War Waves are a local indie-rock four piece hailing from Ipswich, fronted by singer and songwriter Marc Newby, and completed by a rhythm section of James and David Booty and guitarist Andrew Girling. Their debut self-titled album was released on Steve Mann’s Backwater Records label earlier this year and IP1 caught up with them to find out more

 
War Waves have an emotive sound; the debut album is outstanding. How would you describe your style and where do you get your inspiration from?
Marc: Thank you! Sound wise I’d say we nod to 90s indie, with a healthy dose of Smiths influence. I’m quite self-centred when it comes to writing; all of the songs are about me…

James: It’s very difficult to pinpoint inspiration; everything we listen to is musical inspiration in some sense. The inspiration for our songs comes from Marc’s experiences… without him writing about these there would be no War Waves. The rest of us just like putting our slant on his songs.

How did you meet each other?
Marc: James and David are brothers so have known each other all of David’s life. They had played in various bands with Andy for a long time and I forced my way into their friendship group about six years ago.

James: Andy went to the same high school as us, and we have been playing music together since we were about 16.

I really enjoyed seeing Ipswich’s own early 90s noise pop/shoegazers Bleach at their one night only gig at St Peter’s Church back in June of this year. How did it feel to support such an excellent band?
Marc: We were obviously very flattered to be picked as the main support for Bleach’s reunion show. There was a definite buzz about the town building up to the gig so we were very pleased to be involved and to play to so many people.

Alongside Norwich indie/noise pop band Teen Brains and also my shoegaze love of DJing, are the band looking forward to supporting Bristol’s shoegaze noise-rockers Spectres at the John Peel Centre this coming November?
Marc: Definitely! Again, it’s great and very humbling that we are being approached by promoters for these shows; it must mean we are doing something right. I think our sounds will complement each other nicely. Spectres are great, so we’re really looking forward to supporting them.

James: This gig is exactly the kind of show we’ve been looking for, and bands from Ipswich could really benefit from more touring bands coming to venues like this and finding local support. We’re very excited.

What are the band’s influences?
Marc: Each of us have our own musical preferences which we draw influences from, but we tend to have mutual interests (the National, Frightened Rabbit) as well. For me personally, I take a lot of inspiration from the Smiths and Saves the Day.

And finally, if there was one gig or festival you could play at, what would it be?
Marc: The pop-punk kid in me is dying to say the Warped Tour, but I think for our style of music, the SXSW (South by Southwest) festival would be a dream.

James: Glastonbury obviously!

War Waves’ debut full-length album is out now on iTunes. Follow the band on Twitter @warwavesband


Words: Matt Catling