Life Remotely – An Exclusive Interview with Wallows

Back when the clock struck midnight at New Year’s Eve in 2019, the year to follow was supposed to be filled with countless festival appearances and another headline tour for the LA-based indie-wonder Wallows. But life never goes the way you plan it, especially at a time when you have a pandemic rolling over the year like an apocalyptic series of monstrous plagues. Still, despite all odds, the sunny band managed to emerge out of the crisis with not only an en masse of new fans but also a fresh new EP in tow. Oh, and a whole lot of hair colour changes.

“The pandemic has made us realize what we can get done away from each other,”, explains Braeden Lemasters, vocalist and lead guitarist of the glamourous trio, while talking about the past few months that instead of studio hangs and live shows, had been filled with Animal Crossing sessions and a whole lot of time spent alone. “On a personal level, it’s interesting, because everything is closed down and you realise that little routines like going to the mall with friends aren’t possible anymore. But then you try to take it in a positive way, as much as you can. We’re living through history, no matter what that means, just hoping we’ll come out on the other side better.” Admittedly, quarantine turned out to be a weird and uneasy one for the whole group – a band that has been a decade in the making.

Comprised of Lemasters, frontman Dylan Minnette (also known for his role as Clay Jensen of the Netflix biggie ‘13 Reasons Why’ and now famous for his iconic hair colour switch in the latest twist-rich video for their hit number ‘Nobody Gets Me (Like You)’), and drummer Cole Preston, the Los Angeles-based trio has spent the better half of their lives playing in bands together, with Minnette and Lemasters having met as child actors when they were just eight. It’s only one of the many reasons why the group has already near perfected their trademark brand of hypnotic indie pop, with their newest surprise, their latest EP ‘Remote’, turning the page to a brand-new, exciting chapter of Wallows.