Words by Sarah Thompson
Photos by Jeremiah Wolf

For a band who have only been around 9 months, Wow have earned a lot of gold stars. Their second show ever was supporting Crystal Castles on tour in Australia, for their fourth show they played to a crowd of thousands at Sydney mega-festival Field Day, and not long after that they were swifted away to Vietnam to headline the Hanoi International Music Festival. This is even more cool considering neither Matt Cribb (vocals, electronics, guitar) nor Bree Carter (vocals, electronics, bass) can locate ‘E’ on a keyboard, and insist on bringing their own strobe lighting to gigs. I caught up with Matt before Wow embarked on their first national tour of Australia to find out what makes them “so money” right now.

You guys have been involved in other projects before starting Wow, but this one is really hotting up. What’s so special about Wow?
Wow is our first real band. We actually write songs, where as before it was mainly just jamming and experimenting with instruments. This is also the first time we’ve recorded stuff. We started on 1 keyboard with a totally shit sound, and we’ve got to the point where now we spend all our money on new equipment. Getting new equipment ignites new possibilities, and we are still learning what’s right.

Did you guys study music?
No. Neither of us know any notes. We don’t even know where E is on a keyboard. We’ve owned instruments for ages – we started with just a bass and guitar – then we picked up a couple of cheap $7 Casios, and added a computer. Collecting instruments led to the formation of a band.

You haven’t been around long, and already you’re doing some pretty hot gigs – this month you’re supporting Ladytron & playing Parklife. How does it feel to go from writing the tracks in your studio to getting up in front of big crowds in such a short time?
It’s been very exciting. Supporting Crystal Castles was only our 2nd gig, and then playing Field Day was our 4th. It’s been too quick to let it sink in. Within a week of us recording a demo, we had our first gig and had to figure out how to translate that live. We’re always rushing to get things done, and there’s a slight variation on our live setup for each gig because we’re still figuring out how to get it right..

You must have made a good impression on someone. Was it strategic?
We gave our demo to the right people, but it happened without really trying. We got our 7” Common Species recording just by commenting on another band’s MySpace page.

On your bio, it says your sound comes from spending too much time in a room under strobe lights messing around with drum machines and cheap keyboards. That sounds intense and not very organic. Why do you find that environment so conducive to making music?
Jamming in a black room gets the riffs out. We turn the lights off and put strobes on, and it usually ends up being a party jam situation. We always take our own strobe lights to gigs… we just turn up, plug them in and turn them on. I just found out that’s illegal.

On your Holiday In Space EP release, your music is described as ‘It’s pop, it’s pissed off, and it likes to party.’ What are you pissed off at?
Well, our record company thinks we’re pissed off. We have underlying punk undertones and sound angry and angsty in a way, but our more recent stuff is happier with a more disco vibe.

You’ve got some pretty dark, spooky references in your lyrics – ghosts, werewolves, visions coming to you. What’s with all that? Are you really into horror?
They’re personal references but I’m afraid it’s all metaphoric. ‘Icy Cold’ is about the first dream I had where the world was ending. I thought it was interesting. I mainly write the themes, and Bree will figure out the exact wording.

There’s a lot of screaming in your music. How does it feel to scream all the time?
It’s easy to go nuts and scream in your back room, but translating that emotion on stage in front of a room full of strangers can be much harder. It is also exhausting to keep the screaming up at gigs. When we were recording our EP, the producer Scott Horscroft (The Presets, The Panic, The Sleepy Jackson) encouraged us to go for a raw, live sound, so the EP shows exactly what we’re capable of.

I checked out your making-of ‘Icy Cold’ clip on You Tube, but I was at my day job so I couldn’t turn the sound up and it looked like 3 minutes of you guys lying on green plastic on a concrete floor. What was the concept behind that clip?
Yeah, we spent all day lying on a green concrete floor stretching our body into awkward poses so we could spell out W-O-W. It was also winter and we weren’t allowed to wear shoes. We got our first taste of suffering for our art, but it was also really cool to work with director Kim Greenway and the clip is being played on Channel V and ABC’s Rage.

You headlined a festival in Vietnam. That’s random. Can you tell me about that?
It was the Hanoi International Music Festival, which was put on by 2 English dudes living over there who had the idea to bring overseas bands to Hanoi. Four weeks away from the festival they were still looking for a dance act to headline the festival, and we were put forward by the guy who produced our 7”. We ended up playing in front ot 1,500 people! 95% of the crowd there were expats who were really music hungry. Unfortunately the Vietnamese cops were really strict and marched onstage while we were playing and shut us down because the gig went past 11pm. After arguing with the promoters for 10 minutes they turned off all the lights and made us pack up in the dark. Vietnam was a pretty huge eye-opener. I hadn’t travelled overseas beyond Canada before.

Do you think Australia’s isolation makes music here more original?
It’s definitely true that we aren’t exposed to as many popular trends, and there’s an Australian uniqueness to a lot of local bands. Using an original Australian voice can also be a really positive aspect.

What’s the plan for Wow over summer?
We’ve been too busy to come up with a plan, but we’ve just started writing again. Our sound is heading in the disco direction. Bands like LCD Soundsystem and DFA have always been an influence, and now that’s starting to come through. We are also learning how to play our instruments properly! Our grand plan is to get a drummer and eventually a 4th member to play live so we can eventually stop using a backing track.