Interviews: Where The Waves Are Born

On this new occasion, we have had the opportunity to interview the Post-Hardcore/Melodic Hardcore band, Where The Waves Are Born from Spain. Check out the interview and follow the band on their FACEBOOK PAGE.

1. Where did you get the idea for the band name, did you plan it or came out just like that?

It came during a casual conversation with Víctor ‘Nau’ (our lead guitarist who didn’t even belong to the band at the time). Back in the summer of 2014 when he was visiting Asturias, he started talking about surfing where the waves are born. Of course, the conversation was in Spanish, but we thought the English translation sounded pretty profound and fitting for the new music project we were starting to build.

2. Why did you want to play this genre?

Before starting the idea of the band circa 2014, we were more focused on traditional melodic metalcore (August Burns Red, Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying). We then discovered Dreambound and the whole melodic hardcore movement with bands such as Counterparts, Napoleon, Hundredth, Season in Wreckage and it really spoke to us. We found a different shade of heaviness that was all about evoking feelings and creating atmospheres more similar to post-hardcore bands. We fell in love immediately and we tried to merge both influences moving forward.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

The instrumental core of the band (Miguel, Guille M., Javi and Víctor) have known each other for a long time, living in close towns along the western Asturias coast. Save for Victor who left Asturias early, the other three have been childhood friends during our high school days despite our different ages. However, it wasn’t until we brought in our two singers Luigi and Guille R. that things started gearing up and we became more serious about the project.

4. Each band member's favorite band?

Everyone picked a few:

Nau: Phinehas, Blind Guardian, August Burns Red, Currents

Guille M.: Breakdown of Sanity, early Parkway Drive, In Flames, The Algorithm 

Guille R.: Invent Animate, Every Time I Die, Architects

Javi: Enter Shikari, Bring Me the Horizon, Being as an Ocean, Paledusk Luigi - Counterparts, Dayseeker, Knocked Loose

Miguel: Bilmuri, Tiny Moving Parts, Dance Gavin Dance, iKON

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

We like to be bittersweet, so we tend to mix up a bit of hope and despair in our lyrics. Our biggest topics usually involve internal monologues about personal challenges such as loneliness, bereavement, heartbreak… although we want our listeners to stand up against these thoughts instead of getting crushed by them. Sometimes we go out of the way though. It is all about that spark that creates the idea of one particular song and we just follow the thread wherever it takes us, adding all the bits and pieces that come to mind and filling the gaps.

6. Where was your last gig?

Our last gig was in Gijon, Asturias with the fellow Spanish bands Aneuma and Havenlost a few months ago. Both bands are good friends of ours so we wouldn’t mind repeating it any time soon.

7. Where would you like to act?

We would like to hit a bigger-sized festival in our country, of course playing at Resurrection Fest would be a dream come true for us as it is one of the Spanish scene’s landmarks. Also being able to play in Spain’s biggest cities: Madrid, and Barcelona… maybe being able to tour Japan as well. We haven’t yet managed to leave our region, but we are confident that after our second EP ‘Sundered’ is released we will have some opportunities. Then it’s only about gathering the time and planning enough to assemble the six members that are scattered around the country!

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

We would love to have a feature with international bands that have great meaning to us, although we are realistic enough to not include the bigger bands like Counterparts or Holding Absence. Some exciting names would be Bloom, Casey, No Home, Keepsake, or Elwood Stray.

9. Whom not?

A bit of a strange question haha. There is not really any person/band that we hate that much we wouldn’t associate with them if that’s what you mean. We haven’t had too many bad experiences so far.

10. Have any of you ever suffered from stage fright? Any tips for beginners on how to beat that?

Of course, no one is really safe from stage fright. It's very difficult to isolate yourself from nerves and fear even after several gigs, the fear catches you off guard minutes before you go up to play. In our opinion, the most important thing is to have all work done at home and be 200% ready before the gig. It’s fine when you know that you are surrounded by people that are close to you, all while doing what you love. They are there for you and vice versa.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

In terms of the instrumentals, we always cite our biggest influences: Counterparts, While She Sleeps, Heart in Hand, The Ghost Inside, Napoleon and Polaris just to name a few. They are all modern melodic bands mixing clean and harsh vocals that are not afraid of being technical at times, while having their own personality. We have though listened to many, many bands throughout the years, so this would only be the tip of the iceberg. Our lyrics are inspired by bands that show a fair mix of poetry and emotion, and also speak about deep topics such as Counterparts, Holding Absence or Casey. We also check how poppier artists do it, it’s important to fill your choruses with catchiness and knowing when to tone the verbiage down.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

One of our fans (now promoted to dear friend) asked us to help him arrange a hardcore love song. In the conversation there were a few musicians with whom we agreed that it was easier to make an A Day To Remember style love song instead of a beatdown love song full of breakdowns, none of which ended up happening to our knowledge. It may be possible though!

13. What do you think of your fans?

We don’t have so many fans yet, but we are beyond happy to meet those who reach out to us. A few of these people have become our friends throughout the years. It’s also a joy to inspire others into making music and be THAT band for someone, same as other bands played that role for us in the past. We didn’t believe it would ever happen.

14. What do you think of our site?

We think it is an essential compendium of all -core things. We used to see friends from other Spanish bands getting more and more professional, sharing their first bits of media coverage and whenever they got featured in Breathing the Core it was like ‘Man, they are now getting serious!’. After all the hard work, it feels great to be part of this fantastic encyclopedia.

15. Something to add?

Our newest EP ‘SUNDERED’ is coming March 13th. It is definitely more varied and of much higher-quality than our debut release, so we encourage everyone to get a copy or at least support us by sharing the album with all those you think may enjoy it <3