Band Of The Week #122 - Wallflower
This week’s Band Of The Week is South London alternative rockers Wallflower, who have just released their debut album ‘Teach Yourself To Swim’. This collection of songs from the band truly captures the art form of the ‘album’, as they take you on a creative journey of epic proportions. The band took a moment to talk to us in more depth about the album.
So, the debut album is finally out - it has felt like it has been a long time coming. How does it feel?
It has absolutely been a long time coming for us! We'd been talking about writing an album for so long, when we started writing it felt like it was about time so... To now be here two years later and to say it's actually out there feels like a big accomplishment for us. We're really proud of the work we put in to this record from the creative side of things all the way through to the release itself, we're mostly just excited that other people can finally hear it.
It is called ‘Teach Yourself to Swim’ - does that have a certain meaning or influence behind it?
It does. The title of the album is pulled from a lyric from the track 'Further Down'. Within the context of that song it has one meaning but when you pull it out and say it out loud it starts to take shape in different ways. We've always written music with the intention of leaving some things up to interpretation so taking a phrase that represents the record that can also be taken in more ways than one felt necessary to us. I like to think that writing lyrics for this record was quite a reflective process for me on a personal level, putting my own thoughts on to paper in a way that is broad and tackles thoughts and conversations I've had with different people along the way - that's definitely been a learning process. I'd like to think whatever it means to 'swim' will vary from person to person.
Where was the album recorded? Any behind the scenes stories from the recording process
The album was recorded by Lewis Johns at The Ranch in Southampton. For us it was a no brainer as we have recorded all of our records up until this point there and have built a really good working relationship with Lewis where we feel he really gets what we want to do creatively. This album feels like a culmination of all the sounds and ideas we've come up with since the first thing we released so to showcase that as well as the evolution of our song writing with Lewis' help just made sense.
Recording an album was a bit of a different process to what we have been used to in the past, we were in the studio a lot longer than we ever have been so there were some cabin fever moments where you feel like you're going a bit stir crazy at times. There's just so much that has to be done in such a short period of time so to be honest when you get to the end of it you almost look back at it thinking, 'what even happened?' There were some emotionally stressful moments where things maybe didn't go right at first but that's definitely down to how much it all meant to us to get it right, we're just so happy with how it came out.
The album has a whole feels like a collective piece to create something whole, almost like a body of work. Was this your intention? Do you feel the idea of an ‘album’ is still relevant today?
Making this record an 'album' was always at the forefront of our minds when we were putting it all together. There is no doubt that the idea of an album has taken a bit more of a backseat in more recent times, you see a lot of records coming out nowadays that have clearly been compiled in a way to push algorithms on streaming platforms and the like with the first few tracks always being all the singles that had been released prior. No disrespect intended to any artist doing it that way, there's a lot of music which is much more enjoyable in that context and it clearly works.
For us, it became very apparent in a very short amount of time where certain songs that were being written had to be placed and we always stuck with that. A long play album is a new format for us to play with and we wanted to make sure we made the best we could out of it. Listening to these tracks in any other order would feel so weird to me.
What are the key themes and influences on the album?
It's hard to say really! Musically we take influence from so many different places so it's really hard to pinpoint one or two specific influences. We love bands like Paramore, Radiohead, Death Cab, Thrice... I'm not sure we directly sound like any of those bands at any given time but there's an element of sincerity and a thought process they all bring to the table that we certainly look up to. Lyrically - it was always just being honest and looking both inward and outward and talking about those feelings. I always feel this overwhelming pressure to always get things right and to not make mistakes and I feel like that is such a recipe for disaster, I guess that for me personally this record's influence is trying to come to terms with that.
Do you feel your creative process has changed since you released your debut EP ‘Where It Fell Apart’ in 2017?
The process of making this record was certainly much more streamlined than when we wrote that EP and I think a lot of that comes down to being more open to ideas and giving more things a go. I have a real foggy memory of making that EP in all honesty, it feels like we had some song ideas and then next thing we knew we were releasing them and playing them live. After releasing our single Magnifier a couple years ago I feel like we learned a lot and became more streamlined in getting initial ideas through the door. We spent a lot of time rehearsing these songs before we had final drafts, going through every drum hit, every bass note, every melody with a fine tooth comb and making sure every single moment had its place. When it's done that way it feels a lot more satisfying and a lot more accomplished when you get and end product.
Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so which one and why?
There's a few that I really like but it's pretty unanimous within the band that 'Find your peace of mind, or take a piece of mine,' is pretty good. It's just a nice turn on a phrase and it's a real satisfying musical moment within the track 'Further Down'. We all really enjoy that moment.
You have started a series called ‘Isolation Covers’ with all proceedings from the tracks going to a charity named CALM. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
We did indeed! The discourse around mental health is a real important one to us and in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak it's important to not let that conversation die just because it's not necessarily at the forefront of our minds. Being isolated at home for 2 months or more can have a different effect on different people, for many it has been a real struggle to be in their own heads for so long and it is very valuable for people in those circumstances to have resources and help when they most need it. CALM are a really great organisation doing a lot of great work in their field so it made a lot of sense to raise some money for them. The covers themselves were just a good opportunity to keep up a creative and productive flow while we were sat around at home - it was a lot of fun to reimagine some songs that we like and put them out there. Hopefully we can keep them up, even after the lockdown is a distant memory.