NightWaves are a synth pop group based out of Los Angeles
NightWaves are a synth pop group based out of Los Angeles
NightWaves is a group based in Los Angeles, California who make stirring and substantial synth pop. I spoke with them about their origins, their involvement with Binary Entertainment and their plans for the future.
How did you (Kyle Petersen, Josh Legg, and David Urbina) meet?
Josh: Kyle and I met at USC, where we were both on the intercollegiate sailing team. Throughout school we bonded over and debated music pretty heavily. I remember somehow getting an advance copy of The Killers’ Hot Fuss and us falling in love with it right away. We had been writing music for years independently, but we started to collaborate more in 2008 after our tastes moved into more electronic genres. The third member of our band, our guitarist David Urbina came from our time at USC as well. We make electronic based music, but we knew we wanted NightWaves to move towards a more organic, live sound, so adding Dave as the principle guitarist made a lot of sense.
How did you decide that making a synth-pop band was what you wanted to do?
Kyle: Well I wouldn’t say it was a calculated decision or anything like that. At the time that NightWaves started Josh and I were just heavily involved with music, going out to Spaceland and the Echo every week getting $3 PBR’s and seeing the upcoming indie bands emerging from the east side here in LA. So at night we’d do that, and in the daytime we were spending a lot of time cruising Myspace and just digging into all the emerging melodic dance music that was coming out of France and Australia at the time. Josh and Dave and I have played in a lot of different bands in the past, mainly just as a way for us to play our instruments and make some music. But I think when NightWaves started it was just sort of the right crossroads in our lives where we started to embrace pop music, and we tried to combine all of our musical past into one sound that just kinda felt right for the change that was going on in our world.
How did the name “NightWaves” come about?
Josh: A theme that comes up over and over again in our music is that of waves. Besides the litteral association with the ocean, which is something we’re somewhat obsessed with, it refers to a few different things. Thinking of emotion in terms of waves… That feeling you get when something boils up inside you and you can’t help but let it take over. Waves of altered states. Waves of tension and release in music. NightWaves just is speaking on how everything feels bigger at night, when your blood is flowing a little faster. We’re just trying to capture those feelings.
How did you get hooked up with Binary Entertainment?
Kyle: Josh and I actually started Binary in late 2007, so NightWaves had a pretty easy time getting signed up with that, haha. Long story short, Josh and I were both working different jobs, we had always shared a profound interest in music, we talked about doing something in artist management, we put the pieces of the puzzle together and that was the beginning of what Binary is today. This is all relevant because that’s when NightWaves started…as I mentioned above, Josh and I were so into music discovery at the time, it was just sort of natural for NightWaves to start as we were trying to create music to sort of define in our heads what this new sound was all about, and that new sound became the style of Binary. So Binary and NightWaves are kinda twins…but Binary was born first.
Looking back at the songs you’ve done as NightWaves, what is the common theme that runs through them all?
Josh: It seems like everyone we hang out with here in Los Angeles has Peter Pan syndrome. Nobody really wants to grow up. Its not a ‘we want to party hard all the time’ thing, but more of a longing for the innocent times of our youth, when any day could be the most important day of your life. Themes of innocence and nostalgic memories of youth definitely appear often in NightWaves’ music. Our friends in LexiconDon have a song called ‘Dance Floor Affair’ thats about the power of having a one night, or even one song, intense relationship with someone you’ve just met. NightWaves is always about recalling something primal and emotional from listeners. As far as we’re concerned, the types of emotions you felt when you were a teenager are the purest you can find.
What does your live show set up look like?
Kyle: In terms of technical setup, we’ve got Josh and I with our keyboards running our synths through Logic, and then there’s Dave on a Les Paul guitar, and then there’s a currently unoccupied drumset in the back, haha. Josh and I both have microphones so we can do some dueling vocals.
David: Adding the live guitar and drums definitely bring a rockier, explosive element to the original tracks and it translates really well on stage. We realize the importance of putting on a show. People want to hear flawless well-produced songs, especially in the dance/synth-pop circles, but they’re also there to see a live organic performance. Our set up brings the two together in a way that people don’t usually expect from the original recordings.
NightWaves Performing Live
What’s an instrument neither of you can live without?
Josh: Its hard not to say the soft synths that we write with in Logic. Without them, there would definitely be no NightWaves. That being said, I’ve been writing with an acoustic guitar for over 10 years and even NightWaves most recent single “Sweet Carrie” was written just like that, with an acoustic guitar and a pad of paper. It’s gotta be my Martin acoustic.
Kyle: Hmmm, even though I sadly and apparently can live without my acoustic guitar, which has been put on the shelf for awhile since I’m busy playing synths all the time, if I was on a deserted island and could only have one instrument it would be that. I think acoustic guitars can just build a much stronger bond with their owner. It’s like having a dog that you don’t need to feed or pick up his shit.
What do you have planned for the summer?
Kyle: Man, we’re so pumped for the summer. Well aside from a ton of stuff going on with Binary, NightWaves will be heading out to the East Coast to Josh’s place in Boston so we can sort of get away from all the constant distractions, for lack of a better word, of Binary. The idea is to emerge ourselves in a tranquil place and to just get creative. Kinda like when other bands disappear into the woods for months and emerge with beards and a full length. Except we’re not going into the woods…and we won’t be gone for months…but I could go with the beard thing, that’d be tight.
NightWaves Perform Live
NightWaves Perform Live
