Melodies, hooks, dissociations, and realizations are just a few of the words that can be used to try and quantify Connecticut shoegaze outfit waveform*’s newest album, Antarctica, out on May 12 via Run for Cover Records.
It may be shoegaze, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about dreams, atmosphere, and just a dash of weirdness, but for the duo of Jarrett Denner and Dan Poppa, it’s just business as usual. Although the group normally channels their writing separately, this process was much more collaborative, setting them up for the next level.
“We are feeling good about (the new album),” they say. “We don’t think we really have any expectations for it; (we) just want the people who wanna hear it to hear it. (The signing) hasn’t changed anything to the process, nor have we had any previous, similar collaborations. Releasing the album is the same thing, except there’s a longer rollout, and we get way more press and vinyl made for us (which is awesome).”
The 10-track album is a juggernaut of pure emotion, veritable moods peppered throughout that are enticingly inviting. While most of the songs deal with isolation, they blend between being direct and more impressionistic aspects, the resulting creation snaps together beautifully. Antarctica is the culmination of what should be an intangible introspection but more accurately turned out to be more of a tangible reflection.
“We think all of the songs mean the most to us because we really took a lot of time with the tracklist and a lot of times, based the ones we liked purely off of the lyrics. The songs deal with characters and colors that all represent that theme (of isolation). It’s not really something we realized until after the fact.”
What may have garnered interest from the Philly shoegaze scene has influenced the emergence of the duo, from just a couple of friends in high school to shoegazing and trailblazing all over the scene. Waveform* will keep pushing the boundaries, undoubtedly, and continue to put the little-known genre into the mix.
Photo courtesy of Quinten Koroshetz
