“Expect the unexpected:” Wand talks tour life, new music and time as an instrument
There wasn’t a clock in sight when Wand’s Cory Hanson, Evan Burrows, Robbie Cody and Evan Backer recorded their sixth studio album in Cody’s apartment.
The sound of musical improvisation drowned out any trace of insistent ticking — the group knew that time was on their side.
The Los Angeles band released their last studio LP “Laughing Matter” half a decade ago. Within that time, Wand embarked on a U.S. tour, released a live album, committed to solo projects, gathered 60 hours of new material and learned a thing or two about patience.
Now back on the road and preparing to release their newest record “Vertigo” via Drag City on July 26, the musicians reflect on the evolution of their sound and recording methods.
An impromptu approach to creating
KCPR: “Smile” was released in early May and Vertigo is reaching streaming platforms in July. How would you describe the writing and recording process for Vertigo compared to Laughing Matter?
Burrows (drums): For the last couple of records, we were writing largely through improvisation. We were making really ad hoc practice demos and then pulling material from hours of those demos and refining it together in one room. In the new record, we eliminated a step of that process and just multitracked our improvisations from the start. The basic tracking of all the songs on the new record comes from spontaneous improvisation that happened in the studio. We generated 60 hours of that material.
Cody (guitar): And we didn’t have to nail tapes or anything like that. It was very open, very free. We mixed it in my living room.
Hanson (vocals, guitar): It was done all in-house. There was a hybrid, as high-fi as you could get with a DIY ethos.
KCPR: Vertigo was recorded in your own studio. Bassist Evan Backer also arranged strings and woodwinds. How do those added components contribute to the album?
Backer (bass): It was the second phase of recording when I came in. We were adding overdubs and laying down keyboard ideas also in a very quick, spontaneous sort of spirit.
Cody: We pretty much met every Thursday for three months and would just jam for like 10 hours. I would set up all the mics, go into the control room and make sure nothing was clipping. When I went back into the live room we would just play.
Hanson: The only part he’s leaving out is when we had to listen to everything and that was its own phase of making the record. We had to sit down and listen to about six hours a day for over a week. Then, we had to figure out what was working and what was too derivative of other things. That stuff was further refined until it was about 20 hours of music, which was broken down into an hour and now what, 39 minutes?
Backer: Yeah and that’s when things really started to take shape.
Hanson: That’s how it happened and then we were like, ‘Let’s dump a bunch of strings and horns on it and send it out into the world.’
KCPR: Are there any specific lyrical themes you explored on this upcoming record?
Burrows: The lyrics are also based on spontaneous improvisations that Cory and I refined. The themes were emergent and not premeditated on my part.
Hanson: I was struggling to write lyrics for the songs because it just felt like it was outside of the process of how we created the sound, which was just by spontaneously jamming. So I went in and did some freestyles and-
Backer: Scatting! Slamming!
Hanson: I was slamming and scatting the sentences! But I think there are subtle lyrical themes from this narrator dealing with instability and psychosis and narcissism.
Burrows: To me, the voice is characterized by a foldedness, there’s this contradiction to it. There is a shift between earnest communication about basic feelings that is coupled with this noirish character that exists in a paranoid world. These things shift back and forth, sometimes within the course of the song, but also from song to song.
KCPR: What about sound? Your albums showcase a diverse range of styles, from psych rock and metal to folk rock and psychedelia. What can listeners expect from this new chapter of Wand?
Cody: It’s definitely different. Expect the unexpected.
Time: A tool and a trap
KCPR: It’s been about five years since “Laughing Matter.” A lot can happen in half a decade; time allows ideas to evolve and interests to change. The band has both swiftly released albums and taken its time with others. What have you learned about time? How does it interact with your music and self-identity?
Burrows: Based on the intervals of which we released things, I guess we must have learned the importance of patience. Being a band for a long time has a lot of inherent lessons about being a band. I mean there was also the [COVID-19] pandemic.
Hanson: That was a confusing time. Two pages of my life got stuck together and then just skipped a chapter. I think all of us felt that way. But in making records, you can never have enough time. You can always refine what you’re doing, but that brings its own trap, too. I think records exist to be a document of a particular time and place.
Cody: We put out this live record that we treated like a studio record. I think a lot of those five years were spent getting better at playing in a live context and improvisation. We also figured out how to make our own records. Evan [Burrows] and I lived together during the pandemic and mixed the live album in our living room, I worked with Cory on his solo albums before and after the lockdown. A lot of work was done.
KCPR: Cory, your latest solo album “Western Cum” turns one year old next month. Do you keep your ideas for solo music separate from Wand, or do they overlap?
Hanson: At this point, they are totally different processes. The Wand stuff is written as a group entirely. I don’t go to the band and say ‘Play these!’ It is easy to create a boundary and keep things separate.
Concerts & connecting to the human spirit
KCPR: With Morro Bay’s The Siren being your second stop on the Vertigo Tour, what are you most excited about for this summer tour and the upcoming U.K. and Europe dates in the fall?
Hanson: I’m excited for the record to come out; also just playing all over, showing people the music and exposing them to this new phase of what we’ve been doing.
Cody: I’m excited to go to Buc-ee’s and play some bigger shows.
KCPR: For this tour, what kind of atmosphere do you hope to achieve? What do you want fans to take away? What do you hope to gain from the experience?
Burrows: I think I’m just excited to get into the songs more as a further stage in their life cycle. Prior to rehearsing for these shows, we had never played these songs except for the first time we spontaneously wrote them. I feel like they’re just going to develop new sensibility.
Hanson: It feels like we just scratched the surface with this new stuff because we barely learned how to play it. I feel like wherever we get to with this stuff live is going to direct us into the next thing, the next live record, who knows?
KCPR: What are Wand’s post-concert sing-along songs?
Cody: ‘Margaritaville’ was a big one for us on the last U.S. tour and that one Sheryl Crow song-
Hanson: ‘If It Makes You Happy!’ Another big one was ‘This Is How We Do It’
Cody: Yeah, Montell Jordan.
Hanson: And ‘All Star’ by Smash Mouth.
The group erupted into laughter, jokingly citing Smash Mouth’s “Walkin’ On The Sun” as a major inspiration for Vertigo. Wand has been exchanging laughs and song concepts since 2013, marking over a decade in the music scene.
In between recording material, traveling through cities and reaching milestones, they still find time to connect beyond the music.
Hanson, Burrows, Cody and Backer sat backstage at The Siren on May 31 surrounded by a variety of tour necessities: wild sardines, bananas and tequila.
“Robbie doesn’t eat them, he collects them,” Hanson explained as he pointed at the boxed sardines. “His apartment is full of sardine cans.”
Cody, watching his bandmates chuckle under their breaths, pushed the focus onto Burrows. The drummer turned 36 years old that day.
“Can you tell?” he asked, leading the group to comment on Burrow’s “baby face.”
Bands often develop a distinct language, which explains Wand’s ability to seamlessly transition into improvisation mode. Group songwriting is far more than just practice, it’s a fusion of chemistry and synergy. You can experience this when “Vertigo” comes out on July 26 on all streaming platforms.
