- Wallows in
is a place, it's a real place in Hawaii
that's like a wash behind these houses
where like skateboarders go.
Breaden played an old Tony Hawk game
you can actually play Wallows in that game,
which is kind of like,
where it originally came from,
but then when we were deciding on the band name,
Dylan convinced us for like a deeper reason
which is
- Dun dun dun
- Wait, what?
("Pictures of Girls" by Wallows)
- [News Anchor] A year ago, Wallows burst onto the scene
with their moody, low-fi anthem, "Pleaser."
A confident debut that established their knack
for voicing typical teenage melancholy
through fast guitar riffs and punchy hooks.
("Pleaser" by Wallows)
But it's best not to put Wallows in a box.
The Los Angeles trio of Dylan Minnette,
Braeden Lemasters, and Cole Preston
have been honing their Indie sound
and technical prowess for nearly a decade.
On their debut EP "Spring," the best friends and band mates
demonstrate their diverse musical taste
through six breezy tracks
perfect for summoning those sunshine vibes.
All while reckoning with the sometimes confusing
and always complicated feelings of growing up.
- When Dylan and I write lyrics,
I guess it does have to do a lot with, you know,
just leaving youth behind,
and we kinda wanted that to be a theme
for the first couple songs and maybe the songs going forward
just 'cause it's so accessible to us right now
'cause we're kind of doing that.
We have happy songs, too.
Like we have a song called "Hawaiian Sun"
that you'll probably never hear,
but it's very happy, I swear.
- [News Anchor] The front men also have plenty
of shared coming of age experiences to pull from.
They've been best friends since age nine
when Minnette moved to Los Angeles from the Midwest
to kick-start his Hollywood career.
Their moms had connected in a chat room for child actors
and it didn't take long for him and Lemasters
to bond over their shared interests in acting,
video games and honey mustard.
But it wasn't until a few months later
when they discovered they had another mutual love
The Beatles.
- We started when we were like nine, ten years old
like me and Dylan met each other
and then we started bonding over our love
of classic rock music that our dad showed us.
- I remember I was singing a lot of "Abbey Road"
in my basement back in Indiana when I was four years old.
I was obsessed with "Abbey Road"
and any sort of like classic rock
that my dad or my parents would play.
- My dad is like the biggest Beatles fan of all time.
So then I remember I was listening to like a bunch of
you know, whatever music nine year olds listen to
and then I remember my dad showed me
Sergeant Pepper or whatever
and it just blew my nine year old mind.
I was like "What is this?"
Then my dad taught me how to play guitar.
- [News Anchor] The Beatles' influence is most noticeable
on the simple, introspective love song "Let the Sun In."
("Let the Sun In" by Wallows)
By the time they met drummer Cole Preston
at a youth music program,
Lemasters and Minnette were already writing music together
but Preston made their line-up complete
and you can thank him
for the band's Indie rock sensibilities.
- I feel like
one of my roles in the band was just like
poisoning our brains with newer, other music
when we were like 12, 13.
And then since then we all just share each other,
like our taste has kind of just molded into the same thing.
- You were the catalyst for like a lot of
the music we got into
and I remember when you first played me
on the way to practice one day,
and I was like 13 or 14,
"Favourite Worst Nightmare" by Arctic Monkeys.
I was like, "Wait, this is really cool.
Who are these guys?"
It just kind of all spiraled from there.
- Our sound definitely started off
sounding like classic rock
because what we were
us youngsters were influenced by
and then I feel like it just
it's been a reflection of the stuff
we've been listening to over the years.
What inspires us more are, you know,
artists like Tyler, the Creator
or Frank Ocean or someone who
like Clairo who just has just kind of
I feel like is setting up an empire for herself right now
just by doing being awesome in her bedroom.
I just feel like our sound,
we don't want to be limited to any one thing
within or outside of our music
just kind of make whatever music we feel
and hope people accept it.
- [News Anchor] Nearly a decade later
and Wallows are still defying their own expectations.
("Pictures of Girls" by Wallows)
What started as a dream amongst best friends
has led to sold out venues,
blissed out crowds, and a debut LP on the way.
Of course, they wouldn't be Wallows
if they weren't already overthinking it.
- A debut album has been so important to us growing up
'cause you just like study debut albums
and how artists do it.
It's weird that we're just about to do that.
My dream scenario would be
to have a cross between like Funeral,
"Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm not"
by Arctic Monkeys,
"Currents" by Tame Impala,
and "Blond" by Frank Ocean.
If you could fall somewhere in that category,
maybe some "Flower Boy" by Tyler, the Creator,
and some Saint Vincent, we'd be in a good place.
(Indie guitar music)
(typewriter clicking)
(minimalist beats)