“I remember tracking at 4 a.m., after a few hours of sleep.  It helped get the voice to sound pure and relaxed.”

“The true test of a band’s worth is in their performance. With Endless Wave, there are no gimmicks, just honest, hard working rock and roll.”

Whether it’s gazey or just a little reminiscent of some of their British influences, Endless Wave has certainly channeled the likes of Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine into their music. Their first EP, City Walls made it in the Top 200 in CMJ, giving them a taste of things to come. The trio of André Obin on bass and vocals, Timothy Ryan on guitar, and Tucker Dawson on drums, was also the last band to record an album at the legendary Camp Street Studios in Cambridge, MA. The newest album, Notes From The Compound, was released this summer, and has, along with their live show and first release, helped propel them into the limelight. Whether this wave lasts is up to them.

Talk about your songwriting process. Is it an individual thing or does the whole band get together and work on it?

Timothy Ryan - A majority of the songs started in writing sessions between André and myself. Initially, the project was a two-piece with André programming beats on his laptop. We always knew we were going to add a drummer, but we wanted to make sure our melodies and dynamics stood on their own before we brought in reinforcements.

André Obin – To cite a specific song, for “Land of the Sun,” I brought the unfinished song into rehearsal.  It eventually passed Tim and Tucker’s quality control and then they began writing their guitar and drum parts.  The band worked on the arrangement together through rehearsals.  It took a while to work out the kinks and eventually Tim suggested a hard edit – cutting the chorus in half – which sealed the structure.  When I was tracking vocals for the record, they came over to my apartment and Tim helped me get some tricky pitches right and Tucker helped diversify the rhythmic structure for the vocals in the choruses.  I really enjoyed the collaborative effort through different stages of that track.

Tucker Dawson - I was still writing some of my drum parts during the recording process at Camp Street. Tracking is a totally different experience in a great studio, and for some of the songs it took me a while to calm down and settle into it. A song like “Rising Tide” took around ten takes while “Secrets” only took one.

André – After tracking the music as a band at the studio, I decided to record the vocals for both the City Walls EP and Notes From The Compound at my apartment.  I wanted to spend more time with the songs in an intimate setting without time restrictions.  I purchased a Neumann TLM 103 condenser microphone and a nice tube preamplifier to power it.  It gave me the chance to record late at night and in the early morning.  I remember tracking the break in the song “City Walls” at 4 a.m., after a few hours of sleep.  It helped get the voice to sound pure and relaxed.  I was half asleep, still dreaming in low amber light.

So what gear are you using these days?

André – I play a Fender S-1 bass because it can really take a beating.  My cab is an SWR Workingman 4×10 and I use an old Kustom 200-watt PA head for amplification.

Tucker – I have an old kit that I got when I was in 6th grade, a Rogers Holiday Model 4-piece from the late 1960s.  It was collecting dust in the basement of a house that my family moved into. The owner sold it to me for a hundred bucks.

Tim – My main guitar is a ’93 Fender Telecaster Deluxe given to me by [producer] Paul Kolderie at the end of our time together at Camp Street. The guitar was originally from the Radiohead days of Fort Apache [the studio in Massachusetts where Radiohead produced Pablo Honey], identical to one played by Jonny Greenwood without all the stickers. With this Tele comes the spirit and energy of anyone who ever tracked with it at his studios since the ’90s.  As far as pedals go, André and I use the same stock delays and fuzz that hundreds of other bands use. We just use them in our own way.

So, are you surfers? How did the name come about?

André – From the same place that produced the songs “Ocean Drive,” “The Rising Tide” and “Future Shock.”  The name Endless Wave triggers images of both water and sound.   We often get asked if we surf.

Tim – I’ve gotten up on the board a few times.

You’re very proud of your live show. Can you describe why it matters so much to you? And also, what makes yours unique?

André – We rehearse a lot.  If you rehearse enough, you don’t have to think as much on stage or make as much eye contact with each other.  There is more time to just enjoy being in the present moment and give yourself to the music.  Once everyone knows their parts and is comfortable and confident, the band starts to lock in as a unit. It’s really unlike anything else once you’re in that zone.

Tim – I constantly get angry when I go to trendy, hyped up shows and see people too busy dancing with their keyboards instead of contributing to the music. There’s something very disingenuous about that.  The true test of a band’s worth is in their performance. With Endless Wave, there are no gimmicks, just honest, hard working rock and roll.

Tucker – There’s a time and a place for synths and laptops on the live stage. André’s solo shows are a testament to that. But in the case of this group, I have to agree with Tim. We have a need to shred!

What bands are you into these days? What one band or album could each member not live without?

André – Recently, I really like Belong’s record Common Era on Kranky.  In terms of what inspires me in Endless Wave – Ride’s Nowhere and The Verve’s Northern Soul are records that I always go back to.

Tim – I’ve already mentioned Radiohead too many times. I’ll go with Jimi and Cream classics.

Tucker – Deerhunter, Autolux for bands, Slum Village Fantastic Volume 2 for an album.

What does everyone do outside of the band?

Tim – Soulless day jobs.  One of us is a bartender, another runs a coffee shop, and another works for a university. We’ll let you guess…

Tucker – I produce hip-hop and remixes as well.

André – As Tucker mentioned, I make electronic music under my own name.

Any last words?

André – Endless Wave would love to tour England and Ireland.

Tucker – Scandinavia.

Tim – How about all of Europe?  We plan to start here on the East Coast in the fall.

Endless Wave will be headlining the Middle East Downstairs in Cambridge, MA on October 22, 2011 and will also be performing Ride’s Nowhere album at The Pill’s Halloween show on October 28, 2011 in Allston, MA.

endlesswave.bandcamp.com

photos by Dan Watkins