Ways in Waves is the brainchild of Brian Raine, a multi-instrumentalist and music producer living out of Edmonton, Alberta. With malleable form and the spirit of experimentation at its core, the group began as a live duo, and eventually expanded to a five piece live band with Raine picking up vocals as well as guitar and keys parts. 

Brand new album, Matters to Ash, features intricate pop songwriting performed with dazzling guitars, experimental sound design, mesmerizing drums, and lush vocal textures, with lyrics that are both personal and pointedly political. Listeners will find themselves on a sonic journey through an ever-evolving, one of a kind sound rooted in art-pop, prog-rock, and electronic music.

The LP’s focus track, “Pulled to the Sky,” hears Raine comparing his life from 2019 to now. Expressed in an oblique way, he asked himself “what’s something that would make someone else feel the way I do?” and envisioned a standard romcom with a twist; in the very last scene of the movie, the two leads who have fallen in love with each other notice their hair beginning to stand up on ends, as if suddenly charged with static. Before they can react to this, they find themselves holding onto the patio table for dear life as everyone is pulled inexplicably upward. 

They end up blaming each other for their misery in their final moments, as if some spiteful instinct has come to the surface in this moment of crisis. The narrator of “Pulled to the Sky” has just seen this film and tries their best to brush it off, but then swears they’re beginning to see objects around them float upwards.

I want listeners to reflect on the past several years, to think about all of the people we’ve lost and why we’ve lost them. I want listeners to imagine a world better than the one I describe in my lyrics, and I want people to know how better off we’ll be without all of these right-wing weirdos trying to govern our bodies and our lives. – Brian Raine on Matters to Ash