Acid Wave seems to be one of the prominent examples that shoegaze music is still one of the most widely expanded genres around. The female quintet secret a stunning dream pop underbelly to their full band sound, reminiscent of early Warpaint in their vocal presence and harmonies to boot. The Texas based outfit have recently released their second album, ‘heart2heart’ and there is so much to love about this sophomore record.
Singles such as ‘Make Me Drown’ and ‘Blushing’ float you away into their unique and soaring indie pop sonics, with luscious guitar-infused textures and the driving drums in the latter particularly catching the attention. Lyrically, it delves into the happiness and joy that can be experienced in love, romantically and platonically.
‘Summer Moon’ is a delicately poised dosage of shoegaze that again explores the groups wondrous use of harmonies and distantly paired back vocals that hit that sweet spot all indie shoegaze listeners crave. Opening track ‘New To Me’ ensues the chemistry that this band possess sonically, with the instrumentation and guitar work exceptionally crafted and performed.
The album delves into the ups and downs however, and ‘Basement of my Brain’ feels like the more vulnerable track on the record, citing an unhealthy past relationship that shows another side to Acid Wave’s writing. Overall, this album is a positive beacon of light shining down on the area of El Paso, Texas, in a band that seems to hold all the ingredients to become one of the biggest and best to come out of their local scene.
‘heart2heart’ feels like a mature progression from their debut, and has so much to explore and most of all, enjoy as we head into another summer full of love and hope. Check out the full interview below, exclusively here at FLEX!
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Tell us about your story as a band, how did you all meet?
Acid wave started in 2018 with Eva, Isanette and Audrey. Audrey had wanted to start a girl band so she asked Isanette and Eva. The 3 of us went to the same high school, Audrey and Eva knew each other because of band and Isanette met Audrey through a mutual friend. It wasn’t till 2021 that Jet and Mary joined. Mary filled in for Audrey on drums when she moved and Jet brought in the synth sound we spent so long looking for. We met Mary and Jet through mutual friends as well.
Who are your influences as a group?
Our influences as a group would have to be Alvvays, Soccer Mommy and Slow pulp!
What is the music scene like in El Paso?
The music scene in El Paso is getting to be more impactful than it ever has been. There’s so much diversity and creativity within the scene that you rarely find anywhere else. We’re so excited to see how far it goes compared to what it is now.
You have just released your second album ‘heart2heart’, how does it feel to have this body of work out in the world?
It’s a wonderful feeling knowing it’s finally out there for people to enjoy after we worked on it very hard and for so long. We have amazing supporters who have made us feel so loved throughout this release. Our record label, Hogar Records, helped us tremendously in getting the album out to far more people than we could’ve gotten it out to on our own so it’s great knowing that our hard work is being enjoyed by even more people as a result.
Stream the album on Spotify here:
Favourite track from the album currently? Each member please!
Mary - Everything and Nothing
Eva - Everything and Nothing
Audrey- Summer Moon
Isanette - Everything and Nothing
Jet- Summer Moon
‘Make Me Drown’ feels like a particular highlight of the album, real floaty and dreamy shoegaze vibes. What was the recording and writing process like for this one?
The writing process for ‘Make me drown’ started with me (Audrey) just messing around. I wasn’t intending on making it a whole song at first but I just started to have fun with it and had a little story line in my head as I went on in the process. ‘Make me drown’ was written in the year 2021, I believe. It was a lot of fun recording the song all together at Brainville a year later. That was actually the first song we recorded from our album ‘heart2heart’ so we were very excited to get the ball rolling.
What challenges were faced in the making of this album?
The only real challenge was that our drummer and main songwriter, Audrey, lived far away in Oklahoma. We adapted to this distance in terms of the songwriting process, learning our parts and scheduling recording sessions. However, having that time and space in between also made it that much more special each time we all had the opportunity to be together again in the studio. It also gave the songs room to breathe in between sessions and we would sometimes add parts months later that we didn’t initially think of. We didn’t really face any other significant challenges. Everything else went very smoothly thanks to Hogar Records, Brainville and our wonderful recording engineer Ross Ingram and his team.
Any plans to tour the album in 2023?
Yes! We just came back from our heart2heart Texas Tour in late June which took us through Marfa, Denton, Houston, San Antonio and Austin. We plan on traveling with the album even more this year. Keep an eye out on our social media to see future announcements of where you can see us play in and out of El Paso.
And finally, what do you want people to take away from ‘heart2heart’?
What we want people to take away from ‘heart2heart’ is the importance of showing love to the ones you care about, whether it’s romantic or platonic. Don’t forget to direct some love to yourself too in the process.
Buy a physical copy of 'heart2heart' on Bandcamp here: