WORTH THE WAIT is back with their latest heavy hitter “DARKMODE“. Comprised of 4 of Akron Ohio’s’ finest: Dakota Rose, Joseph Kovacs, Zach Fox and John Safier, the quartet is setting the bar again.
The band takes a lot of influences for their sound from bands like Falling in Reverse, Asking Alexandria, Wage War and Bring Me The Horizon to name just a few.
The band was originally formed in 2009 consisting of 5 members. Influenced by their post-hardcore and metalcore predecessors, the band officially went into the studio to record their very first demo with Landon Tewers (The Plot In You) in 2010.
Several months later they headed back to the studio. This time, at Capital House Studios with Nick Ingram. After gaining some success on Myspace and Facebook, they got in contact with Saud Ahmed of The Crimson Armada/The Holy Guile and finished what would become their first independently released EP “Remembrance” in 2012.
After playing countless shows in different cities and Vans Warped Tour, rifts came between the growing teenage members, and line up changes occurred, leading to a new direction in sound as you can hear with the follow up single “Overture”
As they were becoming adults, creative differences and conflict began when passion was lacking and the members disbanded, leading to a short hiatus. With the one man left standing, Dakota Rose quickly worked to find new musicians that were familiar with the scene, the situation and could put a whole new staple on the bands sound. Which, In 2014, led to the recruitment of driving member Joseph Kovacs and the following release of “The Ark”. But personal lives grew and fell apart and ultimately put things on hold again.
The pandemic hits in 2020 and the band find quarantine to be the most opportune time to get back to work and release three brand new singles “SLANDER (Dead Inside)”, “BLACKWATER” and “OBEY // DECAY” with each showing a consistent evolution and progression in sound and forging the success of over half of a million streams on Spotify alone. Now come 2022 after features on Scene Daddy, CaliberTV, Beheading the Traitor and radio play from Squatch in the Pit Radio. After hours of interviews with lifelong friends, From The Stache Podcast, and new arising platforms within the scene and the additions of drummer, Zach Fox, and John Safier taking over the bass. They are ready to take the next step and make even more memories with the September 16th release of single “DARKMODE.”
Guitar player Joseph Kovacs briefly explains some background of the writing process: “I’ve had this demo on my computer since September of last year, I believe because I named it Septemby Two for reference after getting it all demoed out. Lol. I had sent it over to Dakota to bounce some ideas around and he loved what was there but wanted a little more in the break. So, I threw some harmonics in and we cut some pieces out and had ourselves our next single. I’ve always wanted to have a full line up with WTW because its just been Dakota and I since I’ve been around. We took some time to try out some potential members and decided we weren’t going to release any new music until we had announced the additions of Zach and John. Fast forward a couple months and here we are ready to share the next chapter.”
When writing the lyrics for DARKMODE, frontman Dakota Rose describes: “I was battling one of thee absolute toughest moments of my life. Everyone experiences these moments throughout their lives in different ways. Loss. Realization. They take on different forms through different people and situations. They manipulate your surroundings and your thoughts to convince you that you have become something that you simply are not. They put you in that dark place. They enable your dark mode. And once it’s switched on, you can’t turn it off. Not that you forget to, but you realize how much easier on the eyes your life becomes without being forced to be dimmed down and put out.”
The bands next endeavor is bringing the music to life with un-disclosed plans to host a return show in their home town of Akron Ohio in the fall.
Dakota: “It’s been crazy. Life has been crazy. But we have no current plans on stopping. 8 years ago we wrote and released “The Ark”, which I had written about my first born son, Noah. But when it comes time to raise a family its hard to balance work, family, and music. So I had to cut back on how much time I was putting towards it. Not long after the release, Joe’s had some bigger things in life to focus on as well. We came to a mutual agreement to put things on hold until the time felt right. Finally, the time feels right, And we’re more alive than ever. The music we’re writing will show you just that.”
Joe: “I was a local fan of WTW back in 2011 when Dakota approached me in line at Vans Warped Tour to check out his band. Surprisingly, for a local band in the area, they were pretty good so I followed along until Dakota reached out and asked me to freshen his project up. Since then, Worth The Wait has been my baby and I’ve sort of started to consider myself the “band dad” if you will, hahah. The songwriting process and my vision just keeps growing and evolving for the future of the band and I just couldn’t ask for a better group of friends to create this music for all of you!”
Zach: “Super happy to be a part of this project and even more excited to work with a group of dudes whom I now consider some of my closest friends. This project is exactly the kind of creative direction I’ve wanted for myself and I cannot wait to show all of you what we’ve been working on. A big thank you to the Worth The Wait family for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this and I cannot wait to meet each and every one of you!”
John: “I’m if you ordered Sonny Moore on Wish lol I’m excited to be learning and playing more intricate music with my newly found brothers. Coming from an emo/pop punk background as well as ska, I believe we will have a nice eclectic blend of music for you. Special thanks to the guys for bringing me in and making me feel right at home.”
