Features
Track by Track: Wax Witches
Contributions by Alex Wall
Original page credit: Mess+Noise
Relocated from the Gold Coast to Brooklyn, ALEX WALL of Bleeding Knees Club has released a second album from his solo outlet Wax Witches. Preoccupations with death and social anxiety loom over the songs.
‘Theme Song’
The song title is pretty self-explanatory. I like giving themes to albums and making the whole album fit together like a story or artwork. This song kinda invites the listeners to leave earth and hold my hand while I sweep them off into Wax Witches’ world.
‘Headshave’
I have an obsession with shaved heads. I think it’s cool, but I’m too scared to do it. But this song isn’t about shaving your head — I guess it’s about being in a shit relationship, where everything your partner does is the opposite to what you wanna do. And that in times like this, at least you still have your bros and friends to hang with, to take your mind off the heavy personal stuff.
‘Social Introvert’
I’m a real shy person and feel really uncomfortable in social situations. Somehow I became a performer and have to sing in front of people, which has forced me to be a social person. So I guess it’s about me being in public situations but wishing I could be in a room by myself, far away from everything and everyone. This is my favourite song on the album.
‘Serotonin Syndrome’
Serotonin syndrome is a reaction you can get from combining therapeutic drugs that leads to excess serotonergic activity. I have crazy anxiety problems and take this hectic medicine. And I don’t smoke weed, but once I was outside of a restaurant where my friends were smoking a joint. I guess I inhaled some smoke because I had a crazy reaction and couldn’t move or see, and thought I was dying. I don’t know if it was serotonin syndrome, but it was gnarly.
‘You’re Not My Idol So I Shouldn’t Be Yours’
My little sister sang this song! I wanted to get it from a kid’s perspective. It’s about these kids looking up to and idolising these bands and celebrities, and who would do anything to be like them. And those people not giving a fuck about these kids who look up to them.
‘Summer Suckers’
This was the first track I wrote for this album. It’s just meant to be a feel-good summer song. I love the sun and the beach. It’s about being a sucker for the summer, going on road trips, “laying on your back underneath the stars.” I just wanted to write a song that kids who just got their first car could listen to while they drive around with their friends.
‘Poser’
Man, you have to deal with so many losers when you tour in a band! People at shows who are just there to get chicks or party, not to see the band. Or people in other bands who don’t care about music; they just wanna be ‘cool’. Or seeing people in band shirts who don’t even know who the band is. That stuff sucks.
‘Twenty Seven’
This song is about music’s 27 Club (“Twenty seven, too young to go to heaven”). It’s also about wanting to die and exit the planet because you don’t feel like you fit in, and wanting to leave everything behind and just go live with the stars. Like Cobain, Hendrix and Morrison. The chorus kind of fights with the verses by saying “Too young to go to heaven,” which is much like the arguments that go on in your head. This is the most mellow track on the album. I used some sitar samples and different synth sounds, which I’ve never really employed before.
‘Too Young to Die’
From reading all this you’d guess I think about dying a lot, ha ha. I dunno ... this song’s kind of like an internal battle in my mind. And telling myself that I’ve got so many more years to live and do things. It’s also a response to ‘Twenty Seven’: that’s why it’s right after it on the album. I was listening to a lot of Sonic Youth when I wrote this — I like their real driving guitar riffs, and I guess I tried to do something like that with this song.
‘Ultra-Outcast’
I never feel like I belong, or fit in. I’m always uncomfortable and wishing I was alone (“I live in my head”). So yeah, I’m an ultra-outcast. There is a mad long guitar solo in this song. I like it. I also wanted to play with dynamics in this, kinda like Pixies, by having a quiet chorus — compared to a massive big chorus like most of the songs I’ve written.
‘Codeine Crush’
This is a love song, for when you’re hooked on someone like a drug. Repeating “I love you” until it’s like a trance. I really like the way Spacemen 3 had these long atmospheric songs that would build and build but not really have a chorus or many lyrics. Just sounds and repetition.
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