MALWAVE‘s music was borne out of the pandemic lockdown. Music created without ever even hearing a single note played by each other. “Anguisher”, their first release, represents creative energies repurposed during quarantine, capturing the sonic highs and lows of pandemic-induced melancholia. Each track sutures together the sublime and the dissonant; equal parts escapist and alienating, alternating in volatile waves, like the pandemic itself. Like a soundtrack to 2020, each song is both a careful and a reckless navigation through the landscape.
This music was created in what could best be compared to the “exquisite corpse method” of art making. Each member sat alone and recorded various unique parts and pieces on their instrument. The parts and melodies are blind between bandmates. Social and physical distance combined with thematic distance, the results are imported into one timeline, just like all of us.
Coming from three very eclectic musical backgrounds, Philip Wilson (VIRE) on drums, Vince M. (CELLOS) on bass, and Jesse Lee Bellon (Solo) on guitar and keyboards, unique styles all come crashing together to create an at times beautiful, growling, and pummelling musical journey.
“Anguisher” comes out on April 9th via Bandcamp.
For MALWAVE, creating music or musical pieces and ideas alone in lockdown felt very appropriate during the pandemic. The initial idea of the band was to see what kind of music we could create if we each recorded our own unique parts without ever hearing what the other members were creating.
A key and tempo (example: Key of D, tempo of 130 BPM) were selected and each member sat alone and recorded various unique parts and pieces on their instrument. The parts and melodies are blind between bandmates. Social and physical distance combined with thematic distance, the results are imported into a single timeline, just like all of us.
All of these parts and sections were then pieced and layered on top of each other, coming together as the tracks on the album. This process created some very interesting musical arrangements that likely wouldn’t have happened if we were all in a room together improvising and making music “in the flesh”.
“Anguisher” is our first release, it feels like a soundtrack to 2020 for us. We think it captures the sonic highs and lows of pandemic-induced melancholia. Each track sutures together the sublime and the dissonant; equal parts escapist and alienating, alternating in volatile waves, like the pandemic itself. Each song is both a careful and a reckless navigation through the landscape.
Looking forward we’re starting work on our next release, which hopefully will come out later this year. A big question mark going forward is when and if at all, we’ll ever be in a room together to attempt to play the songs “in real life”.
