Wellness built their debut around an almost unreasonable amount of work for a record that lasts 16 minutes. Their first full-band practice happened in June 2025. Months of demos, experiments and revisions followed, with final recording beginning in late December. Guitarist Morgan Brown says the main thing she cared about when the five members came together was whether people were willing to obsess over tiny decisions that most listeners would never even notice.
For this feature, Wellness took the first round of questions into their own hands. Leo Didkovsky asked Aeryn Jade “AJ” Santillan. AJ asked Morgan. Morgan asked Morgan “Mo” Miller. Mo asked Cara Moses. Cara asked Leo. Their questions move through obsessive work, anger, room acoustics, old metal tours, queer joy, mosh pits and the way these songs have already started changing in front of a crowd.
The result is seven tracks packed into 16 minutes, with metallic hardcore, mathcore, emoviolence and screamo running through long black-metal guitar lines, guttural vocals and fried shrieks. The lyrics deal with anti-capitalism, transness, state-sanctioned violence, the wellness industry and the hope for something better on the other side of all that damage.
Morgan plays left guitar, Leo drums, Mo bass, Cara right guitar and AJ handles vocals. Between them, Morgan has played in Heavenly Blue, Leo in Liturgy and Kayo Dot, Mo in Liturgy and Chepang, Cara in Channel Vessel, and AJ in forever and Massa Nera.
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AJ’s question to Morgan went straight to the beginning: what was she actually looking for when she recruited people into Wellness?
“I have been blessed (to an unfair extent) by the musicians in my life. For some reason, any musician Iโve ever really connected with musically has been way better than me, which is great because they pull you up with them. So I donโt really care about ‘virtuosity’ or ‘prowess’ or any dumb stuff like that – itโll all come out in the wash. The thing that actually matters is if someone is down with effort. This is a valuable quality.”
For Morgan, that effort means people willing “to put in a ludicrous amount of work for less than 20 minutes of music, to really get into it, and obsess over it, and constantly revise bits and pieces – stuff that no one would notice but us, for nothing but the artโs sake, because music is cool.”
There was no formal search that assembled this lineup. Morgan and Leo already had demos. The rest came through introductions, people liking each other, and invitations to hear what the two had been making.
“I didnโt really try to find anyone, it all just happened – every introduction was pretty much dumb luck, liking each other, and an offer to check out these demos that Leo and I had been working on. It was easy. Everyone being hot is just a bonus.”
The same obsession with small decisions continued in the studio. Wellness produced the album independently, recording with Morgan and Mo at Hyperballad Music and mixing at Circular Ruin Studio. Ben Greenberg mastered it. Much of the gear was communal or borrowed, and Mo remembers piecing together drum shells, heads and cabinets before the band could start comparing microphones and chasing full-band takes.
Morgan’s question to Mo focused on a particular restriction. The arrangements left little room for overdubs or major tonal changes, yet Mo is an engineer, and engineers can have a hard time leaving well enough alone. Mo says they put most of that attention into getting the sources right before the mix.
“A lot of the process centered around figuring out how to make the most of a makeshift live room, which had never actually accommodated a full-band recording before. One glass wall, one brick wall, one wooden wall, one drywall wall, and these tall ceilings. It was unpredictable, but that became part of the sound. The room and hallways imparted a very definitive character to the record.”
The band had their own studios and whatever equipment they could assemble between them. They concentrated their attention on shells, heads, cabinets, microphones and the actual performances being caught in that room. Once those sounds existed, the mix stayed lean.
“So we really leaned into transparency and tried to let the acoustics speak for themselves rather than fighting against them. In that sense, thereโs an interesting contrast in the production: we were pretty maximalist about the sources and the sounds we were capturing, but our actual mixing approach was very minimalist.”
The guitars move between hard metallic hardcore riffs and longer black-metal lines, while AJ switches between guttural vocals and fried shrieks. The whole record runs for 16 minutes.
The first track we heard, “503”, already gave us a pretty clear warning of how hard this beast was going to kick our heads in. Its lyrics go after empty connections, parasocial relationships, chasing relevance, editing yourself into somebody else and trying to outrun ageing for as long as possible. Bodies change, attention moves on and time does not give a shit about the version of yourself you built for the screen. Consider yourselves warned.
Wellness have repeatedly used the line “made by and for the girls, the nerds, and the freaks”. Leo’s question to AJ pushed past the slogan and asked where the mixture of harsh reality and joy in her performance came from.
“Thereโs not one particular event or decision, Iโve always used music to process whatโs happening in the world around us. Performing in Wellness is a cathartic release of anger, sadness, and hope for a better future while I push the limits of my own technical abilities.”
The joy AJ talks about comes from people. She names her friends in the band, other bands, audiences, sound people and venue people as parts of the same experience.
“I think that the joy I feel comes purely from being able to play this music alongside such good friends and connecting with others in the community – the bands, audience, sound/venue folks, etc. Itโs also a beautiful feeling to play in a band with my trans siblings – I personally feel a lot of pure queer joy sharing a stage with those two.”
Wellness have been clear about who this music is for: “the girls, the nerds, and the freaks.” AJ’s answer gives that line a much more concrete meaning, rooted in the people she shares the stage with and the community around the band.
Cara asked Leo about the earlier influences that had found their way back into his writing. He went straight to Summer Slaughter 2011 and 2013.
“I look to the masterclass lineups of Summer Slaughter Tour: 2011 and 2013. The fun, technicality, and emotional vastness of those shows rubbed off on me as a teen and I honor that exciting era from my youth in Wellness.”
“All the bands Iโve ever been in shape my choices for expression as well, itโs my personal festival that I look to for songwriting wisdom.”
Wellness recorded the album last winter aiming to keep as much of the live feel as they could. Once they started taking those songs on stage, Cara noticed them changing with every crowd.
“When we recorded last winter, we were aiming to give the record as live of a sound and feel as we could, but now that we’re actually playing shows itโs been cool to see the way each song has changed. It’s been a learning process of seeing where and how people respond to our music, and us making adjustments to lean towards that.”
Some breakdowns have become slower and sludgier live, while the faster sections get pushed harder when the crowd starts moving.
“I’ve noticed certain breakdowns have gotten slower and sludgier, and energetic sections go crazier when we have the audienceโs feedback.”
Cara has already seen crowds changing the physical side of these songs, especially once the pits start moving. She also wants Wellness shows to leave room for reflection and intimacy alongside that chaos.
“I think our set brings a lot of space for ecstatic and chaotic self expression, but also reflection and intimacy within the space, and that is the sort of music culture we want to help grow.”
By release day, Wellness have already played Trans-Pecos in New York, Pyxis in Providence, Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge, another Massachusetts date on 22 August, and Space Ballroom in Hamden. Three days after the album comes out, they play their release show at TV Eye in Ridgewood.
“Wellness” is out today, 18 September, through Third House, digitally and in a limited run of vinyl, CDs and cassettes. Gigi M. Kotalik made the cover art, Zach Fay handled the graphic design, and Leo designed the logo.
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Annie Mitchell leaves the record with one question: “Ask yourself in a distant future – How could I let this happen? How could we let this happen?”
Morgan also slipped one much less serious question into his exchange with Mo: how does it feel being the only dog person in Wellness?
“And as the only dog (let alone small dog) person in the band, I have an obligation to carry the torch. Of course I feel persecuted for my beliefs, yet every day I soldier on. I know my path is righteous and that dogs will prevail. Woof!”
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The two remaining dates currently announced are:
September 21, New York City: TV Eye, 1647 Weirfield St, Ridgewood. Wellness album release show with Malevich, Stress Spells and Fatepropelsthefallingsythe. Doors at 7pm. $15 advance, $18 at the door.
October 18, New York City: TV Eye, with The Number 12 Looks Like You.
