Montreal/New York-based Wake Island are today premiering their new record Out in anticipation of the official release on April 29/16 via Oh Hi, an artist collective the duo co-founded in Montreal.
Out marks a significant shift towards the realm of electronica in contrast to Wake Island's 2013 debut album in terms of experimentation and heavy-weight nods to techno and 80s-infused trop-rock. One can think of the LP in full as an "emotional dance party", one that manifests atop a strong pop bedrock.
"Electronic music always fascinated us but we knew nothing about it, so we rented a cabin for a month and completely removed ourselves from our surroundings. We learnt everything during that time and reimagined our whole songwriting approach by experimenting with different instruments and technologies. Everything started making sense to us at that point," explains Philippe Manasseh, the band's vocalist. The duo then approached long time collaborator, friend and producer Jace Lasek (The Besnard Lakes) in order to round-out their sound with additional rock elements. The rest was history.
The other half of Wake Island Nadim Maghzal continues by describing this process as a pivotal moment in the duo's career as both musicians and producers: "Writing, recording and arranging those tracks on our own for weeks in isolation gave me a strong sense of confidence and a feeling of absolute freedom," he explains. "I now deeply believe that we have all the necessary skills to produce music we believe in strongly and I cannot wait to make new jams this summer after our tour."
– April 23rd: Montreal @ SAT Dome (with Young Galaxy)
– April 30th: Montreal @ Bar Le Ritz P.D.B. (Album Launch!)
– May 6th: Toronto @ Burdock (CMW)
– May 7th: Toronto @ Handlebar (CMW)
– May 29th: Liverpool @ Cargo Stage (Liverpool Sound City)
