Jarett Denner and Dan Poppa formed waveform* while they were still in high school, and bonded over their shared music taste. They began making music by sort of imitating their idols: Alex G and Teen Suicide. They taught themselves how torecord on iPhone’s or laptops. They honed their recording skills through collaboration and experimentation in “the studio” (one of the other’s bedrooms). They self-recorded and released three LPs in three consecutive years: library (2018), Shooting Star (2019), then Last Room (2020). Last Room caught the attention of Run for Cover Records who signed them and re-released it. 

Run for Cover Records is an independent record label based in Boston, Massachusetts. The record label was founded by Jeff Casazza in 2004 when he was just 17 with a $1,000 loan. The label was once a one-man dorm room operation, is now fully staffed, and even has interns!  Jarett and Dan were sort of fans of the label and the projects they’ve been a part of. “We were really revolving around RFC from the start,” says Denner. “We were just so invested in all the music and the lore around the label, so when they got in touch with us it was beyond exciting.” The union between a DIY label and a DIY/self-produced band is an exciting collaboration.

Their new album Antarctica is a meditation on isolation and loneliness. Their music is considered shoegaze, slow core or laidback dream pop. I would be honest in pointing out that you can’t always understand what they’re saying with their understated vocals. If you give the record a meaningful listen you’ll find raw lyrics that are sort of emotionally detached.

The opening track Lonely sets the tone for the album with a slow tempo, and the theme of loneliness obviously. This song is a chill, easy listen with a slow tempo, what sounds like programmed drums and low-fi crackle. It has a gentle melody and layered guitars. In Firework the tempo picks up, with crunchy guitars and a catchy melody. This song doesn’t really have a chorus, though it’s dynamic and fun to listen to. This song might be the stand-out track on this album for me.

Antarctica sort of represents self-imposed isolation. I wouldn’t say the lyrics are very interesting in this one, but they’re met with swells of intense electric guitar. Marijuana is sort of melodramatic with the striking repeating line “marijuana makes him wanna die”. In My Drink is an intimate, slow song that has a tremendous sense of melancholy, maybe regret? Freak Me Out begins as a slow jam and evolves into a cascade of fuzzed-out guitars. In the same way, Firework demonstrates their skilled use of dynamics with an intimate acoustic beginning that unexpectedly developed into fuzzed-out guitars and hard-hitting drums. 

As the album comes to an end the lyrics remain bleak, but the musicality is upbeat. Ballroom and Ocean are both great examples of their ability to write catchy and mellow melodies. Their songs are built around layered stringy guitars. Clarity is a love song that doesn’t stray far from the themes of the rest of the album. Antarctica closes with Orphan Child a slow dreamy acoustic ballad that unfolds into layers of electric guitars. It captures a sense of longing for something familiar.

Antarctica, the title of the album, brings to mind stillness, nothingness, and a deep sense of melancholy. “I think all of the songs deal with isolation,” says Jarett. “My songs tend to be more direct, but then Dan’s have more of a dissociative, impressionistic vibe to them. It’s definitely a distinct difference in the way we get the same ideas across.”

Though this is the theme of the album, Jarett and Dan didn’t work in solitude like they normally do. “With our other records we usually would write and record really individually,” explains Denner. “We’d pretty much just make the songs ourselves and there was a lot of distinction between my songs and Dan’s songs. But this time we were together a lot more and made a lot more decisions together–we even played a lot more on each other’s songs.” It might come as a surprise to fans that they only recently started co-writing/collaborating on the songs. Their writing is consistently cohesive you probably can’t tell the differences in the songwriting from previous albums. 

“I think it’s just more gratifying for the both of us,” Dan says. “In the past we’d just accept that anything the other was doing was the way it was, but now we’re much more willing to try each other’s opinions and ideas.” In this forth full-length album waveform* is fulfilling their potential. They’ve sort of settled into their own style and identity instead of emulating their influences.

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