Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Waking April. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Waking, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

So I (Alex) grew up in and around music. My parents are both piano teachers, my brothers are also professional musicians and I’ve been performing music in some capacity since I was 6 years old. The actual learning of how to play piano and how music theory works runs so far back I don’t remember not knowing it. But there’s so much more to being a musician than just playing an instrument. I think for me, learning how to be in a band, how to lead a team and communicate creative ideas in a respectful way. There’s also a lot of soft-skills I wish I knew sooner: networking, staying organized, and understanding of basic business, not to mention everyone has to be good at social media just to communicate to and develop fans.

I think the most important skill set for us is recording: I taught myself how to use Ableton for our live show, but it’s turned into how we do songwriting and sound design. Our music takes a lot of upfront work and intentionality in production before it ever hits the stage. A while back I was extremely averse to this whole process, I had a rock band mentality and I tried to keep the live show and the recordings as close as possible, which made the recordings suffer a good bit. Now we look at them as two mediums, which is incredibly freeing. I wish I had embraced that a lot sooner and invested the time into learning how to create good solid recordings back then.

Waking, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are a 2 piece band with an electro-pop sound, with a tinge of grungy rawness woven throughout. We have a fun, dynamic live-show that’s full sounding despite only having 2 people on stage.

We started out dating in high school, promised never to play music together because it always ends badly, then started a band in college. The name Waking April has been around for a while, but the genres have shifted so much we’ve basically been 5 different bands until we settled into our sound and configuration. Waking April as it currently is has really only been ‘us’ since 2019 with the release of “Stretch”. Since then we’ve come into our own and understood the music we want to make.

We’re unique in that we straddle a few different types of music at once: we have classic synth sounds straight from 80s pop, we have electric guitars that sound like a 90s basement party, with really groovy drums that sound like a blend of edm, hip-hop and sample heavy breakbeats. It’s a lot of influences but they blend together into something we like.

We also have a lot of fun onstage. Some bands that use synths and tracks like us can act like modern-day shoegazers, leaning over their synths, turning knobs and hitting triggers, totally absorbed in executing the music. On the other extreme, some acts run all their music as backing tracks and focus on hype and singing. Both are great ways to perform and we’ve tried both extremes and landed on something sort of in between: we play the vast majority of the parts live and only track the drums (with a few secret spicy bits thrown in) but still jump around like crazy people. Playing the instruments keeps us grounded, and using the tracks frees us up.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I have had to learn to trust myself, especially when it comes to ambition and big “blue sky” visions. I think typically, artists have to learn the opposite the hard way: the music industry is absolutely skewed against the artists, and it’s such an uphill battle to get anywhere that artists often lose their naivety after getting burned and frustrated.

But I have a weird perspective on all this because my older brothers have been signed to major labels, played on late-night shows, headlined festivals and much more. Because of that, I’ve had more of an insight into how the sausage is made and watched them go through that process of disillusionment despite having some success. I’ve seen them on their ups and downs and internalized a caution whenever I attempted anything, especially something ‘big’. I would kneecap myself with fear rather than allow myself to believe I could succeed.

So recently (with the help of a therapist) I’ve been asking myself “What would I do if I didn’t know better?” a question kind of unique to my situation. The truth is, all my hesitation is based on what could go wrong, which is based on an insight into how things work. I’ve just taken it too far. So now I really try to allow myself to just do things instead of psyching myself out of them.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

We have a sentiment that’s become a mantra, and that mantra became a business statement: Friends into Fans, and Fans into Friends.

We have a lot of wonderfully supportive friends who we are extremely grateful for. We know they’ll stream our music, come to shows, buy our merch and engage with us on social media simply because they are good friends who want good things for us. But we’re not content to just lean on that support: we hold ourselves to a standard of quality that (hopefully) makes that support more than just friendship but actual enjoyment of our music. That makes the support easier on them, and motivates us.

On the flip-side, for folks who meet us through our music and not the other way around, we try to be more than a music act that’s removed from their lives until they spin a song or come to a show. We’re very open people and try to incorporate our personal lives into everything we do. Everyone is welcome to engage with us on a more personal level. To that end, shameless plug to join our Newsletter on our website!

There’s another sentiment we’ve adopted lately, simply put, it’s “We want to be YOUR band”, the band that you’re invested in, and want to see succeed because we give back what you give us. We can’t do it without you!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wakingapril.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waking_april/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wakingaprilnc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR5w–BDm-K4qdzdAcJ_q1A
• Other: Spotify: https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/wakingapril/stuck-on-silver-linings Bandcamp: https://wakingapril.bandcamp.com/

Image Credits
Shannon Kelly Chaz Mazzota