Calling your debut album Nothing Happens is a pretty anti-climatic summary to give but somehow Wallows make it work. The Californian trio, consisting of vocalists and guitarists Braeden Lamasters and Dylan Minnette and drummer Cole Preston, have been playing together since they were 11. 10 years later they’ve turned in the type of record that only a band that have grown up together could make. It’s a youthful, nostalgic and at times wonderfully bored record that celebrates the occasions as much as the ordinary moments.
Six years after attending their first Coachella, the band went back to the festival, this time to play one of their first shows since their debut dropped. We caught up with them there to talk about the album, their current collaborators and the ones that they have their eye on for the future.
Who have you seen at Coachella that’s a benchmark?
Dylan: The headliners in 2011 were amazing. Like Kings Of Leon were the band that made us want to be in a band in the first place, Arcade Fire is like my favourite band ever. The Strokes and obviously Kanye West. They were all benchmark performances for me. Like to see them all in the same year was crazy. Also had my first experience with Tame Impala here in 2013.
Has growing up together informed your debut album? It’s not something you could’ve made if you met six months ago?
Dillon: I would say that it one hundred per cent did. Because we’ve been friends for so long playing in this band that was always going to be the theme. It’s how we became friends through music. We’ve all been through so much over the last decade of our lives together so the album is a collection of songs recounting things that we’ve gone through. It’s things we feel nostalgic about, leaving your youth behind and just growing up together doing the band.
I love how boredom is a theme of the record and you somehow manage to make it interesting. How good is it to know that you can write an album about doing nothing?
Braeden: Yeah, I mean that is a cool thing to know. We kind of just put all our experiences together and pop it into an album, it’s cool.
It’s hard to have opinions about boredom.
[laughs]
You’re so tight as a band and then you bring in another dimension in Clairo on Are You Bored Yet? How exciting for you was that?
Cole: Yeah it was really cool to have another voice on it. We thought it was important that it was a girl. I have like a verse of mine that I was singing and it was pitched-up and it sorted of sounded like Clairo. Eventually, we knew her through someone else, and she jumped on it and did an amazing job.
Dylan: Having a feature statement on our debut was important. We want to keep people on their toes with what we want to do. We want to work with a lot of different artists. It’s unusual to see a band doing features. We wanted to do that early on so we could do what we really want later on.
Who would you want to do something with later on down the track who are at the opposite end of the spectrum to you?
Dylan: Maybe like the Brockhampton dudes. That’s not that opposite, I guess.
I can imagine you guys with Brockhampton to be honest.
Cole: I’d like to work with Jack Antonoff. He’s a great producer and he’s producing a lot of either pop or RnB. He’s such a diverse producer. What he did with Kevin Abstract is really cool. Like, damn it would be cool to work with him.
I like that you guys aren’t afraid to occupy that space. Obviously, he’s done number one Taylor Swift records and then 10-minute Lana Del Rey songs. I feel like you could fit between the two.
Dylan: We could fit into that whole space there. Yeah there’s a lot of people that we plan to collaborate with for sure. It’s exciting. Keeping it fresh.
It sounds like you guys are always thinking about the next step.
Braeden: Yeah, I just keep thinking about all the new songs we have. I’m excited to keep it going. Why stall it when you could haul it.
Well, that’s a perfect note to end on.
