Rowena Wise grew up in Margaret River, a surf town in Western Australia, playing guitars her luthier father built by hand and taking songwriting from her mother, a folk musician born in Chicago. She toured in a family band as a kid and moved to Melbourne at 18. Bad Things Feel Good is the title track of her album, out August 7, 2026 through Beloved Records and Remote Control Records.
Wise wrote it, words and music. Robert Muinos produced and mixed it and played on it, with Jess Ellwood, Richard Bradbeer and Matt Dixon also performing. She describes her songs as close conversations that balance beauty with mess, turning over love, alienation, longing and the question of who she is.
About Rowena Wise
Rowena Wise is a singer-songwriter based in Naarm/Melbourne who writes songs that play like close conversations, turning over love, alienation, longing and the question of who she is. She describes her work as balancing beauty with mess, drawing on the storytelling of 60s folk while staying rooted in indie rock, garage pop and alt-folk, looking for truth in fiction and humanity in contradiction.
She grew up in Margaret River, a surf town in Western Australia, and music was there from the beginning: her father, a luthier, built her guitars by hand, and her mother, a folk musician born in Chicago, passed on a deep respect for songwriting and storytelling. Wise toured in a family band as a kid and moved to Melbourne at 18 to set out on her own. Her first single, Diary, arrived in 2018, followed by F**ked Up Over You and To Pretend, as well as No Cure For Love, a collaboration with Didirri. She is signed to Beloved Records and 22TWENTY.
Associated Performer, Mixing Engineer, Producer: Robert Muinos
Composer, Lyricist: Rowena Wise
Bad Things Feel Good lyrics
Don't wanna live my life where everything I do
Makes the bed where I've got a light
Eternal compensation for what's not black and white
I wanna do my best 'cause it feels good
Now I have my doubts
I threw away the moral compass
They need us looking out
I'm following my heart now
Do I make you proud?
I know I've made a mess
But it feels good
Paranoid and paralyzed
I've lost the path to paradise
I found myself standing there at your door
What do I do without a legacy to lose?
Tell me, who wrote the poem?
Will they let me into heaven with my fake ID?
The bad things are feeling good
Feeling good
I don't wanna fade
Now I know there's nothing waiting
When I slip away
I chase the light, but I know I am only shadows plain
I'm looking for the inner child that watches
No diversion is defined when the way is hard to find
Penitent pleasure, what is love?
What do I do without a legacy to lose?
Tell me, who wrote the poem?
Will they lead me into heaven with my fake ID?
The bad things are feeling good
Ah-ah, ah, ah
