WALLICE

ACROSS THE POND WALLICE

WHEN HEADING TO WALLICE’S SPOTIFY profile, the description simply says “Jazz School Dropout” which sum up her self-depreciating, tongue-in-cheek style. Her laid back songwriting that is comically honest, yet heartwarming at the same time is delivered in a lo-fi indie package. It’s a sound that is constantly alluring and ever evolving. From her debut single ‘Punching Bag’ through to her most recent release ’90’s American Superstar’, Wallice is always boasting a fresh take, expanding and pushing where she can take her sound.

With all this in mind we were desperate to chat to her about everything and anything, thankfully we managed to catch up with her!

We chat through her time in Blighty, being signed to Dirty Hit, and of course her new EP.

WORDS: KIERAN WEBBER PICTURES: ANNA KOBLISH

Hey Wallice, thanks so much for taking the time to chat to us, how have you been?

“I’ve been really good! I just spent a month in the UK playing some shows and writing some new songs! And then been hanging in NY and now Georgia visiting my mom who just moved here! So very busy but I have this random bit of free time after a very busy month.”

You recently made your debut UK voyage; how did you find it? What was your highlight?

“It was amazing! I had my first headline show across seas in London and it’s been the best show I’ve ever played! I released my second EP about 10 days earlier than the show, so it was the first time that all the music I’ve been playing live has been released and it was such a surreal feeling for the crowd to be singing along to all the songs!”

You played at the Great Escape and had a big headline show at The Lexington, was that a surreal moment?

“It definitely was. The Great Escape was an amazing time! I’ve never been to a festival like that where it’s spread across a city. The highlights of the bands I got to see were Charlie Hickey, Dora Jar, Indigo De Souza, and a couple more sets I can’t recall!

I really loved playing there too. The sound wasn’t the best in the venue and it was stressful not having a soundcheck, but the energy was amazing, and I had a great time playing. The Lexington was amazing too. I can’t believe it sold out and was so far from home! There were people there from Spain, Romania, and some different parts of America!”

I believe at the beginning of the year you signed to ‘Dirty Hit’, how has working with them so far been?

“I did! It’s been amazing. I’ve heard so many horror stories of interactions between label and artist and feeling hindered or overwhelmed but I’ve not felt that way at all! I love everyone I’ve met who works with Dirty Hit and it feels very familiar. Everyone is so supportive and believe in the slow build rather than a flash success that can burn out. I really couldn’t ask for more!”

You recently just released your new EP ‘90’s American Superstar’, what was the influence behind this, and how has it been received?

“I made this EP last June at my grandparents’ house in Utah with my best friend Marinelli, where we also wrote the first EP. It started with us watching the random DVDs that were in the house like Point Break, Dude Where’s My Car, 10 Things I Hate About You, etc. From that point I thought about what the story of a 90s American Superstar would be and each song kind of fell into place. I also have been a fan of concept albums and wanted that to be an inspiration for this EP! I’ve gotten great response to it so far, specifically Funeral which is my personal favourite. I was a bit worried at first because I felt like it didn’t do as well as I would have in an ideal world, but I am comparing it to people

“I THINK PEOPLE ARE JUST WANTING TO ESCAPE WHILST THE WORLD AROUND US BURNS”.

that have been releasing music for much longer than me and if I think about what past me would have thought I would have been ecstatic. It’s hard not to get caught up in comparison.” Did you have any favourites from the EP? If so what track and why? “My personal favourite is ‘Funeral’! I played cello on that track and also recorded a bunch of my friends playing saxophone, flute, trumpet, trombone, flugal, and the crazy guitar solo at the end. Ever since I first wrote the song I always pictured a fun video and just a lot of energy around the song. Every time we played this song live, even before it was out, I loved seeing the crowd’s reaction and dancing along.” When you first started making music did you ever see it taking off in the way that it has? “I’d always dreamed of this kind of success and believed in myself but at the same time it’s super easy to give into self-doubt. Also, I had been releasing music since I was 17 and nothing notable had happened for years until I restarted with punching bag in October 2020. I was 22 when I released punching bag and I’m 24 now which is easy to feel old in this industry in comparison to the many 16-19-year old’s finding success through the internet especially Tiktok. But in the comparison to many jobs I am actually young, and I think the entertainment industry needs to stop making women feel old once they pass 20!” Did you have any artists or people that inspired you growing up? If so how have they affected your sound? “I have always loved Gwen Stefani she was one of my first concerts. I constantly find myself listening to No Doubt. I also have loved Radiohead since I was 14 and I think that is a constant influence in my music.”

As mentioned you’ve toured across the globe so we’re curious to as what your essentials are?

“I love bringing my point and shoot camera with me. I have a Contax T3 that my dad was getting rid of, he had it at his work and never used it. I love the pictures and memories it captures on tour. I also always need a portable charger, whether it’s for me or a band mate someone’s phone is always dying. Another essential of mine is my airpod max I got last year. The noise canceling on those works really well especially on planes when babies cry or just loud people and noises in general and if you need to sleep they can save your day! The sound is also great, and the battery lasts a long time. I sound like an ad, but I genuinely love them!”

Are there any things that you miss when on the road?

“I missed my cat at home, my bed, and the ability to do ceramics. I also need to make sure I bring my matcha making supplies cause earlier this year on tour I brought around my matcha, a whisk, kettle, single serving oat milk and sugar, but this time I didn’t prepare so I always was on the hunt for matcha but just ended up spending a lot of money on bad matcha and chai. I also sometimes miss having a car. When I was in London or NY you walk everywhere which is super convenient but sometimes I’m so lazy and would rather just drive 5 min.”

Lastly, what can we expect from you during the rest of 2022?

“I am hoping to book another tour (or two) later this year. I am also working on my third EP that should be done by the end of the year and once that is finished I will be starting my first album! The thought of that is very daunting but exciting at the same time. I miss touring already and I hope to hit the road again soon!”

Your festival carton water.

www.noblthirst.com @noblthirst

OPINION PIECE Thanks To Online Music Communities, Discovering New Music Is Easier Than Ever

WORDS: JO HIGGS

AS A TEEN IN THE 2010’S, BEFORE I stumbled across a few online music forums, and subsequently caved to Spotify’s lecherous call, I was an avid music listener, but one almost wholly restricted to however many CDs I could purchase with the little money that I made cleaning stairs for a couple of hours a week. I was fortunate to be able to buy the CDs I could, but it wasn’t exactly a rapidly growing collection.

Being far from the weightless clicks of most modern music listening, choosing which album would be my next purchase was a high-pressure affair. If I risked getting something I was less sure of, such as a family friend’s recommendation of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, it ended up being money I barely even had in the first place right down the drain, and all to show for it was a strange album full of noises I couldn’t really understand. The influential David Byrne and Brian Eno collaboration is no doubt a great album, but for someone who had grown up with The Beatles, The Clash and Green Day, there didn’t seem to be much common musical vocabulary, and thus, I went near exclusively for bands I knew to be similar: The Who, Sex Pistols, Blink-182. Decent bands? Yeah, sure. Inspiring or adventurous like My Life? Obviously not. But why, with limited scope to buy new music, would I be tempted by anything but what seemed safe? Neither a sonically similar-ish band that I’d never heard of, like Life Without Buildings, or a name I’d heard bandied about like Fela Kuti, but whose style of music I was unfamiliar with, sounded like I’d be in with enough chance of loving it to make it worth that inevitable £7.99.

How then could I branch far beyond my limited musical interests, without breaking the bank on a lottery draw that could’ve just as easily gotten me Aphex Twin (who I love) as Joanna Newsome (who I still just don’t quite get (I’m sorry!))?

For the most part, my friends had a similar taste to me, so recommendations were in the same vein of low risk, high reward, that I was already too stubborn to escape. Radio would’ve been brilliant if I could’ve had the patience to withstand (what I perceived as) awkward rambling between songs. It took me until years later to find the wonderment and solace I now do in music publications, at first, I simply skimmed the reviews and features on artists whose music I was already acquainted with. YouTube? It’d never occurred to me that one might listen to music on it (and despite the websites incessant pleas to pay it a subscription fee, I don’t think it’s really occurred to anyone, even to this day with a gradually more impassioned railing against Spotify, Daniel Ek and Joe Rogan).

I don’t particularly remember why I off-cuffedly joined a few music discussion groups on Facebook. They seemed innocuous clicks, inconsequential - a passive sort of ‘what’s this all about?’. Like the majority of people involved in such groups, my listening habits were revolutionised. Troughs of personalised and insightful recommendations from the kindest of utter strangers came in thicker and faster than even an 80hr week of stair-cleaning could’ve maintained, let alone the 2hrs I was doing. In spite of all the immorality behind Spotify, it was rapidly necessary as a vehicle to keep up.

Upon conceiving of this article, I asked a number of members of one online community that I’ve been in for some time (or at least a post-zucced iteration of it), their thoughts on the diversification of musical taste as partially navigated by increased online sociality in subcommunities. The individuals from the semi-ironically named,

ILLUSTRATION: GRACE KIM

Patrician Music Chartposting Side B, were as kind, generous with their time and as insightful as one could hope.

Many folks were eager to point out that the principles behind these groups are no different from those that music lovers have been abiding by for decades: ask for recommendations, get recommendations. The difference, as far as music forums go, is the sheer masses of people involved and the wonderfully varied backgrounds they come from. In this specific groups case, the growth of each music listener’s experience is predicated on the avoidance of genrebased cliques for the most part, and the expansive wealth of music we have at our

“COMMUNICATIONS

WITH ONE ANOTHER ABOUT MUSIC ARE BOTH SO SIMILAR AND DIFFERENT”

fingertips thanks (through gritted teeth) to Spotify and Apple, (through less gritted teeth) to Tidal, and (through the most loving of lips with saccharine smiles) to Bandcamp, among others.

For myself, platforms such as these and their recommendations aren’t only important for providing one with new favourite albums, but for filling in the gaps. Backed up by the experiences of PMCSB, the experience of having someone (from the other side of the globe, or maybe just the other side of the street) go to the effort of making a list or a flowchart for you is heart-warming. These sort of ‘how to get into [artist name]’ flowcharts are tactfully worked out with specific references to whichever angle you might wish to become acquainted with an artist you’ve struggled with before. For example, a Björk one I’ve seen floating about the internet says to start with Post and then advises which album to try next depending on your appreciation of the instrumentation. The ‘if you like this, try this’ continues across her discography, distilling what for me is the essence of groups like PMCSB. In spite of folk recognising small amounts of elitism that gets hastily snuffed out (apart from, as one person half-jokes, that there is elitism against people who just don’t really try to get into new music), no one tries to drop you into some random murky depth of plunderphonics if you’ve told them you’re predominantly a fan of alt-folk - though they might provide an artist that strikes some nearinconceivable middle ground.

It’s about the wealth of knowledge shared amongst an endlessly wide community. Different life experiences, different continents, different tastes but with the same burning passion for music, new and old. Discogs, Topsters, Rate Your Music, all in a sense provide the same, or similar functions. But for all the many flaws of Facebook (in this case) and reddit, etc., there’s always the sense that the human recommending you Elliott Smith is

someone that at one point themselves was recommended Elliott Smith. Online recommenders might remain anonymous, or they might become your best friend - it happens a lot.

As the group of individuals with whom you are mutually exploring the world of music expands, so too does the variety of music you touch upon. In one small group can be the kernel of a soon to be rapidly expanding universe. One issue raised was that regardless of online internationality, certain trends pervade such as anglocentrism. There is certainly further expansion necessary in the listening trends of music fanatics: I, for one, am not pulling my weight.

As briefly mentioned before, increasingly genre-based cliques appear to be fading, perhaps in light of increased online anonymity and invisibility. In the 70s, punks were visually unmistakable like many other styles that relate to music or otherwise. In the online sphere one needn’t flag themselves as a fan of one sect or

ILLUSTRATION: @red_moon_design

another (partially due to this reduction of sects), they can simply have a nondescript profile picture that identifies them either one way or another and proceed to appreciate music from all avenues. One individual points out that in spite of decliquing there can still arise a certain elitism about how much music one listens to, or even how they do it. Though for the most part, people attempt to not get too uppity over one another.

Communications with one another about music are both so similar and different from how they were in the pre-internet world. Aside from greater scope to interact with folk from cultures you never could’ve before, the primary change, as one person from PMCSB points out is that the definition of friend has evolved. We’re getting recommendations from our friends as we have for decades upon decades, but nowadays, perhaps your friends aren’t people who live two streets away from you, sat next to you during maths or down pints in parallel at the local, but someone who put you onto your favourite band of all time, just like you did for them, and that was enough to build a long-term friendship grounded in talking online about music.

As music plays its role in the formation of friendships, those friendships further blossom more expansive music listening, and continue to strengthen the bonds of these online communities. In spite of the occasional moment of toxicity and unkindness to be stomped out quickly, groups such as Patrician Music Chartposting Side B and many others provide such an element of community whilst propelling a new generation to increasingly varied and open-minded music listening.