Tape Waves is Kim and Jarod Weldin, a husband and wife dream pop duo, from Charleston, South Carolina. They began recording in 2012, writing songs with clean guitar tones and dreamy reverbs, and released three full-lengths between 2014 and 2018. They are releasing a new full-length, called BRIGHT, on June 4. Puddlegum is excited to premiere Reverse Rewind, a new single from the LP that we can’t stop listening to!
The new single, Reverse Rewind is the fifth track on BRIGHT. The song features Matt Messore of Cathedral Bells on synths and ambient vocals, adding a really nice touch to the song. The song has a shoegazey washed-out tone, a sound that carries throughout this eight track LP.
Kim shared with Puddlegum how Tape Waves began. “We started in 2012 after meeting at a dead-end job and learning that we both previously played in bands and had a passion for music. We started sharing recordings with each other. After a few months, we were playing guitar together.”
Their first project began with instrumentals that Jarod recorded, before he asked Kim to add vocals. “We recorded two songs ‘Ready Now‘ and ‘Wherever I Go‘ and put them on Bandcamp. We didn’t think of the band name until we put the songs up. Things took off from there.”
Kim talks about recording BRIGHT
They began writing songs for this LP after releasing their Distant Light full-length in 2018, recording the new songs in their home. And then the Pandemic hit. “We had a lot of time to work on the recording since we were quarantined for most of the past year,” Kim explained. “We ended up cancelling a vacation but kept the time off of work and used it to finish the record.”
“Having extra time during the pandemic to work on the album was definitely good for us.” The extra time gave them time to be “reflective and appreciative of being able to turn to music in such an uncertain time,” Kim shared. “It wasn’t only a time of uncertainty because of the pandemic, but also because of social issues and protests happening. I became more aware of what a privilege it is to have the time and space to create music.”
BRIGHT has a washed-out tone, a change in comparison to their previous releases. “We were going for more of a washed out/shoegaze sound for this album. We also played around with adding more grit and texture by using distortion pedals, which is new for us. We’ve always focused on having really clean guitar tones, so it was nice to experiment with our sound in that way.”
Bringing Matt Messore in on the songs was also a new experience for Tape Waves. “I feel like Matt’s vocal melody in the chorus echoes and plays off mine and really brought the song together.”
After recording the songs, they had Kevin McMahon of Marcata Recording mix and master the album. You can hear his work on Real Estate and Widowspeak, “some of our favorite records,” Kim exclaimed. “It was exciting for us to work with him. This was the first time we didn’t mix the record completely by ourselves. Kevin definitely polished the songs up for us!”
Look for BRIGHT on June 4, released through Emotional Response Records and Fastcut Records!
Tape Waves links:
