building a small creative ecosystem around herself, and The Femcels sit at the center of it.
Where It Goes From Here
The Femcels are sitting at 44,000 monthly listeners. Pitchfork gave I Have to Get Hotter a 7.6. Fantano went with a 7. Clash called it “brattish, attention-seeking, and at times ridiculous” before also calling it “a riot.” The critical establishment has noticed them, which means the listener count is going to climb. Probably quickly. They might not be under 100k for much longer.
But right now, in this exact moment, they’re still very much in the zone this site cares about. The part where things are messy and unpolished and the future could go anywhere. Rowan and Gabriella are still figuring out what The Femcels are in real time, and the fact that they’re doing it this publicly, this loudly, and with this little concern for whether anyone approves is exactly what makes them worth paying attention to.
London is expensive. They both still have lives outside of music. Gabriella mentioned wanting to just do music full time but knowing the reality doesn’t always allow for that. The tension between wanting to create and needing to survive is one of the most relatable things about this entire project. It’s something every under100k artist lives with.
I wanted to cover The Femcels because they represent something I think is getting rare: genuine chaos in music that isn’t performance art for an audience that already agrees with you. They’re polarizing, and they want to be. They’re crude, and they know it. But underneath all the screaming and the absurd song titles and the deliberately terrible singing is a friendship between two women who found each other online, got drunk in a studio, and accidentally made something people can’t stop talking about. That’s a good story. And we’re still only in the first chapter.
Now, About That Album…
So that’s the story. The origin, the trajectory, the people behind the noise. But talking about how The Femcels got here only tells half of it. The album itself needs its own conversation. What does I Have to Get Hotter actually sound like as a listening experience? What works? What doesn’t? Where does it land in the current landscape of weird, wonderful, internet-broken pop music?
For that, I’m handing things over to my friend at Sweetastic FM, who spent real time sitting with this record and have thoughts. Lots of them. If the deep dive above was the “who” and the “why,” what follows is the “how” and the “how good.” Take it away.
The following review of I Have to Get Hotter is written by Sweetastic FM.
Album cover: This album cover is so cute! It’s incredibly creative and full of color; it’s a piece of art. This cover is a 10/10!
Songs:
Rowan and Gabriella Present: The Femcels ft. Explosions: I love how though this song is short, it already gives you a good idea of the creative direction this duo is going. It’s so unique and expressive! This album opening is a 9/10!
No One Will Fuck Me When I Wear Two Different Shoes (One Jordan, One Gucci Flip Flop): I’m a huge fan of songs that feel really fun and girly, and that fits that perfectly. This song is humorous, has sick production, and I love the vocals in this one! This is a 10/10.
Come Let Us Adore Him: It’s so cool that they took the classic Christmas carol and turned it into their own fun, electronic-style song. This one is so fun and playful. I love the use of screaming in this one as well; it just fits nicely into this album and the overall vibe.
This twist on a Christmas classic is a 7/10!
Is Loser An Emotion You Feel Too?: I love how quiet this one starts compared to the last track, it shows how much of a variety The Femcels have all while maintaining a similar vibe throughout every song. This one has such a nice emo acoustic sound, the vocals are gorgeous and the lyrics feel relatable.
I loved this one, 10/10!
Indiest Girl At School: Honestly I just really love british accents, so I love hearing them speak in this song. I also quite enjoy the use of sound effects in the production, this is another humorous, fun song that’s so perfectly pop. This is another 10/10!
She Seems Kind Of Stupid: This is another one with awesome production. I love how voice effects are used in this one; it has a great, electronic sound. I love this one, it’ll definitely be going on my playlists!
“She Seems Kind Of Stupid” is a 10/10!
Even Though You’re Blonde: This is a song about society’s beauty standards, and the stereotype that having blonde hair will make you considered more attractive. This is a fun pop song that has a message to it, combined with more fun voice effects and production! I love how every song so far has fit into the album perfectly despite sounding completely different.
This one is a 9/10!
I’m So Fat: This song touches on personal insecurities, especially ones I feel that most young women can relate to. This song is so catchy, relatable, and on-brand. I love when pop music is relatable in ways that aren’t just related to romance, but dive more into personal experiences.
“I’m So Fat” is a 10/10. I love both the lyrics and the sound!
He Needs Me – Ike Mix: I love the back and forth speaking in the song and the little squeal, it’s so cute and girly, that’s exactly what I love in a song. This is another song that sounds different from your usual radio pop music; it stands out as so much more than that. This song is full of so much personality, and it’s executed so beautifully; it’s a 10/10.
Please Don’t Stab Yourself (Like Elliott Smith): This song refers to singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, who died from a stabbing in 2003. Smith has had a noticeable influence in the music industry. I really like the storytelling in this one!
The production is fun, also, just quite high frequency at times (which I am sure is on purpose). This is a fun, loud song! I do, personally, enjoy loud pop music!
This is a 7/10!
Not ur friend: This one is humorous, relatable, and danceable all in one. I love the production on this one, as well as the emo feel it has to it. I love how they whisper, sing, and yell all in this one.
“Not ur friend” is a 10/10.
Monster In You: This is another one with an enjoyable sound that also has a relatable feel. I love the singing in this one, and the slightly slower speed it has. I’ll give this one an 8/10!
You’re Gay And You’re In Love With Me (Please Let Me Touch Your Boobs): I just love their use of humor throughout this album; it’s perfection. I love when they talk to each other in these songs. This is another girly song that’s just so much fun!
“You’re Gay And You’re In Love With Me (Please Let Me Touch Your Boobs)” is a 9/10.
A & Arnold: This one immediately starts with a fun sound! I love how their voices sound stacked on one another, this one feels like it has some emo influence as well. I really enjoy this one, it’s a 9/10!
Birds Just Want To Be Planes: This song has a humorous take on birds that wish to be airplanes, playing on the fact that humans wish to have the freedom of a bird. I love how incredibly niche this song is while having such a nice sound to it. This is another 9/10!
Monster In You – Acoustic: This was already an enjoyable song, and I love how the acoustic version sounds, too. I love how in this version, you can focus a lot on the lyrics and their vocals. This is a lovely version of the original song, 9/10!
OVERALL RATING: 9.1/10
Every song on this album sounded completely different, yet fit together so perfectly. I absolutely love the vibe that The Femcals have, and I can’t wait to hear more from them. This was such an incredible, exciting pop album!
Copyright & Fair Use Notice: Album artwork is the property of its respective copyright holder and is used here for non-commercial, educational purposes under fair use (17 U.S.C. §107). This review includes commentary and criticism of both the music and the artwork.