Electronic music has always been about more than machines, it’s about emotion, memory, and the human impulse to connect. For Wavewulf, the synth-forward project helmed by New Jersey–based artist and producer Daniel Felsenfeld, electronic sound becomes a vessel for grief, spirituality, resilience, and transcendence. Drawing from a lifelong immersion in music that spans Pink Floyd records spinning in childhood living rooms, formative encounters with Depeche Mode, and deep dives into Krautrock, Wavewulf exists at the intersection of philosophy and feeling.
The creator has released a myriad of powerful albums including Oscillation, Green Decay, Space Art and Angels, The North and the Sea, and most recently Unbreakable Soul. He has carved out a space where synthesizers breathe, collaborators converge, and big existential questions are welcomed rather than avoided. We caught up with Wavewulf to talk about early inspirations, the healing power of electronic sound, the importance of collaboration, and how music continues to serve as both a creative refuge and a spiritual compass.
You began playing synthesizers in middle school, what initially drew you to electronic instruments rather than traditional band setups?
Initially, I just loved the way synthesizers looked. I was fascinated by all of the knobs and sliders of 1980s (and earlier) synthesizers when seeing them in music shops and pawn shops. When I first heard them, I loved the way they sounded! As a child, I remember listening to my dad’s Pink Floyd records, especially the song “Welcome To The Machine” from Wish You Were Here and hearing those beautiful synth parts and synth solos. When I asked my dad what those sounds were and he told me they were made by synthesizers, I just knew I wanted one and wanted to learn how to play one!
How did listening to your father play guitar and exploring his record collection shape your musical ear early on?
I grew up in a pretty musical family. My father played guitar (and a little piano), sang, and often jammed with his friends and was in bands. So this definitely lit a spark in me and got me into music at an early age. And yes, my dad also had a great record collection, things like Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, etc., so I loved listening to all of those and they shaped my ear musically from a young age. We also had a piano and there were always guitars, basses, amplifiers and effects pedals lying around our house, so I would play or make noise on them as a child and sometimes try to play along to my dad’s records or with him and his friends. My father also did sound for our local church as well as for music festivals in the small college town I grew up in, Siloam Springs, Arkansas. One such festival was called “Siloampalooza” and was put on by local college students. When I got a little older and into junior high, high school and later college, I played in bands that played Siloampalooza and other local music festivals.
Seeing Depeche Mode live at age 13 was a turning point for you, what specifically about that performance changed your path?
Definitely, seeing Depeche Mode in 1991 (on their “World Violation Tour”) was amazing! Both the way Depeche Mode looked and sounded was incredible, it actually changed the way I looked at what a band could be. Just seeing four people on stage with mostly just synthesizers (and drums and a few guitars too), and the synthesizers and electronics taking center stage was a watershed moment for me. After seeing that concert, I decided to get serious about music and playing synthesizers. I talked my parents into buying me my first “real” synthesizer, a Roland Juno-106 and a little later, a Yamaha DX7, as well as a Yamaha RX7 drum-machine and little Yamaha sequencer (a QY10) to sequence them all! Up until then, I had only had “toy” synths from Radio Shack and Walmart (actually, those could be pretty fun too). Later, I sold them all (except the Juno) to pay for a Yamaha SY99 (which had a built-in 16-track sequencer) that could allow me to do more complex sequences. Anyway, you can’t imagine how exciting it was for me to get that Juno-106 for Christmas, and when I hooked it up to an amplifier and started playing it for the first time, I was in love with electronic sound!
What motivated you to formally launch Wavewulf in 2017?
Well, it’s interesting, I have either been in bands or I’ve made music as a solo artist in some capacity my entire life (in some periods more than others), but I had never actually released anything (except for a homemade tape recording or CD to give out to a few friends). After my mother died in 2017 of cancer (like my father a few years before her), I really needed something to do creatively again to deal with the grief of losing both of my parents in such as short amount of time (I hadn’t done much, musically speaking, for about 5 years prior to this because I was so busy with graduate school), so I decided to invest in some (better) recording equipment, a DAW, and a few new (and vintage) synthesizers to get started making and recording music again. As I was doing this, I started to look into how I could release music and found out that I could just do it myself without a record label (I had a few friends who had also released albums this way). And… Wavewulf was born! After experimenting and recording for a couple of years in my small recording studio (Passing Noate Studio) in the spare room of my apartment in West New York, New Jersey, I finally released my debut album, Oscillation, in January of 2019.
What was it like recording Oscillation in the spare room of your apartment, and what challenges or freedoms came with that setup?
I was doing everything on my own with a few old analogue synthesizers, a couple of newer analogue synthesizers, an analogue drum-machine, an Eventide effects processor, a microphone, a computer, a DAW (Cubase Pro), a couple of small studio monitors and a pair of Sennheiser headphones. So I really had to learn what I was doing as I went along, and it could be challenging when I ran into brickwalls (watching YouTube videos helped me break down some of those walls). This process was great, actually, because I really learned how to do everything myself. The synths and drum-machine all being hardware and analogue also allowed me to really tinker with all of the knobs and sliders and make patches myself, which allowed for a lot of wonderful experimentation, and I think helped me make a stronger album in the end.
Each Wavewulf album has a strong conceptual identity, how do you decide on a theme before starting a project?
Thank you! To be honest, I don’t always have a strong concept before starting an album. The concepts have usually emerged slowly as I’ve gotten to making the albums. The concept usually comes about based on the material I’m making, which does reflect what I’m thinking about or dealing with at that point in my life. Oscillation, for instance, really was about the joy of synthesized sound, as well as the joy of exploration and experimentation I was feeling while making the album, especially since it was my first (to be made on a professional level). Oscillation also reflected the grief I felt after my mothers, fathers, and nephews (recent) deaths.
My sophomore album, Green Decay, came about through the frustration I was feeling with the way the world was going politically, and about the sadness I felt about the destruction of our precious environment when I was making it (or course, I still feel a lot of frustration about how things are going politically and ecologically in the U.S. and around the world now, more so, even). Green Decay was an outlet for me to process, explore and express those feelings. Also, starting to work with Chrisopher John Donato as a drummer and collaborator at that time opened me up to the great spirit of collaboration (and Chris being an old friend, and great drummer and songwriter helped a lot too). Space Art and Angels was really kind of a capstone to that period of grief, and political frustration, dealing a lot more with spiritual matters though. I was really thinking a lot about life and death, our transience on this planet, what came before, what comes after, the universe, the metaphysical, God, if you will. Space Art and Angels was made during the height of the COVID pandemic as well, so that was a big part of what brought that all on for me. The North and the Sea was probably the album I had the most robust concept going into. That album really came about because of the way I felt taking a trip to Iceland after the pandemic had subsided a bit. I had been feeling quite claustrophobic before making it, I’m sure the pandemic had a lot to do with that, but it was also just the way I was feeling in life at the time; dull, separate, disconnected. So, taking the trip to that beautiful Scandinavian island is just what I needed to break out of that rut. The North and the Sea really reflects that emergence out of disconnectedness and darkness. Also, as I was starting to include a lot more vocals and lyrics in my music at that time, working with Nala Spark and Christopher Donato (as well as some other great vocalists/songwriters) really helped me to connect musically. It allowed us all to bounce ideas off of each other, and the process itself dovetailed really nicely with the album's theme of disconnectedness vs. connectedness, and claustrophobia vs. freedom. In the end, this process of writing together drove us all to create something that I believe was a much stronger record than it would have been otherwise. My latest album, Unbreakable Soul, really continues with this theme of human connectedness, physically, creatively and spiritually. It’s about connection as well as spiritual transcendence; these are actually themes that weave their way through a lot of my work. Unbreakable Soul is also about perseverance, which is something I’ve really thought about a lot and learned both through completing graduate school as well as through working as a musician and creative in the music industry today.
How did collaborating with Nala Spark change the sonic and emotional direction of Wavewulf?
Collaborating with Nala Spark has indeed changed the sonic and emotional direction of Wavewulf. For one, she brings a different perspective, a female perspective, into Wavewulf. It’s interesting, actually, as both Nala and I have had recent deaths of loved ones in our lives, so that really put us on the same page thematically and emotionally on these last two Wavewulf albums. In addition, we are both people who are interested in and concerned with spiritual matters, life and death, and personal and spiritual growth. This being said, Nala does bring a more feminine way of writing and expressing into Wavewulf as well as a real emotional intelligence and spiritual way of being in the world. In addition, I’ve had a lot of great collaborators that have brought aspects of themselves into Wavewulf, such as Monica Young, her excitement and thoughtfulness; LiAura, her multicultural experience as an African and Middle-Eastern-Canadian; Pulse Lab; as a Finnish electronic music artist herself; Christopher John Donato as a theologian and philosopher; as well as other thoughtful creatives like Chase Walker of the Chase Walker Band (and his amazing bluesy guitar playing) Veronika Jokel, Emily Fraser and their thoughtful approaches to music making.
Unbreakable Soul explores transcendence and resilience, how does this album reflect where you are personally today?
Yes, Unbreakable Soul really is an album about resilience and transcendence. I think the resilience part really came about out of my experiences of struggle through life and having to learn to keep going when I get knocked down (as has happened many times throughout my life). Honestly, getting through college and graduate school was a struggle for me (partly, likely, because of my ADHD). I’ve always been someone who has done well in certain areas (music, art, history, etc.) because of my insatiable curiosity. Nevertheless, I’ve struggled in other areas, such as following rules, organization, time management, etc. This personal dichotomy, I believe, has given me a unique perspective. The transcendence part is about my process (our process) of learning to understand and use our strengths (and learning to rely on others for things we’re not so good at). Relatedly, Unbreakable Soul is also about spiritual transcendence, about the process we go through on this Earth of transcending the mundane, the material, the temporal and reaching a connectedness with each other, with the universe, with God.
You’ve worked repeatedly with Christopher John Donato, what makes that collaboration enduring?
Chris is actually someone I’ve known since college, so we have a history together. We were friends in college (actually, I got to know Chris when I was in high school and he was in college, since he’s a few years older than me). I think our experience of being in and around the same bands when we were in college built our foundation and initial friendship. Now Chris lives in a suburb of Chicago and I live in a suburb of New York City, so we haven’t actually lived in the same place since we were in college in the ‘90s, but when I contacted Chris in early 2019 to make music with me in Wavewulf, he was excited to make music with me again (we actually make music together now remotely)!
I was feeling, after making Oscillation, that I wanted Wavewulf’s sound to be bigger, perhaps a bit more raw, and thought that Chris’ skills as a live drummer (as well as his being a great songwriter in his own right) would help me/us to make Wavewulf’s sound bigger and more powerful. Through our experience of making Green Decay together, this proved to be the case. And after making that record, we’ve continued to work together, and Chirs has really become an integral part of Wavewulf’s sound. Chris is also a theologian (he even has a masters degree in theology) and philosopher, so he really understands (and adds to) the philosophical and conceptual underpinnings of Wavewulf’s music.
Your influences span New Wave, Krautrock, musique concrète, and modern electronic music, how do you synthesize such a wide range of sounds?
I’ve always been into all kinds of music. I started getting into music as a kid listening to my dad’s records (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Velvet Underground, Bowie, Coltrane, etc.), I then went through a pop phase (Prince, Madonna, The Pet Shop Boys) in middle school, a grunge phase in junior high (Soundgarden, Nirvana, etc.), and then moved on to electronic, Krautrock, new wave, dreampop and alternative bands/artists like Depeche Mode, The Cure, Cocteau Twins, The Sundays, Cranes, Björk, Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Joy Division/New Order, 808 State, Tangerine Dream, Portishead and Stereolab in High School and college. In graduate school, I really started to get into musique concrète (partly through researching for my graduate thesis on Kraftwerk and Germany’s Krautrock scene in the 1960s through 1980s) like Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In more recent years, I’ve gotten into artists like Goldfrapp, Röyksopp, Ulrich Schnauss, and Susanne Sundfør. So all of this music has always just been swimming around in my head and it blends together in the music I create today. My mind is genre fluid in that way, and even though my music is synth-based and electronic (with some live drums and dreampop/shoegaze guitars), all of those influences come out in the way I write my music today.
Music has been a way for you to process grief and loss, how does that emotional journey manifest in your compositions?
Indeed, listening to, writing and making music is really important for me in dealing with life generally. My journey of losing many loved ones over the years has only made the spiritual transcendence I experience through music and making music more important than ever. With Wavewulf, I really wish to join in with the cosmic, with love while creating, and to express that cosmic connection and love with those who listen to my music. Music is vibration and emotion, it is spiritual, it is cosmic and that’s what makes it so special and important. Using sound, synthesizers (which can make all kinds of unique sounds – that’s why I love them so much), other instruments, effects, voices and words (lyrics) together to express emotion, to cause connection (with each other and the divine) seems to me like one of the most important things we can do as humans, I endeavor for my compositions can do that for others.
Many of your albums explore life, death, the soul, and love. Do you see Wavewulf as a philosophical project as much as a musical one?
Absolutely, I see it as both a musical project and a philosophical one. I think it really comes down to Wavewulf being born out of my grief of losing both my parents and my 3-year-old nephew to cancer in a period of just 3 years. After these deaths, I was really asking questions and searching for meaning in my life. Music is something I’ve always relied on when times were tough, and so making music and actually releasing it to the world was not only something to give me something to do, it was also a way for me to process my grief, and address my search for meaning all through the medium of music. Interestingly, the people who I started to collaborate with had also experienced recent deaths of loved ones, divorces, and other things that were causing them to grieve, search for meaning, as well as ask some of the same questions I was. It really has been amazing how it has all come together with Wavewulf!
How do you see Wavewulf evolving in the future, sonically, thematically, or collaboratively?
Well, I’m in the process of writing and recording my next Wavewulf album right now. A theme is also starting to emerge (though I haven’t quite put it all together yet thematically). I also really like the direction the album is starting to take, so I’ll keep you updated as things progress. I’m continuing to collaborate with Christopher John Donato, Chase Walker, Nala Spark, Monica Young, Pulse Lab, LiAura as well as a couple of new vocalists. My hope is that Wavewulf continues to grow both musically and thematically. I’ve also started to work on doing some possible film composing, so we’ll see how that develops.
What do you hope listeners take away from the Wavewulf experience?
I hope they connect with it the way that I’ve connected with so many great artists over my life. I hope my/our music helps them contemplate life, its meaning, spirituality, and love. I hope it both challenges their notions and ultimately brings them comfort and meaning.
Thank you so much for the wonderful interview, Earmilk! I’ve really enjoyed it.
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