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.

Their upcoming album is set for release next month (September 2024) and combines aspects of rock, art-pop, and electronic music together into a mixture that propels the listener through controlled chaos. With drums engineered by Quinn Cyrankiewicz of Royal Tusk and performed by Joel Joeske of Whale & The Wolf, the newest releases from Ways in Waves (including “Who in War,” “Everything Taken,” and “Ovum Nova”) are explosive and driven while maintaining an ethereal backdrop.

Latest single, “Death of Others,” was written in the midst of Raine losing several platonic relationships. “There’s a lot of breakup songs out there, but most of those are about romantic relationships,” he says. “The feelings that came out of feeling this distance growing between myself and people I used to love was very painful, and made me contemplate just… starting over, imagining leaving everything and everyone behind and beginning life again as a new person, with no ties to anyone or anything.”

What can you share with readers about your new project?
Check out “Matters to Ash” on Sep 20! I’ve worked on this record for years and I can’t wait for it to come out. Thanks for chatting.

How does this release compare with your other projects you had in the past?
I feel that this song is emblematic of the direction I’ve taken Ways in Waves… in. It’s a bit more frenetic than tunes on my previous album, more in line with my previous single “Ovum Nova,” and generally maintains its energy in a way that keeps things exciting.

What about this single makes you most proud?
I feel like I struck my ideal balance between serious lyrics and fun music here. This song is genuinely a blast to perform live, I wrote it on this weird guitar that I have that isn’t in standard tuning and that somehow gave me permission to create more freely. I’m getting out some very personal emotions in the lyrics while not being bogged down by them in the actual music.

Was there a specific goal you were trying to accomplish with this release?
I wanted to give people a sense of the scope of the album with this song, and really with all of the singles I’ve released so far. I wanted to sort of show that we go this weird and this serious, and lean into more guitar and drums based rhythm section stuff.

What inspires you to create music? What motivates you to keep going?
Lyrically, life just keeps throwing new stuff at me that I find is best processed through the abstraction of prose. It can be difficult for me to process things in a clear-cut way, so just focusing on an experience I’ve had and writing something loosely based around that helps me make sense of it, derive meaning from it. Musically, there’s just way too much to explore. I feel like when I hear the first three chords of a pop song, I can generally fill in what the rest of the song is going to be at this point, which – genuinely no shade to pop artists, they’re incredibly hard-working and talented – bores me. This is probably a symptom of being immersed in music since I was four, and so I aim to write music that makes me excited about music. I want to write things that play with people’s expectations of a pop song. I want to try messing with that formula, with the preconceived notions we have around lyrics, around how to tune guitars, around what the different sections of a song are. There’s just too much to explore, and I want to find my way through my own artistic maze, I guess.

If you could collaborate with anyone – dead or alive, famous or unknown – who would it be and why?
Holy, Holy, by Geordie Greep. Speaking of… all the things I was just talking about… it’s a tune that’s catchy, unpredictable, led by a charismatic performance by Greep that makes him sound like a mix between a cult leader and a desperate old man. It’s completely captivating. All-time fav artists would probably be Everything Everything, Baths, and Protest The Hero.

What was the last song you listened to? Favorite all-time bands/artists?
Holy, Holy, by Geordie Greep. Speaking of… all the things I was just talking about… it’s a tune that’s catchy, unpredictable, led by a charismatic performance by Greep that makes him sound like a mix between a cult leader and a desperate old man. It’s completely captivating. All-time fav artists would probably be Everything Everything, Baths, and Protest The Hero.

Where is the best place to find you and stay connected?
TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube! @waysinwaves on those, and if you want to follow me personally, it’s @brainewithpants on Insta.