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Jan 28, 2026 By Andy Von Pip Photography by Karolina Wielocha

Gretel has announced her long-awaited debut album, Squish, due for release on April 10 via Breadcrumb Records / AWAL, and today shares its rollicking title track.

Born from gothic fairytales, girlhood, and survival,”Squish” sets the emotional tone of the record, tracing the pressure points where vulnerability hardens into defiance. On the song’s meaning, Gretel says:

“It’s not about any one thing. It’s all the things that press down on you over time to make this uncomfortable, deformed desire inside. I feel like I always have that desire in me — it’s in this curious place between what the world pushes onto you and what it squeezes out of you. But sometimes I have dreams so oversized that when I look down at myself, I’m just doing this awkward infant waddle towards them.”

Recorded live over five days at RAK Studios with her band, Squish marks a decisive return to instinctual rawness. After scrapping earlier versions of the album, Gretel rebuilt it from the ground up as the grungy, hook-heavy guitar record she had always wanted to make. Announcing the album, she adds:

“It’s been a long time in the making, even longer in the living and patiently waiting to release. These songs reflect the last 5 years being at times like a big fat baby and other times like a zen old woman who knows very well when and whether to give a fuck. my band and I recorded in messy live takes, as encouraged by our awesome producers Seth Evans and Margo Broom, which was refreshing. it felt like returning home and trying to squish back through the front door.”

Since emerging at 18 with debut single “Slugeye”, Gretel has forged her own clear identity within the UK alternative music scene, influenced by artists including Nirvana, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey and Wolf Alice

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