Alex Wall has been living up the hip suburbs of NYC lately. More specifically Brooklyn, and flying under the radar with his latest project Wax Witches over there. There are new weird sounds, and grunt throughout the forthcoming release Centre of the Universe and slight departure from the ‘I just wanna have fun’ feel of his better known outfit – Bleeding Knees Club. He speaks here with Philippe Perez ahead of the release of their new record.
What’s it like living in Brooklyn and being an Australian musician? Are you a speck amongst the artsy crowd?
It’s different to living in Australia in more aspect than just being a musician. It’s a lot bigger and there are swarms of people, but it is also awesome. It’s a lot more inspiring for me as an artist. There are plus sides and downsides compared to home. There’s no beach here like at home.
Have you bumped into other Australian musicians who have based themselves there by any chance?
I saw and hung out with the King Gizzard (and The Lizard Wizard) guys the other week. They’ve been doing good things over here, which is awesome. Kirin J Callinan is here a lot as well and he’s doing really well too. I see people from home every once in a while.
I was there for CMJ that I think was back in September, and there were so many Australian artists playing there that you could actually have a festival with those guys as well. Did you take part as well?
Ah, no I didn’t. I did CMJ a few years ago and I feel like it really wasn’t going to work for me this year. It’s really a bit of a shit show… all that kind of thing.
Really? How so?
It’s spread out all over and everyone knows the bands they want to go see already. If you’re a new band then you may have a hard time. My new band (Wax Witches) wasn’t at the time getting much press anyway, so I don’t think anyone was going to bother to come and see us, so I thought it wasn’t worth it.
Wax Witches are bringing out their second album in two years. The first album was something you did in your spare time, so how did you consider approaching the second album, which you had more time for?
Well the first album was recorded in between Bleeding Knees Club stuff and I just put out a bunch of ideas out after a tour. I never really thought about it at all. Burger Records ended up putting it out because they really liked it. It was awesome because they offered to do a second album from me on vinyl and make it a proper release so I wrote a new one just for them. I went into it a bit more seriously and putting a little more thought into it, and I thought that it was significantly different, but I’m happy all the same.
My last Wax Witches album did pretty well in America, not so much in Australia so I thought it was worth the extra effort to try and get some extra hype over here and put some more thought into the next one. Hence the move.
What does the fact that your record had more success over in the US rather than here in Australia say about the music industry and the music makers in Australia who want to get noticed?
Well, in my case, I don’t play extremely commercial music or music that the radio is going to play much of. I love triple J but if you’re not going to get much play on that, it’s simply just hard to get any sort of fan base in Australia. I was lucky enough with my first band that I did (get airplay).
But then even if you do get that airplay, I think that it is still super important for bands to go overseas. You could become a big fish in a small pond in Australia so easily. You get a big head on your shoulders if you stay there. Once you get over here, no one cares who you are or where you’re from. You just got to work hard no matter what or where you are to get noticed, and then New Yorkers bring you down to their level quickly. It’s like a mega fast version of the Tall Poppy Syndrome.
In saying that though, when you talk to American music fans and people within the industry as well, do you feel it makes you stand out that you are in fact Australian? Or is it just a talking point?
Everyone is always interested when you say you are from Australia – this is away from the music industry, and more just in conversations with friends that have nothing to do with music. Americans love Australians so much. It’s pretty cool, but it’s only on a kind of “oh yeah, you’re from all the way over there” talking point that lasts for not long. People think that The Bronx is far away here, which is really only about a forty-minute train trip!
In regards to Centre of the Universe, there are some intriguing tracks, which I’m curious about how you made them. You got your sister Grace to sing on one of the tracks, ‘I’m Not Your Idol So I Shouldn’t Be Yours’. Is your sister living with you in Brooklyn?
I actually recorded the album when I lived in Australia. I finished it off over here, but I was living with my sister over there. She’s fifteen and I finally got her to sing on a song of mine.
Was it her first time singing anywhere on tape?
No. I don’t now if you remember a band called Twinsy? They had a song called ‘Water Bombs’ and I wrote all the verses. I recorded my sister singing on that too. It was cool. Her first song was number one on triple J or something like that. Pretty funny.
Has she become an official member of Wax Witches?
No, she’s still at school and doing her own thing. Eating lunches and stuff.
On your first Wax Witches album, you taught yourself to record. Second time around with the knowledge behind you, did you learn anything further from what you learnt form the first time in the recording?
I did. The first album is pretty low-fi. It’s not that great quality and that was mainly due to my recording abilities. This one, I practiced a lot and I got better equipment. I got it mixed by Berkfinger, who is a great mixer, and I saw the value in that. I think its just a lot more cleaner and crisper plus a little easier on the ear for everyone. Not just those who want to listen to that lo-fi music.
There were some interesting sounds coming through too. There was a song – I believe it was ‘Headshave’ – that a lot of weird synth sounds amongst the dark distortion.
I mean, in Bleeding Knees Club, I didn’t have room or get serious with experimentation. Wax Witches has no pressure to conform to any sound that I have really. I used it to just experiment sounds in my spare time. I used to be opposed to any electronic music, but I think it’s OK to incorporate it in sometimes nowadays. I think it’s cool to look into sound as an element of composition.
Vocals too are something I want to look more into and experiment with. I run them through effect pedals and get weird sounds out of my own voice with this album. I try all sorts of recording techniques, which is, on top of everything, just awesomely fun.
What was new to you in terms instrumentation on Centre of the Universe?
I’m trying to think… there was a sitar on one song. I learnt to program it into the album, so it isn’t an instrument that I actually played, but it was unique. I think I would have never explored it before.
Would you want to actually learn the sitar?
Yeah! I would love to learn it. I actually want to learn the piano a bit more too. I need to get better at it. It is so versatile and awesome as an instrument. I’m still learning how to play guitar though, so…
How did you set up your own studio? Is it difficult to do?
I thought it would be difficult. I have always recorded in home studios that look hectic with wires and desks and all this stuff. I never understood it. I just Youtube’d how to do it myself in the end. It’s easy for anyone to figure it out, really.
All I really use is an audio interface, which is $200 off the Internet. I can plug any instrument into that and it goes into my recording software. There are no actual, live, real instruments on my album. It’s all done in my bedroom with no guitar amps or anything like that.
That’s all I did with the sounds. Except for the vocals, which are recorded with a microphone obviously. Everything else was just plugged into that audio interface. I was living in an apartment in Australia, so I couldn’t make noise and amps were out of the question anyway. You can record with neighbours right next door nowadays and know one will know that you are recording if you wanted to.
That’s not by choice though, I would actually record with live instruments, but I don’t have the facility to do so.
I’d like to lastly get an idea of where you hope to take this album in the future. You make it sound like this isn’t a side project anymore.
Well, it comes out in September here so there is a little bit of a wait. I think we’ve got some awesome things planned and some tours that are getting organized now. I just got a booking agent over here, so that’s pretty awesome too. Burger Records are awesome as well who have helped me out to get some awesome tours.
We did one in California in March, which was great. So I want to do more of that. I guess we’ll tour it for the rest of the year here in the US, and hopefully tour in Australia sometime down the track. But the US is the priority for us right now.
———————-
Wax Witches’ Centre Of Your Universe is out July 4th on Stop Start / Jerko.
———-
