Since the surf reef collapsed, Bournemouth hasn’t seen any waves – until now. Wave Chase are a young four-piece from the South Coast. Their energetic indie rock is fuelled by attitude and emotion, leaving the crowds of Bournemouth’s bars looking soaked from the sea. We spoke to the boys about the local scene, moving away, collaborating with Shaggy, and more.
“Guitar music is very much alive!”
Soundchecks are all about checking out new sounds behind the scenes. In these exclusive chats with bands, producers, rappers, singers and musicians, those upcoming artists that deserve the spotlight get a chance to shine.
Is it true that Mickey arrived to your last gig in an ambulance?
M: “Yeah I actually had to drive the ambulance though because my car was wrecked and it was the only vehicle I could borrow, I did have to drop off the guy I crashed into at the hospital but aside from that, pretty standard trip…”
What are your favourite venues to play?
G: “The Anvil in our hometown of Bournemouth is always fun. It’s a tiny 100 cap sweat box with a really low stage – so it creates a really intimate setting. We supported Indoor Pets there last year which was insane – and were fortunate enough to do our own headline there back in July. It sold out and was rammed… definitely the sweatiest, rowdiest gig we’ve done. The Joiners is pretty fun in Southampton, the legacy of that place is ridiculous… bands from Green Day, to Oasis to Ed Sheeran have all played there! It’s really important to protect independent venues and support live music.”
Two of you are off to study in Brighton, how do you think it will affect the band?
G:“It will obviously mean things slow down slightly, but on the other hand it is new ground for us to make our mark on. The Brighton music scene is one of the best in the country, so we are excited for a new challenge and to start gigging there. We are both studying music at BIMM so we are going to be writing songs everyday – there’s going to be endless amounts of Wave Chase songs being churned out.”
With hip-hop leading the charts and culture, is it true to say that guitar music is dead?
G: “No! Guitar music is very much alive; you just have to do a bit more digging to find the good stuff! The charts is only a very small portion of the music industry, for example, Slipknot just had their first number one album in eighteen years!!! Platforms like Spotify make it a lot easier to find guitar bands over what is radio friendly, with playlists and algorithms dedicated to a genre. Having said that, if you listen to Radio 1 in the evening, the majority of the music is guitar based. There’s loads of cool bands and artists around at the moment, Sam Fender, Foals, Royal Blood, The 1975… the list goes on.”
What’s the scene in Bournemouth like?
G: “Pretty dead… it’s a shame because there is the potential for a scene here. There are not a lot of bands or venues in the town, most local bands have to travel to Southampton to get good gigs. Having said that, We Broke Free are great live music promotors in the town. Tor does a lot for local bands and has brought some big names to the town such as: The Magic Gang (Bournemouth locals), Blossoms, The Amazons and loads more.”
What bands would you recommend then?
G: “Locally, our mates in Cherry Lotus are doing bits at the moment; their new single ‘Jetlag’ is a stomper!!! There’s a really cool band called Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard from Wales, their new single ‘Love Forever’ is a tune. It’s got real T. REX 70’s glam rock vibes.”
T: “Chinatown Slalom. They’re students from Liverpool who have created an original sound combining multiple genres in one album…”
M: “OK, recently I came across this bedroom pop duo called Bedside who I really think people should check out, they’re pretty much just ripping off Mac DeMarco and Her’s. The guitarist is a bit shit but they write some songs with words and music so that’s pretty good… it’s my side project.”
C: “Bands I recommend are Cage the Elephant, The Unicorns and Mini Mansions. Check out Mini Mansions, ‘Should be Dancing’.”
How is your upcoming EP shaping up?
G: “It’s gonna be a kinda circular disc, in a square case. It’s all recorded. We have a couple of singles to drop first as tasters before the whole EP is released in a couple of months.”
It was recorded in Swanage with help from Galaxy Thief, what is your creative process like?
G: “Really good! Those guys are good friends of ours, so it made the recording process really easy and super chill. The fact they’re musicians themselves really helped the process as well. Jake, (Mr Producer himself), is a theory nerd and was really beneficial to us. Whether it be working out different harmonies or chord choices that we wouldn’t have thought of otherwise. Jamie was really helpful when recording vocals, on how to phrase certain things – him and Jake actually sing some of the backing vocals on the tracks… we just can’t hit those high notes!”
If you could each work with one artist from any genre, who would it be?
G: “Kevin Parker (Tame Impala)… I think he’s a genius, everything he does is just perfection. I don’t think I’d actually be ‘working with’ him; I’d just sit back, shut up and let him work his magic. I’d just be a nuisance… Also if Shaggy could do verse on our song ‘Clean Bowled’ that’d be sick!”
T: “That’s a hard one… Probably Jon Bellion, his song-writing and production ability is insane, he’s got videos on YouTube on how he puts songs together, how his mind works is something else.”
M: “Dream collab would be Damon Albarn, because he’s so varied I feel like he could push me to try out different shit that I wouldn’t have thought to do on my own and has worked with so many different people so that would be sick…”
C: “Probably my dream collaboration would be with BADBADNOTGOOD, I really enjoy their music and admire their song writing so I’d really enjoy jamming with them and maybe writing something…”
What’s next for Wave Chase?
“Long term: World Domination…
Short Term: We’d like to keep putting out music, writing, gigging and developing our own unique sound.
A tour would be cool at some point. Whether it’s hopping on with another band, or our own headline tour! To go round the country in a van, living off Maccies for two weeks… sounds fun right?!”
Instagram: @wavechaseband Facebook: @wavechaseband
Spotify: Wave Chase YouTube: Wave Chase
Twitter: @wavechaseband Contact: wavechaseband@outlook.com
Interviewed by: James Wijesinghe
Images: @byronw.media
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[…] by the Sea’ is the first official release from Bournemouth indie rockers Wave Chase in over a year. The long-awaited return of their signature shimmering guitars and soppy singing […]
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