Describe to me the songwriting process. Do you prefer working on tracks separately, or having the group all together in a
room? Does someone write lyrics and melodies while others
compose the instrumental?
Kelly does all of the traditional songwriting — lyrics, chords,
melodies, etc. — and Marty and I are responsible for the
music. Songs mostly start as rough demos that Kelly records on
Garageband with just an autoharp and vocals. From there I develop a skeleton of that arrangement and flesh things out as we
move forward. We rarely work all together in a room, but prefer
to work on our parts individually and collaborate by email.
Once the song gets to a certain point we get in a real studio all
together to properly record certain elements — vocals, guitar,
piano, strings, drums, etc. — and then typically finish tweaking
the songs individually.
What kind of sound and content can we expect from your
debut album?
The album certainly expands upon the sonic palette set forth by
the EP. We consciously wanted to avoid minimalism in all places
where it wasn’t purely intentional and challenged ourselves to
experiment with more traditional pop elements and adapt those
to our aesthetic. In terms of content, the lyrics of the album are
more expansive and I think deal more generally themes of loss
and growth that is not restricted solely to romantic relationships.
Where do you find musical inspiration?
It’s so exciting to be listening to music or be at a show and
unexpectedly hear something that just jumps out at you, grabs
your attention and gets your brain going about how to do make
that specific sound or how a certain melody or arrangement
complicates your normal process of songwriting. I’m continually
thankful to live in an age of smartphones, Shazam, and Siri.
What inspired you all, individually, to play music?
Marty has a shirt that says “I like music must be what I am”
and I’m always reminded of it when asked this kind of question.
It’s a hard thing to identify and, for me at least, never seemed
like something I was conscious of beyond the fact that playing
music is just something I like to do.
You guys have been on tour with synthpop band CHVRCHES. What’s that experience like?
That was our first experience of touring on that level and it was
a tremendous learning experience. They were all incredibly kind
people and it was great for us to see a production of that size
and how much work goes into the show each and every day.
To get on a plane and fly halfway around the world and have
people not only come to the shows but also sing along was really
crazy. Similarly, it was bizarre to be recognized on the street for
the first time. It happened in Austin during SXSW while in line
to get a coffee and a fan (now friend) named Tate approached
me and asked if I was in Wet.
What can we expect from Wet 6 months, one year, five years
from now?
There’s a lot of new Wet stuff and collaborations in the works
right now, so hopefully there’ll be more music to share in the
coming months and year. But just in general though, we hope
to continue to have the opportunity to make and release our
music and to bring our show to different audiences around the
world. I hope we can make it back to Australia again this year
and to vi sit other places for the first time: Brazil, Mexico, the
Philippines, Eastern Europe, and especially Japan.