WOW!
Nine months ago Sydney couple Matt Cribb and Bree Carter decided they’d take their relationship to the next level. They started making beats. After posting two home-recorded tracks on MySpace as WOW, they got the attention of New York-based independent label Metal Postcard who agreed to release the duo’s first official pressing. Since then, they’ve signed with Sydney based Levity, and are currently fine-tuning their live show for their own E.P launches and a support slot for Melbourne band (and Metal Postcard label-mates) The Emergency. I really liked WOW from first listen, but it was their live show that made me a true devotee. At first glance WOW look well rehearsed and seem dismissive of their audience but the more you watch, as they bounce ideas off one another mid song exchanging quick glances and mouthed directions, you realise that their dismissivenessis actually just sheer concentration. Having performed together for such a short period, they are still wary of each note they sing or play, but rather than afraid or embarrassed by their inexperience they seem to really enjoy it. And why not?! They have already had considerable successes. And while their dark space disco, monotone vocals and home-produced fuzzsonics might not be for everyone, they are certainly well on their way to bigger things. Let’s just hope they don’t break up!
When did you start making music together?
‘Late last year we just started messing around with all kinds of electronic stuff and computers. Even though we had always owned instruments, we had never really tried to do anything together, but for some reason when we did, it all just clicked. The songs came out really easily and a few weeks later we were playing our first show. We actually booked the show before we had even figured out if we could do it all live or not’.
Do relationship politics ever interrupt practice sessions?
(Laughs) ‘Yes, actually relationship politics DO interrupt practice sessions, recording sessions, musical ideas … actually just about every part of the whole process! But in the end that’s what makes us, us in a way. I guess the WOW sound is based around our relationship, since it’s where we started and how everything came about’.
How did the partnership with Levity come about?
‘Our manager introduced us to Mel from Levity and she liked what she heard. A few days later they came down to a show in Bondi where we got really drunk on stage and had a great show. The rest is history’.
What inspires you to write music?
‘It can be quite varied. It can be an impulsion (either musically or a particular theme) that inspires a song to start being written, or it can be a feeling or thought or opinion that needs to come out, and logically a way to express this is through music. Good times, bad times, death, destruction, rainbows, sun, sand … It can be anything and the musical process starts in a number of different ways. Sometimes it’s a simple as a kick and snare drum that ends up spiraling into a two-hour party jam and at the end there’s enough stuff recorded for a whole song’.
Tagged: duos, Sydney bands
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Huna said | 6 August, 2008
Morning show Michaella?!
Awesome.