Marie from WAAX chats to Jen about all their news!

It’s no secret that it’s been something of a bumpy path for WAAX, yet here they stand in 2016 stronger than ever and proud to officially unveil a new single ‘This Everything‘ and announce some tour dates in its support.

“The edgy new single by Waax, This Everything, off their anticipated up and coming second EP, channels their inner Kurt Cobain and creates a dangerous tension between angst and apathy. In a dynamic mix of insanely distorted guitars and an almost calming bridge, This Everything encapsulates a new age of punk-rock.” Music Injection Australia

Hi Marie. Firstly, congratulations on your new single ‘This Everything’, I really like it and to be picked up on Triple j spot rotation straight away is a great sign! 

Thank you! Yeah. It’s nice to see people are enjoying the tune!

You have had some line up changes since your last EP, adding Chris Antolak (guitars) and Tom Griffin (bass) to your band, regardless of what actually happened, (unless you are happy to tell us) do you feel now that this is the lineup to take you onwards and upwards?

I feel like this is the actual band. I think as a band’s maturity grows you find it easier to work out who you gel with. It’s a complex balance to get right – not only creatively but emotionally. We are all best friends and we have found that sweet spot creatively where we all know each other’s next move.

Your single “This Everything’ has such emotion packed into it. Marie, this written from personal experience.  Did you feel it was therapeutic to get it out of your head and record it?

Yeah. I feel like any time I write it’s to release something. Usually negative feelings. I have this persistent urge go to batshit crazy, scream, cry and break shit and although I have come close on multiple occasions, I have found it’s far more productive to emote via creative avenues. It keeps me relatively safe and sane.

I can feel the emotion of being overwhelmed but more so the isolation and not feeling that you belong anywhere then along with that becomes being apathetic. Can you tell us how you got yourself out of that mind set?

It takes a lot of work to deal with mental health issues and it still ebs and flows. I was in a really bad place when I wrote T.E. I had to get help and work really hard to take the steps to get myself out of it. I was really ashamed and was pushing the ones I loved away. I’m proud of how far I have come but there’s still a long road ahead.

Chris directed the lyric video and I must admit it is one of the best lyric videos I have seen to date! Both of you came up with the concept so congratulations!

Was it in the pipe works for a while or was it a concept that came quickly?

It all happened in a day! I had already been using the stamp for all the artwork (I love that fucken stamp) and we decided to use it for the lyrics. So we hit the city and stamped various items/paper I had collected (I like to do a lot of collage in my personal artwork). Chris has this strobe and he said ‘lets use the darkest room in the house’ so we picked the bathroom. Safe to say I didn’t wake up that morning thinking I’d be rolling around in my own filth to the sound of a violent strobe that same afternoon.

You got plenty of love about the video on facebook, do you sit down and read all the comments?

Sure. If we’re chillin on facebook, we’ll have a geez. It was super positive and we’re stoked it turned out so organically.

“Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth is coming to Australia which is pretty great. Guess who’s supporting..?? 😉 IT’S US HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS, WE’RE NOT FREAKING OUT YOU ARE, SHUTUP.”

Saw this on facebook and was wondering if you were happy about this? Haha That will be insane! Great coverage for you guys too. How did that come about?

I know!!! I’m still freaking out. I might get to meet her? What then? Will I turn to dust? I guess her crew chose us to support. We feel very lucky.

You have three shows coming up in September, will you be playing songs of your first EP and some covers?

Yeah I’m sure we’ll have some old favourites in there. Wisdom Teeth is still a fun one – it’s nice when you have a whole crowd telling you to shut up (see lyrics).

Annnd hmmmmm, maybe a cover 😉

I love how you advertise your merch! But seriously those two tees you have a great. Any merch being designed at the  moment for the upcoming shows?

There are always fun things in the pipelines. And thank you, I design them myself J We’re trying to only do one run of each design – you gotta catch em all.

Lastly I was wondering how it feels to be known as ‘Utterly terrifying’ as you are in your press release? J

Very humbled. I take much pride in being utterly terrifying.

Thanks, all the best for your upcoming shows.

As a band practically built for the festival stage, they’ve already propped up their live show and mowed down rooms at The Blurst of Times, Maroochy Music and Arts Festival and Festival Of The Sun to name a few. These forthcoming shows will cement their cement their early reputation with refined intensity, making good on their promise as one of the best young live bands around. They will mow down rooms in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne alongside the likes of The Sinking Teeth, Horror My Friend, Super Best Friends and Walken, just to name a few.

12 months on from their debut EP – Holy Sick – and radio success with single ‘I For An Eye’, the founding core trio of Marie DeVita (vocals), Tom Bloomfield (drums) and Ewan Birtwell (guitars) found themselves new compadres in Chris Antolak (guitars) and Tom Griffin (bass) and hit Plutonium Studios with producer Miro Mackie to lay down a new, forthcoming second EP. ‘This Everything’ is just the first taste, a bohemoth of tune that is as much of a new release, as it is a reintroduction to a powerful, emerging band already with notorious live show. With lines like “I got nowhere to be” and the refrain “Moving backwards slowly”, DeVita certainly writes with her feelings on her sleeve and isn’t shy in telling it how it is.

“It’s a song about being overwhelmed by everything at once but not being able to move – or at the very most – move backwards. I felt myself slipping into the dark places I had been in the past. I was isolating myself socially and felt like I didn’t belong anywhere. There’s a tonne of apathy in there – which I feel fundamentally guilty about it, given my situation could have been far worse – but I guess when you’re in that headspace everything in life absolutely sucks. There are glimmers of hope in the line “I don’t give much, but when I do, I give a lot” – it was almost like I wanted the opportunity to warm to someone and offer them something… but I was so scared of being taken advantage of.”