For anyone living in Exeter, it’s been hard to ignore WASABI so far this year. Having initially formed in late 2023, they’re own brand of desolate shoegaze has steadily captured the attention of local music fans to the point that the band recently hit a new high watermark with the release of their debut EP ENNUI that was celebrated with exceptional shows headlining both the Cavern and The Phoenix.
A young band of mature souls, WASABI are now spreading their wings further afield. With an upcoming London show on Tuesday 18 March at The Star In Shoreditch, Joyzine caught up with them to find out more.
WASABI are:
Pola – vocals and guitar
Adi – guitar
Loui – drums
Leo – bass
1. For anyone not yet familiar with WASABI, can you sum up the band in ten words or less?
WASABI is a creatively diverse collective.
2. The new EP ENNUI is a beautifully constructed shoegaze soundscape, as beautiful as it is acidic and as yearning as it is confident. What influences are you drawing upon?
For ENNUI we drew upon a wide range of influences taking inspiration from artists such as Slowdive, Fontaines D.C. and Mansur Brown though the songwriting was mainly driven by where we were emotionally at the time and took inspiration from our own personal experiences.
3. And why the name ENNUI? And why is it in CAPITALS?
The word ENNUI means the feeling of boredom surrounding the lack of excitement. We used it as the name of our EP after it was suggested by Adi. So it was when he was revising for his English Literature exam that his brother told him the word ennui could be used within his essay. After finding out what it meant we all felt that it had a personal relevance to each of us. We all met because we lived in Devon however we all have come from different places and different backgrounds. So this desire for something more exciting has spurred us all and driven the band as far as it has gotten so far and promises much more. So the word ennui has a special relevance to us all.
4. What’s your favourite song on the record?
Even though all the songs on ENNUI are great and each has a real personal quality we can unanimously agree that our favourite song is ‘A Letter’. Originally written by the guitarist, Adi, in his head while abroad in America, the song quickly developed layers upon layers over the foundational idea. Evolving naturally during the process while each of us contributed our own ideas to the whole collective vision. ‘A Letter’ is a song that was really written through the production process, recording it as we wrote it. So just like much of ENNUI it was recorded at home. Matching the quality of the instrumentals, the vocals brought on themes of nostalgia and growing up. They were written after the instruments were recorded and were developed out of the cut up technique, choosing random words and phrases which evoked scenes and emotions. However through the unpredictability of this process everything came together and conveyed a lot of meaning that really connected with us and our audience.
5. The artwork on your records is striking and as clearly considered as the music. Can you tell us a little more about it?
The album cover of ENNUI is actually a photo by Henry Peach Robinson and is in fact one of the oldest photographs ever taken. Shot in 1857 the piece is called She Never Told Her Love, conveying a dream-like quality that matches well with our sound and captures many elements of ENNUI. The image itself seems to speak of the unspoken and leaves a lot to interpretation, which is something that can be said about our music as well.
6. Are we building towards a WASABI album? And if so, when?
We are building up to an album, which is our next project. We have written the material and are currently recording it. We’re planning on releasing it before summer.
7. What do you enjoy / not enjoy about playing live?
We love showing music to a live audience while getting that feeling of energy you receive from a really great crowd that gives you as much in their response as you put into the music. We really don’t like pre gig nerves and the stress that builds leading up to a gig. None of us particularly likes to talk to the crowd as it can be intimidating. But maybe most of all we hate being taken for granted, the best example of this is not being paid enough for travel costs with the further away gigs.
8. You recently played Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff and you’re hitting London on the 18 March. Any plans for a WASABI tour?
We are actually slowing down our gigging and we are taking a break after March to focus on writing new material and finishing this upcoming album. So we probably won’t consider a tour until after the album drops.
9. Have you any strange and wondrous gig tales you’d like to share?
I think the best gig story that any of us can think of is when we headlined Exeter Phoenix in a band showcase recently and we were met by a crowd close to 200. Which happened to be one of the greatest crowds we have ever played for. Because when we started to play ‘How Can It Be’ we were met with a sea of waving hands, as the crowd sang the lyrics back at us.
10. What does 2025 hold for you?
2025 is actually a big year for us and was actually a bit of a deadline for us to see what we could make of this band. As we have seen a growing amount of success and more importantly have kept on loving making and performing the music we have decided to take it a step further. We are planning to record a lot more new material and gig further afield but most importantly we have decided to move to London. As many of us are going to London for University we all wanted to push the band further and decided to all go to keep the band together. 2025 is going to be big for WASABI.
WASABI: Instagram
Interview by Peter Richard Adams
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