By Keith Walsh
LA-based synth trio Woves creates powerful and catchy electronic rock songs that are commercial without being fluffy. Their new single “1 am” is perfection, with Emily Zuzik’s superb alto voice complimented by the electronics of Josh Ricchio. Far from being cold and emotionless, the electronic sounds of Woves are passionate and expressive, due in large part to the use of pure analog hardware synths exclusively, not to mention Ricchio’s skillful arrangements, which are informed by coursework in songwriting and composing.

A Moog Matriarch is at the heart of the sounds being created by the trio,  which are recorded and mixed using Ableton on an Apple laptop. “It’s pretty much the main synth that I use now, and I do a lot of modular stuff,” says Ricchio. “So I have a ton of modules and stuff that I work with a lot … I even run guitar through my modular setup.” Other gear used by Ricchio for Woves is a Korg Minilogue, A Roland JU-06 and an Arturia Drum Brute beat machine.

Lyrical Inspiration
Themes of heartache, annoying ex-partners, and one am phone calls make for great lyrics. A failed relationship is fair game for songwriting material, and Zuzik’s words for “1 am” are clever and knowing:

“I see you called at 1 am
They say bad news comes at night
But I’m done with that storyline, even when I see the light
But you always make it hard to walk away completely
I can’t take these little lies, can’t commit so freely…
Can’t commit so freely,,,”

As Zuzik tells it, “1 am” was inspired by a late night email, rather than a call, after the end of a challenging romantic relationship. “I mean, there’s narrative license taken,” she explained.  “The root of the thing was, it was a really crazy relationship — really crazy. A break up, and one of those like ‘cannot see you, or have anything to do with you’ after periods. And I got an email, basically him, realizing this, and I remember reading it and thinking to myself. ‘Oh my God, he got it. He got it. I never thought he’d get there. You know, what was that?’” Zuzik refrained from replying to the email, despite strong urges to do so.

The sophistication of Woves’ lyrics, written by both Zuzik and Ricchio, set the band apart from typical synth pop and radio fodder.  Zuzik explained, “I worked really hard for a while to try to demystify, because I can get really floaty and imagery-based like early 80s, new wave. I’m like ‘what the hell are they singing about?’ I always found it interesting that you had to work a little harder to kind of figure out what’s going on, or you can imbue it with whatever meaning you wanted versus being like really cut and dried.”

Drummer Kolby Wade is the third member of Woves, playing and programming beats on the Arturia DrumBrute as well as a MoogDFAM . “Kolby’s all into synths and drum machines, “said Ricchio. “So a lot of it’s Drum Brute from Arturia. And then he uses the Moog DFAM. Yeah. I think he did all of the beats except for two songs released, and ‘So Used To Heartbreak’ on the album and then all the new stuff.”

The debut album by Woves, Chaos Mesa, will be released on on Retro Reverb Records on December 10.

Woves On Bandcamp
Woves Music com
Woves On Instagram
Woves Music On Facebook
Sing Engine Records
Retro Reverb Records
Emily Zuzik . com

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