For today's Artist Spotlight we had the opportunity to catch up with Sand Diego, California based band Well Well Well. They are a two-piece band who's sound is firmly rooted in Alternative/Electronic genres. Some comps that came to us immediately were Joy Division, New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, and Daft Punk. The band released a full-length album in 2016 (What Do We Have Here?) and just released dual EPs Ships and Poptimism on July 13. The band noted that the EPs are "experiments in what happens when you open your creative minds to others, lyrically driven by daydreams, nightmares and those few moments in between". Well Well Well's 'Choose Your Own Disaster Tour' with BRUIN kicks off next week, and a full list of tour dates can be found at the end of this piece.
The band have been playing music since their early teens and they believe that their relationship with music is more of a give and take as opposed to a career choice. They stated that given how vulnerable one must be to give their personal take on reality with the public has its ups and downs. The band felt that given the public nature of their work, they are often their worst critics. However, they believe that when you look past your "self-pessimism demon" and instead work with that feeling, you can create something that is quality and original.
Their process for writing music typically comes through random ideas that are quickly documented on a voice memo. From there, the song will be given the acoustic guitar treatment, to ensure that everything functions. Then a home demo is produced of the final product. The band believes that one of the pitfalls of songwriting is overthinking and adding too many layers, basically if you stick to the basics, you can create a better, original take.
The band is extremely inspired by sound and noises when it comes to creating music. While at times, they follow the work of Daft Punk, other times they look to older tracks (before digital recording) in order to see the raw nature of that music, as well as just sounds/noise in general.
One thing the band wants the public about their music is that it is the most important thing you won't listen to all day (that's their pessimistic demon talking). They believe they offer a unique blend of genres that is hard to find in music today. This is something we certainly agree with, as Well Well Well's music is at times like an homage to 1980's alternative and electronic music and at other times pushes the envelope of alt/electronic music into new territory. On the one hand, they can pay tribute to the past, but on the other, they are pushing to the future and they play both of these parts extremely well.
Well Well Well will be busy in the upcoming months as they will be collaborating with another California-based band Bruin on a tour. They will be traveling across California playing in a number of diverse venues including record stores, museums, and the rooftop of LinkedIn headquarters!
If you want to check out a truly innovative band that has a penchant for giving a wink to the greats of the past, you definitely need to check out Well Well Well. Some songs we'd recommend include: "Sleeping Away", "More than Love", and "On Your Way Home".
FMI check out their site at www.wellwellwelltheband.com and be sure to check the dates below to see if they're coming to your area!
Well Well Well Tour Dates
July 21 – San Diego, CA – The Casbah *
July 28 – San Diego, CA – Karl Strauss Arts & Amps
* w/ Wild Wild Wets, Ethics (TJ) & Creepseed
# w/ Little Hurricane
Well Well Well & BRUIN 'Choose Your Own Disaster Tour' Dates
July 31 – La Puente, CA – Bridgetown DIY Presented by Khene Zine & Local Deadbeat Agency $
Aug 01 – Santa Ana, CA – Beatnik Bandito Presented by Khene Zine & Lost.N.Sound #
Aug 02 – Los Angeles, CA – Ham & Eggs %
Aug 03 – San Francisco, CA – LinkedIn Rooftop
Aug 04 – Berkeley, CA – The Ivy Room @
Aug 05 – San Francisco, CA – Neck of the Woods @
Aug 07 – Sacramento, CA – TBD
Aug 08 – Placerville, CA – Volution Gallery ^
Aug 09 – Santa Cruz, CA – Church House
Sept 24 - San Diego, CA - Casbah $$
$ w/ County Fair & Poor Timing
# w/ Rufrano & Danielle Stacy
% w/ Alex Bloom & Sun Colony
@ w/ LVXE, presented by Massflow & Dream Chimney
^ w/ Los Webelos
$$ w/ Yuno