Interview Kid Wave: “I was writing the album when I wanted something else”

Watch a film about Kid Wave's formation - shot at the Sebright Arms, London - exclusively on DIY.

Recorded in November 2014, Kid Wave’s forthcoming album ‘Wonderlust’, due 1st June, was produced by Dan Austin (Cherry Ghost, Doves), who Lea and the group were encouraged to record with by Heavenly . Staying at the Eve Studio commune near Stockport, Emmery et al nailed “ten songs in twelve days”, though singles ‘Honey’, ‘Gloom’, and ’All I Want’ were written and recorded prior to the sessions. “They were really long days but Dan [Austin] was always so on it. When we were stuck he could see the different options when we were so blind to it,” she says now. “It was that third view that can hear the quality and draw it out of the demos that gave the album its point of difference. He totally understood what we wanted for the sound.”

That sound is one of charm and power, the appropriately titled, 'Wonderlust'. Overall, the debut sounds like looking through sunglasses that are blurred by finger smudge marks: ‘Honey’ pitches dreamy reveries against effect-heavy riffs with a commercial pop-rock appeal. “Some say dreaming is a waste of time, I can’t get you out of my mind,” Emmery drawls prior to an arms-in-the air chorus. With its whimsical lyrics and swelled sound filled out with guitars and analog equipment, a cursory listen to debut album ‘Wonderlust’ indicates that Kid Wave’s sound is a formula rooted in early-90s alternative rock. Favourably likened to Lush, The Breeders, and Dinosaur Jr., the irony of the comparisons is that sonically the album was a found sound. “I don’t mind the comparisons, but I’ve never listened to any of them,” Lea laughs.” I was asked by someone to state my favourite album by Dinosaur Jr. and I had to Google them - I was so ashamed about not knowing them." Emmery states that her family have no musical persuasions, that she arrives from a punk background, a seemingly obvious start heard in ‘Wonderlust’s upfront lyrics and fizzing sonic energy. “I was aiming for experimental noisiness but it came out a little differently. I’m probably more influenced by my friends’ bands in Sweden…if anything, I was probably aiming for Sonic Youth.”

During this period, working in a clothes shop and lost in the dream, she wrote what would become Kid Wave’s first songs. ‘It was very personal writing them,” she admits. Expanding on how comfortable she is on presenting it to the world and whether there’s a sense of vulnerability to the public, she states that she was “touching on a lot of sensitive subjects,” though ‘Wonderlust’ has “an upbeat feeling to it, which makes up for the dark lyrics.” The themes of belonging to someone or somewhere are palpable, with the majority of lyrics producing imagery belonging to dreams and escape. These sorts of personal experiences inform the music of Kid Wave - music that Emmery writes with a sunny disposition. “I was writing it when I wanted something else. Life was quite boring and lonely at one point for me. Writing was a space to rest my head.” ‘Wonderlust’ could have been a darker affair and shoe-gazing this is most certainly not. “I think there’s a need for people to label artists and place them into categories. You can draw influences from many different things, but to me the shoegaze thing isn’t evident or conscious on my part. The songs are pretty commercial. I think there’s an audience for people to hear this and like it; and to label it as such would be limiting.”

In Lea Emmery, Kid Wave are gifted with an abstract expressionist adept at tugging at the heartstrings and giving vulnerability a modern, youthful look. “I’d be very happy if the album could communicate something to people, if people could identify that it’s ok to feel that you’re not alone, and that they can recognise themselves and take part in it.” One one of the album's standouts, ‘Walk On Fire’, a broken Emmery presents a letter of apology written to an old flame. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Sometimes I just need some more time for myself,” she whispers like some sort of jealous guy. “That one is probably the most emotionally powerful song on the album”, she says. With Emmery’s unflinching honesty at the forefront of the group, it’s hard to see past the project being anyone else’s but hers; primarily because Kid Wave is her story, about her anxieties and her quest of belonging. “I’m always curious to see if people will understand what I mean, but I’m totally fine if they don’t. I guess you can probably feel lost at any age, mind.”

The irony of Emmery’s story up to now is one that is stranger than fiction. Recording in Stockport was the culmination of her musical career; a surrogate town that provided Emmery with the best week of her life. Surrounded by people with the same dreams, to make this album, she had to return to a place familiar to home: a small Northern town, much like Norrköping, which the town's teachers tell the schoolchildren is the “Manchester of Sweden”. The consequence of serendipity is sometimes a beautiful discovery and had it not been for stubbornness, bravery and providence, Emmery would have gone home to study zoology. “I was in Iceland before I moved to the UK. I was working with horses - I really love animals, so if everything didn’t go to plan, then I’d probably go home and do something like that.” Of course, for most musicians that freedom is just nothing more than a pipe dream.

Photos: Emma Swann / DIY. Taken from the June 2015 issue of DIY. Kid Wave's 'Wonderlust' is out now on Heavenly Recordings.

Tags: Kid Wave, From The Magazine, Features, Interviews