Wave Machines break down their style for gigs

Perhaps not used to the media attention just yet Tim Bruzon, guitarist, keyboard player and singer in Wave Machines has to take off his jacket and sit down again, he’s got one more interview left.

He wanted to nip home and pick up some things before he and fellow band members Carl Brown (guitar, keyboard, percussion, vocals), James Walsh (bass, percussion, clarinet, ukulele, vocals) and Vidar Norheim (drums, malletkat, vocals) took to the stage at the 02 Academy as main support to headliners White Lies.

Their fast growing status means they are second on the bill that night (“We paid him!” jokes Carl) and are therefore garnering more and more media and music world attention.

Their sound is difficult to define. The Guardian called it “soft and smooth, sugary and sweet white funk with pop bits: Hot Chip dipped in Hot Chocolate.”

There are lots of ticks and bleeps but also catchy beats as showcased in “I Go I Go I Go” the video for which has found its way on to Kanye West’s music blog.

“We have a common interest in what we are doing at the moment,” says Tim when asked about the sound.

“We wrote a lot of different songs and treated them all in different ways and ultimately found that this way had a certain type of energy that people responded to better in gigs.”

The cover of their debut album Wave If Your Really There is already a talking point with a picture of a stag disfigured by red and green wedge shapes, a kind of Photoshop gone wrong.

It’s the work of Scott Spencer who the band closely collaborates with on all their artwork.

“It’s natural organic forms being cut up by low-fi graphic images. Something somehow seems to fit very nicely with the sound,” says Tim.

“It does a similar job to a lot of our music where we’ve got a lot of natural organics guitars mixed up with digital things,” adds James.

“We’re messing around with sounds and this seems like it all meshes together really well.”

What’s also getting people talking is the bands on stage apparel, facemasks. Why? “We’re trying to have a fun,” says Tim.

“Also to get over a bit of stage fright. As long as we’re enjoying it and it feels good then we’ll do it.”

The summer has been awash with festival appearances but like any up and coming band Wave Machines are more excited about just being there: “The thing that is really coming across this time is that we’re doing all the really big festivals,” adds Tim.

“All the things we want to go to we get to go to, so that’s excellent.”