Des Moines electro-industrial project Microwaved has announced “Day of the Woman 2028”, a collaborative album set for 1 January 2028 in which a single original track by founder Gabe Wilkinson is handed to a roster of female artists to rebuild as they see fit. Fifteen contributors are confirmed, submissions stay open until 1 October 2027, and Craig Drabik of Stabbed by Prongs is executive producer alongside Wilkinson.

Each artist receives the same foundational recording and full creative control over what happens next: rework, rearrange, reproduce, or add vocals and instrumentation. Wilkinson states: “I want this project to be completely about women and women’s voices. Whether an artist wants to completely overhaul the production, add their own guitars, or write their own lyricism, they have total freedom to dig in and make it theirs.”

The idea came from Microwaved vocalist Miranda Nissen, and Wilkinson points to streaming data as the trigger: he cites a female listenership of close to 35 percent across industrial metal, goth and dark rock in his own artist analytics.

Who is on ‘Day of the Woman 2028’

The confirmed line-up is Severina Sol (Cylab, The Break Up), Sapphira Vee (Sapphira Vee, The Joy Thieves), Leanne Hill (Delusions of Madness), Sarah Emily, Dominique Stephanie (DJ Liebchen), Betty X, Yvette Winkler (Vaselyne), Eleanor Rayner (Robots in Love, The Crystalline Effect, Rehumanize), Cherimondis Johnson, Erica Mulkey (Unwoman), SugarPunkPlum, Alexis Bassett (Smakdab, Deadfront), Miranda Nissen, Chaos Doll and Sara Sampson. The album will be co-produced, mixed and mastered in collaboration with the contributors, and Microwaved is still accepting submissions from female vocalists, musicians and producers before the deadline.

Wilkinson is documenting the record as it is made, releasing track breakdowns, collaborator interviews and studio updates through the project’s Patreon.

Two of the names attached to the album already appear on the most recent Microwaved release. “Snake Charmer”, issued on 14 August 2026 with Met3mpsyk6sis, was mixed and mastered by Drabik and carries a remix by Leanne Hill of Delusions of Madness, with further remixes from Andy Meyer and Jon Lang. Haven Van Hausen co-produced, and Maleha Duncan supplied the original cover art.

About Microwaved

Microwaved is the project of Gabe Wilkinson, based in Des Moines, Iowa. Wilkinson played in metal and punk bands from the mid-1990s into the early 2000s and started Microwaved as an outlet for electronic material, taking the name from a Pitchshifter song.

The first album, “Desperation Upon the Wings of Angels”, appeared on 11 January 2011, followed by “At the Heart of Death” on 3 December 2013 and the covers set “Cover Our Ass” in 2014, which included a version of Nine Inch Nails’ “Ringfinger”. The sixteen-track “Save Me” arrived on 6 June 2021 and was covered here in New EP for Iowa based industrial act Microwaved: ‘Save Me’ – listen to all 16 tracks; its guests included Kimberly of Bow Ever Down.

“The Dead Shall Walk” followed on 3 February 2023 and generated six volumes of remixes, along with a video for “Propaganda” featuring Gaby Gustafson of Eva X. Guest vocalists across the catalogue have included Jeff Scheel of Gravity Kills and Tara Saavedra of Violette Syn on a cover of Animotion’s “Obsession”. More recent releases include “USADHD” on 31 October 2025 and “Snake Charmer” in August 2026.

Guest vocalists have run through Microwaved records for well over a decade, but “Day of the Woman 2028” reverses the arrangement: the contributors hold the production, and Wilkinson supplies the source material. The submission window closes on 1 October 2027, three months before the release date.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Waterloo, Iowa based electro-Industrial band Microwaved has just unleashed their new EP, “Save Me”. The video for the title track featuring Kimberley of Bow Ever Down can be seen below.

The EP contains 16 tracks, 14 of which will be available on streaming platforms June 12th. The Bandcamp release – which you can check out right below – will contain two bonus tracks: a collaboration with Liebchen on a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” and an additional remix from the remix artist Steven Olaf.

The Ep sees the band collaborating with Kimberley of Bow Ever Down as we said earlier but also with Nathan of Milkfixer and Mitch of Doomslayer. Save Me also has many different remixes from varying artists starting with PilgrimOmega (keyboard player for Monster Voodoo Machine) to I Ya Toyah and SpankTheNun plus many of the friends that founder Gabe Wilkinson has made through the years.

“Save Me” refers to the album’s theme of loss. Gabe Wilkinson, the founder of Microwaved says: “All of my songs seem to be about loss, addiction or monsters. These songs fall into the loss of love category. This record for me is also about taking these songs and expanding my musical vocabulary. It’s about stretching some mental muscles and playing with ideas I may not have been very comfortable with.”

Here’s the video for “Save Me”.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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