New York - Wonderlust, (out June 2 via Heavenly Recordings) the debut album from Kid Wave, the international two girl/two boy quartet, is made up of a crafted set of pop songs. The music bathes in golden, restorative rays more commonly associated with life on the Californian coast rather than  that of London, England, where Kid Wave reside. This is music that’s delivered with an uplifting sense of youthful, wild abandon and imbued throughout with blissful surges of musical serotonin yet containing clear undercurrents with a wistful sense of melancholy too. Occasionally, dark clouds obscure their sonic sunshine and there’s a nagging sense that no summer lasts forever.

The band have now shared a new track from the album, “Best Friend.”

Nevertheless, Wonderlust is an achievement made all the more remarkable due to the fact that 22 year old singer-songwriter, Lea Emmery and guitarist, Mattias Bhatt, hail from the southeast coast of Sweden – a place where sub-zero Baltic winds blow in and freeze the land for several months of the year – and that this debut was recorded in Stockport, England, during the darker days and crepuscular nights of a dank English winter.

Kid Wave craft slacker indie rock and transcendental dream-laden pop of a distinctly early 90s bent –music to lose yourself in and to which you give your life. There are shades of Lush and Dinosaur Jr. in their sonic sunshine, though other ears might recall PJ Harvey, The Lemonheads, The Breeders, Pavement, Teenage Fanclub. However, these are all bands largely operational before the members of Kid Wave were even born –artists about whom Emmery readily admits not necessarily knowing much. The one thing that perhaps unites this music of the past with Kid Wave’s effervescent present, is an infatuation with melody. This quartet never sacrifice the song for volume or let the feedback do the work because at the center, beneath the shoe-gazing dynamics and the dark lyrical undercurrents that speak of existential quandaries and the confusions of young life in the 21^st century, is a big, beating and gorgeous, pop heart.

Wonderlust is an aptly-titled album for an international band whose founding members’ wanderings lead them to congregate in the capital of England. Kid Wave began life as a solo when Lea Emmery relocated from Norrköping (a city sometimes referred to as ”Sweden’s Manchester”) to London, in 2011, at the age of 18. She knew no one, had no band and no contacts but she did have drive, vision and ambition –insane levels of it, in fact. Several years playing classical piano at a local college in Sweden had lead to a stint in an all-girl punk band and though that tenure was short-lived, there was simply no turning back. Noise beckoned.

What began life as solo demos, soon morphed into Kid Wave. Mattias Bhatt, part of the same clique of indie kids back in Norrköping – and now in London – signed up. Serra Petale, hailing from Perth, Australia, was teaching drums at a college where Emmery was studying sound engineering and seemed “impossibly cool.” She was in the band. Bassist, Harry Deacon, was a friend-of-friends.

A clutch of early songs was recorded with Rory Atwell (Palma Violets, The Vaccines, Male Bonding) production before Lea sent some music to Heavenly Recordings –”and no-one else.” Kid Wave had no management and no team of people fighting their corner –just songs. Heavenly liked what they heard and signed the band in early 2014. It was that simple. The plan that she had when she moved to London with just some clothes and a guitar was working remarkably well.

2014 saw Kid Wave playing shows with The Wytches, TOY, The Orwells and Childhood. More recently, the band played with Jimi Goodwin at the Heavenly 25 weekend in Hebden Bridge. The band recorded Wonderlust in autumn of 2014 at the magical analogue wonderland that is Eve Studio, in Stockport with producer Dan Austin (Doves, Cherry Ghost). Beyond the studio, the lashing rain and dark northwest nights were banished by the youthful exuberance and sugared sounds being created within.

Kid Wave sing escapist songs of struggle, desire and yearning –songs born out of Emmery’s lonely years as a teenager adrift in a foreign country, where the hope of musical success and a superhuman level of stubbornness were the only things stopping her from returning to the safety of the family home. There were, Emmery says, anxieties –and plenty of those. Teenage dreams so hard to beat? Well, yes, actually. It’s a philosophy that still stands: the idea of music as a mood-altering, soul-saving outlet for bands and fans alike is alive and singing in the joyous rush of Kid Wave songs such as the breaking waves of sound heard on the jangling “All I Want,” the yearning ethereal pop of “Gloom” and the chiming, fuzzed-up, pop riffs of “Wonderlust.”

These are timeless songs that sing of life-defining moments. Wonderlust sure to be the soundtrack to many a young romantic fumbling or infatuation, wild party or sunrise revelation. Kid Wave are the sound of liberation –of the very essence of life itself.

Keep up with Kid Wave through their official website and these social media outlets:

Facebook
Twitter (@KidWaveMusic)
Instagram
YouTube
SoundCloud

Kid Wave are: Lea Emmery (vocals & guitar), Harry Deacon (bass), Serra Petale (drums) & Mattias Bhatt (guitar).