Q&A: Holy Wave Talks Overcoming Defeatism on Newest Album ‘Five of Cups’ Before Hitting the Road for Long-Awaited Upcoming World Tour
REDEFINING A VISION OF HOPE — tight-knit psychedelic group Holy Wave, composed of vocalist/drummer Ryan Fuson, bassist Joey Cook, guitarist Kyle Hagar, and drummer Julian Ruiz, effortlessly transforms their distress of giving up into a refound vision of hope on their newest record, Five of Cups.
After nearly giving up on music during a slightly frightening and disheartened tarot reading that Fuson received during the height of the pandemic, in which the five of cups, a card representing disappointment and dwelling over the past was pulled, his reaction to the reading was merely a push in their drive to continue on in their music career. Feeling as if he was “presented with a choice,” Fuson’s slight doubts did not get in the way of creating their new and promising album.
Growing up in the DIY scene in El Paso, Texas, the band has straddled through a 15-year journey in music. Their newest record presents their experimental endeavors with refreshing instrumental sounds. Encouraging us to embrace the present moment, they want us to view the five of cups tarot card in a positive light.
Borrowing airy vocals from Lorelle Meets The Obsolete on the synth-heavy track “The Darkest Timeline,” as well as shoegaze undertones from Estrella del Sol in the second half of “Happier,” Five of Cups is a mixture of beautiful blended textures. The record is a kaleidoscope of sounds, mixing dreamy, soft vocals and deep melodic guitar riffs that transport us through a voyage of finding inner peace with what we have.
Though the lyrics bounce between dark, melancholic, and optimistic, let it be clear that this album is not a nihilistic project — instead it is a reminder that euphoria is achievable and the past is meant to be left behind. The “old can be new,” as stated on the track “Chaparral.”
Read below as Holy Wave discusses their new sanguine project, Five of Cups, as well as what their upcoming tour will look like.
LUNA: Congrats on the new album! How are you all feeling now that it’s finally out?
HOLY WAVE: Thank you for listening to our stuff — we appreciate that a lot. Feels pretty strange … Like, you’re so busy preparing to get this record out and then it happens and you don’t know what to do with yourself. Definitely feels good to set it free, though.
LUNA: That’s great to hear. The four of you grew up together in El Paso, TX. How was it growing up in that area and seeing the DIY scene firsthand? Do you recall any of your earliest music memories together before you started the band? How would you describe the music scene that influenced you all?
RUIZ: It’s definitely a unique place to grow up. We’re right on the border with Mexico and it’s really a pretty big city. I started going to shows sophomore year in high school along with our bass player, Erik. There was a place that was just called “The Restaurant” that would have hardcore shows, and it just completely blew our minds that there were these kids going nuts in these strange places having shows wherever they could. The music scene was amazing, full of freaks and all sorts of bands. We were changed forever.
LUNA: How do all of your musical influences match with one another? Do you think they blend well, or do your music tastes differ a lot? Who are your biggest music inspirations that you each draw from?
RUIZ: We all listen to pretty different stuff, but also we listen to a lot of the same stuff, it’s weird. Sometimes I feel like that’s a big part of what makes us work — we have so many influences (for better or for worse). We made a playlist for Suicide Squeeze that had both Casino Versus Japan and Glen Campbell on it and that kinda made me giggle, but that’s who we are. There’s a bunch of influences we can safely say we all share, like Stereolab, The Beatles, Radiohead… I could go on forever.
LUNA: I read that it was a tarot reading in which you got this specific card that led to the making of this album. How did you feel in the moment when you received the reading, since [the five of cups] can be seen as a negative card to some? Did you immediately feel withdrawn from music or did it make you even more driven to keep going?
FUSON: Getting the card was definitely a bummer, considering the way life was at the time. I was working through the pandemic and things felt so uncertain so the card fit perfectly. I think I briefly considered not doing the band stuff, and when I got that card it felt like I was being presented with a choice and [I] decided to keep trudging.
LUNA: I’m quite familiar with tarot so I was able to immediately notice the card in the title. It’s really cool to see artists use it to draw inspiration or have some connection to it in some way. How would you say the five of cups as a tarot card reflects and gives its meaning to the album as a whole? Do you think you redefined its meaning or gave it your own meaning in some way?
FUSON: The card definitely led to writing the album opener. In the song, the five of cups is a fictional bar where this character who is kinda down and out goes to drink his troubles away. We wanted there to be some hope instead of presenting the album as the card, which is kinda dark. We put some of the info upside down on the cover so that depending on how you look at it or receive it, it can be like the five of cups reversed, which is a much more hopeful, bright side … card.
LUNA: I hear a mixture/balance of melancholia and optimistic hope within this album — considering the theme of the card — especially in “Happier,” as well as the theme of growing accustomed to the inevitability of change in “Path of Least Resistance.” What was the whole writing process like for you guys on this album? How did you approach it initially, and how was it different from what you’ve done before?
RUIZ: That mixture of melancholia and optimism is kind of a sweet spot for us musically, and I’m really glad that kinda shined on “Happier.” We wrote a lot of these songs over the last couple years, and we’ve all been through stuff both good and bad so we really were just being ourselves with the songs and that showed. Recording the record was very similar to Interloper — we worked with Charles Godfrey again, and everything went nice and smooth. This was the first time we recorded without our original bass player/friend/collaborator Dustin Zozaya, so it was a little different having to handle bass duties ourselves. But we’re all happy with how it all came out for sure.
LUNA: You guys have been musicians for 15 years now. How would you say this album differs from all of your previous works in terms of sound, songwriting, etc.?
RUIZ: We have indeed been at it for a while now. We grow pretty gradually, I’d say — you can hear this pretty subtle sonic evolution if you go from Relax to where we are now, and I’m really glad we’re still learning and growing, discovering new ways to do things and all. I honestly believe our songwriting gets stronger with each record; we just grow a bit slower than other bands. We don’t have things figured out and we’re just trying to have fun with that, if that makes any sense.
LUNA: I watched your recent music video release for “Nothing in the Dark” — how did you draw inspiration in making that music video, and what vision were you going for?
COOK: The original loose concept of the video was based around the idea of just sitting in a room surrounded by candles and lighting them one by one until a sudden gust of wind blows them all out. I think the imagery of the candle light and shadows made by the individual flames fit well with the lyrics of the song, and the rest kind of just sprung from needing context to that. We worked with a really awesome director, Vanessa Pla, who had a lot of really cool ideas to make more of a story around it, and that's where it took on the seance kind of vibe.
LUNA: Last question: Now that the band is heading on tour, where are you most excited to play, what songs are you most excited to perform, and what are you looking forward to the most from tour? Especially Levitation, which is huge! Are you guys stoked for that? What can we expect from Holy Wave?
RUIZ: We’re honestly hyped to play anywhere. We took a long time off after we finished the album and have just been practicing a lot, so hitting the road is very exciting. We’re gonna be all over the USA in October with one of our favorite bands, Ulrika Spacek, so that’s gonna rule. November and December we’ll be in Europe/UK, and we haven’t been over there since 2018 when we released Adult Fear, so being able to play all these new songs is really exciting. Levitation is always such a great time of year in Austin — so many friends and great bands, it’s amazing. You can expect us to play our little hearts out.
