The Wants w/ Happy Couple
Bad Vibrations is delighted to welcome The Wants back to London on 27th February 2020 - this time for a show at The Lexington.
With the minimal instrumentation of post-punk as their framework, The Wants inject the hypnotic pulse of Detroit techno into the practice of pop songwriting. Led by Madison Velding-VanDam’s elusive duality of personas which oscillate between earnestly romantic and unsettlingly deadpan, The Wants naturally forge a dark alley off the beaten path into
danceable dissonance. Velding-VanDam’s vulnerable lyrics sometimes foray into the sardonically biting, reflecting the complex cycle of self-reflection of the current generation, while drawing from sources like the satire-of-power in Jenny Holzer’s “Inflammatory Essays”, and the midwestern heart of The National’s frontman Matt Berninger. Anthony “Shake” Shakir’s “Frictionalism (1994-2009)” and John Beltran’s “Ten Days of Blue” drew The Wants into the lush soundscapes and entrancing mood of electronic music.
The Wants’ origins are in the musical and production partnership between drummer Jason Gates and Velding-VanDam who met in 2014 in Bushwick, Brooklyn DIY scene. They bonded over their appreciation for producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol) and multi-talented producer/artist Angus Andrew (Liars).
Support from HAppy Couple, whose sound is a hypnotic mix of ethereal vocals and abrasive guitars, underpinned by propulsive and syncopated drums. Influenced by artists such as Nue, SWANS, and Sonic Youth... it’s perhaps the work of avant-garde composer and guitarist Glenn Branca that is most evident in their sound with the use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, and the harmonic series.
Tickets are on-sale now via See and Dice.
Please do not buy secondhand tickets outside of the Dice waiting list or See tickets exchange system. This is to protect you from scam and ensure tickets are legally yours.
"The Wantsstand up live as well as they do on record. The trio find a sweet spot of light within the darkness of post-punk and dance-rock with a relentless groove that keeps on giving."
- Hard Of Hearing
"It’s exciting to think what else their debut album might hold."
- Surviving The Golden Age
Interview with The Wants in Alt Citizen
Excerpt:
You met in the DIY scene, do you feel like the creative freedom of the scene had a hand in creating your unique sound? Do you think if you had come together elsewhere that you might have gone in a different direction?
JG: While we are all rooted in the Brooklyn/NYC “scene”, our band and our sound is outside of it. I think we sound the way we do because we refuse ideas and elements that we don’t want to be associated with. What’s left is what we can deal with, fused with our individual and musical personalities.
MVV: “Scenes” can be a constraint on creative freedom. There is often a genre preference in scenes and those influential in the scene, push for the artists that align with their tastes. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be a constraint. Sometimes artists actively align what they’re making with the tastes of their scene so that they can have access to the opportunities being part of the scene provides. My hope is that we acknowledge this reality, while focusing more on doing our own thing.
Your music has a very 80s-90s vibe to it. Why do you think that those eras are having such a resurgence these days?
JG: Is there a resurgence on a mainstream level? There is a lot of music I like from those eras. That was an interesting time where songwriting and studio experimentation joined in an inspiring way. Musicians played instruments with computers and the studio starting to be treated like an instrument, etc.
HE: Psychologists have confirmed that our brains bind us to the music we heard in our formative years more so than anything we hear as adults, no matter how sophisticated our tastes grow. My brain is bound to the early 00’s, and those artists’ brains are most likely bound to the 80’s; therefore, according to the transitive property, my deepest musical instincts are also bound to the 80’s. I can’t speak for my peers, but this logic makes sense to me.
MVV: Yeah, people are deeply nostalgic for the music they heard when they were a kid — it tickles our basal ganglia. Hopefully, a lifetime spent adding to those early influences has some effect! The 80s were a prime era for radio hits. The Psychedelic Furs “Love My Way” and Depeche Mode “Enjoy the Silence” come to mind as favorites. The 90s ushered in a darkness to mainstream culture that I really enjoyed as a kid. I’m both thankful and appalled that my parents let me indulge in Ren & Stimpy.