Melbourne metalcore outfit Windwaker have dropped the new, four-song EP Enter The Wall via Cooking Vinyl Australia & Fearless Records. Sharing two new songs, The Wall and Villain, HEAVY sat down with vocalist Liam Guinane and synth/sample master Connor Robbins to find out more…
HEAVY: Congrats on the release of the Enter The Wall EP! We hear two new songs on the four-track, can you tell us a little bit about The Wall and Villain?
Liam: The Wall actually started quite a bit before I had rejoined as vocalist. It was a demo idea that Jesse had come to the band with back in early 2022, experimenting with different grooves and electronic sounds that got developed and moved around. I remember it being one of my favourite ideas we had saved up at the time, and I basically got to have a blank canvas to experiment with vocals on. The song felt very chaotic and paranoid, so I knew I wanted to explore that lyrically, imagining times when things haven’t felt or gone right and the only thing you’re left with is your thoughts and the idea of just staring off into the void felt very fitting for a song like that.
Villain on the other hand was much more of a collaborative process to write as we started writing it on one of our first writing retreats together, so I got to kind of come in from the ground floor with that one. It’s much more emotional, more melodic and is a reflection of how we were feeling at the time of writing it. This was the first song we started and immediately thought it had to be a single.
Are these four songs a fair representation of what to expect from Windwaker moving forward?
Liam: I would say yes and no. I think these tracks give a fair variety of sounds and moods alone and it definitely showcases our ever maturing songwriting, but I also think at this point, there’s a lot of stones still yet to be turned, and we like Windwaker to be a bit unpredictable too.
The video for The Wall is a fun one, where did the concept for that come about?
Connor: The Wall is utter chaos, we wanted to strive for a video that matched its chaotic, paranoid and unorthodox nature. The idea of making it self-aware and a video about making a video actually only came together the day before we filmed. Indey and I didn’t tell our bandmates we were doing that until we’d already filmed them “behind the scenes” ahaha.
You’re playing Knotfest next week, can fans expect to hear some of these new ones?
Liam: Fans can definitely expect to hear every track off Enter The Wall (three of which will be having their live debut at Knotfest) as well as playing some fan favourites from Love Language too.
Do you have a favourite song to play live?
Liam: It would be a close tie between SIRENS and Superstitious Fantasy for me. SIRENS always has a massive response at every show. No matter how the crowd is reacting through the rest of the set, SIRENS just seems to pick everything up and creates this electric energy. On the other hand, I love getting to perform Superstitious cycling through fast and aggressive rap verses and silky clean chorus and bridge melodies. Definitely a lot of fun to perform.
Connor: Absolutely Dopamine. It’s got such a groove and I get to have a lot of fun with the synth and sample work.
We’ve heard whisperings of an album on the way, is there anything you can share with us on this?
Liam: I mean over the last 15 or so months that I’ve been back in the band, we’ve written and recorded A LOT of new music, so listeners can expect more new music from us as the year goes on. We’re definitely only just getting started here.
The band will debut their latest tunes live at Knotfest Australia next week — tickets https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=KNOTFEST24
