Waft Ready For Toxic Sludge Spill on Western States

Interview by Lara Noel

Big news out of South Carolina. Doom-sludge outfit WAFT is recording a full-length follow-up to last year’s intimidatingly heavy Chronolith, which received rave reviews by Doomed & Stoned and placed #14 and #19, respectively, on the September and October editions of Doom Charts.

The Greenville quartet, comprised of Daniel Johnson (guitar, vocals), Adam Garrett (guitar, vocals), Alex Angell (bass, vocals), and Zach Newton (drums, vocals), have an ambitious agenda ahead of them. Before the year is out, they plan to turn loose several split EPs (including collaboration with local grinders WVRM Tennessee sludgers, Swallow the Sky), then drop the doom hammer on all of us with a brand new full-length. They also have designs on streaming a live set of cover songs with past band members and special guests for their fifth anniversary next year.

Waft will soon be embarking upon a tour that finally allows them to leave the Southeast and unleash their ultra-heavy vibe upon the rest of the country. There are simply not enough good things to say about this band. The sheer magnitude of sound seems enough to compel any corpse rise from the dead. Interested in the direction of the band and what is happening in studio, I spoke with Daniel Johnson recently to get a window into the wild world of Waft.

I know the band has gone through quite a change in personnel over the years, but this seems like a pretty solid lineup. The last album had great reviews. I found it interesting how the band said about the last album that it took four years to write and two days to record.

Absolutely. Yeah, we went through quite a stretch of time there before we were able to actually hammer it out you know, but I think this is the best solid line up we’ve had. We’ve gotten a pretty good response to what we have so far. I think with this direction that we’re headed in now. We’re going with something more primal, darker, searching ourselves. I think we’re pretty much there. I think we’re about 70% through this next record. We’ve already written about 7 or 8 songs for it. But I think what we’re going to do before we release it is do two split albums or EPs with a couple other bands but then we’re headed out west, eventually playing Southwest Terror Fest. Then when we get back, we’re getting in the studio to record the new full length album.

Playing Southwest Terror Fest is huge. That’s a big one. Is that the farthest you you’ll have been out on tour?

Oh, yeah. We’re really excited about that one. We finally have all our ducks in a row to be able to make that happen. We’re trying to get this tour routed. Still hammering down a few dates. We’re going down through the south, playing Arizona, California, then working our way back In November. I think we’re ending the tour around Colorado then coming home.

I see you guys have some upcoming local shows and playing Tennessean Sludge Fest in August.

This is actually our first time playing. We’ll be playing that Sunday of the fest. We’re pretty excited to see that and be a part of that.

When you guys play that fest along with other shows are you going to be playing any of your new material or what you’ve had recorded before?

Oh, we’ve been incorporating a little bit of our new stuff here and there in our sets when we go out of state or around here too. We’ve been trying to do like half and half at least. We have about three or four new ones we’ve been incorporating in our set. We have a new one “Sheltered from Grace” which is about an 18-minute song, which is split into two parts. Sometimes we’ll play just the first part or play the second part. But most of the time we play the whole thing. It’s a pretty long song.

Fuck yeah! Do the whole thing!

Yeah, We get a lot of good response from playing that one. We actually finished writing that song right before we went into the studio for Chronolith. So we’ve had a lot of time to iron and hammer that one out. So, hopefully in the next month we’ll go into the studio and maybe knock out a couple songs for these split EPs. I’d love to send that to you guys (Doomed & Stoned) as like a preview thing.

Who are the split EPs going to be with?

Well, there are a couple people that we made commitments to but I think the first one will be probably be our local brothers, WVRM. We’re actually going to do most of our tour out west with those guys. We actually had to relocate our practice space into their basement, so we’ve been sharing practice space with those guys. We’re all good buddies, and they’ve helped us a lot, especially with the practice space. Yeah, so with those guys, that’ll be the first split EP. The second one, I’m not sure to be honest with you. We’ve been talking to a few people.

At this point, you guys said you’re about 70% done with the new material, split EPs first. When do you anticipate the new album being released?

I would probably say end of the year or early spring. I don’t really see it being any later than February. I’m pretty sure we will be done writing within the next month or two. We want enough time to hammer it out the way we want it. We’re definitely not a band of rush, obviously the first record taking four years to write. (laughs) We take our time, and then sometimes life gets in the way, you know? We all work day jobs and stuff, and plus we’re all spread out a bit between each other. That makes it a little bit of a task but we’re all really committed to it. When we get together, we take our time, always creating, so yeah.

So earlier you were talking about the departure from the last album, getting deeper within yourselves, darker. Is there a change in the lyric content that you guys are writing?

No, I think lyrically, it’s still about U.S. trouble, conflict within ourselves and societies, just the weight upon us so it’s really like very human centered. Really a very cerebral, kind of primal take on you know, how oppression, anger, depression, fear, all that comes into play every day. That’s basically what it’s really about, not necessarily influences that we listen to. Sometimes, it gets to a point where we all don’t really want to listen to anything. Sometimes we prefer to just sit and get inspiration in silence, away from the city and sirens. I’m near an airport where I live with plans flying overhead, traffic. Some of us live in the country. Most of us are from out in the woods, you know, (laughs) and we go back there and spend some time with the sounds of nature, just the sound of primal earthly sounds. I hope that makes sense how that could be inspiration to you for us for this next record?

Absolutely! As far as where you live and the community, how much does that affect the music you’re making, and with regards to what the music scene is like there?

Oh, it’s definitely played a big part. Our location and what we have access to. It’s always been real hard down here for any of us bands. It’s pretty much rust belt, Bible Belt central. When we were coming up, we were always frowned upon, stomped at, you know, longhaired metal kids, must be devil worshippers. Be afraid! But at the same time, there were some people in town who were really accepting. You just got to know where to go to be able to express yourself.

The scene here, it comes and goes, it’s never really stayed constant, especially around Greenville. When we were first getting started, there was maybe just a handful of active bands that were predominately heavy, just not a lot going on. When I met Zach, Zach and I were rehearsing and I was living in another city. There was no one else doing what we were doing, so we just said let’s do it, let’s start a band, and we started playing little record store shows, showing people what this was about, and I felt like that cultivated a little bit of a scene. We got a lot of people inspired and started here, and, I felt like if you build it, they will come right? So that’s what we’ve been doing but it’s really hard down here to do that kind of thing. But we’re not doing this to be like we’re scene heroes, blah, blah, blah. We’re doing this because we need this creative outlet to express ourselves, and it’s a cathartic release. That’s pretty much the nature of this beast. (laughs)

It sounds like you have all definitely helped create a scene there. I’m familiar with other bands in your area, and it seems like over the past, at least five years, there’s definitely been a transformation.

Absolutely. Yeah, there are some really good people in the area that are around and they’re solid. We love playing with all these bands. I’m sure you know of Coffin Torture, there’s Marrow of Earth who recently and unfortunately split up but the brothers just recorded a record and I’m really excited to hear that. Abacus, oh wow, a whole bunch of other solid bands. A lot of Swamp Metal Record label guys have done a good job rounding a lot of us up, helping promote. I’m glad to see it happening. It’s been a lot of work but as long as people want it, we’re doing it and it will be there.

This tour that’s coming up, this is the first cross-country tour you’ve done like this right?

Yes. This is the first time we’ll really have gotten out of the southeast. I think the farthest we’ve went so far is Tennessee. We’re really looking to spread out and hopefully people will dig us out there in other parts of the country. We’re hoping to more up and down east coast and Midwest stuff next year. We’re trying to get out there but it can be tough, you know, where we’re from. (laughs)

The exposure you’re going to get from doing this kind of tour is going to be great. I’m definitely a fan and think you guys are awesome, and I have no doubt you’ll be well received where you go. How does it feel?

Yeah. We’re really excited. I can barely contain myself thinking about the Southwest Terror Fest. My birthday falls during the Southwest Terror Fest so I’m like, “Yeah!” It’ll be the best birthday present to be out there being around so many great bands. It’s such an opportunity, almost overwhelming but it’s humbling too.

With the new material you guys are working on, are you working with any new instruments or gear to try to create a new sound?

We’ve actually been talking about creating something with a stringed instrument and doing some keyboard and sampling stuff. Working on some more ambient background soundscape kind of things. We’ll see if we can start incorporating that into our sets in the next couple of months. We’re always been about using different weird samples in our set too. We’ve definitely built up a nice little collection of that to use. Hopefully we can do it without a problem. I had a bunch of samples for Chronolith, but I had a fear of a lot of copyright things going on so a lot of it didn’t make it to the record ‘cause we’d probably get sued or something. (laughs) I’m really about building atmosphere. I like that. We all do.

So, little known fact about our song “G.C.C.G.” When we first wrote that song, Zach’s brother Beeg, was in the band, and he played something kind of like a pan flute. (laughs) Somewhere there’s a recording of that song with a pan flute tucked away in the archives, so maybe when we do a vinyl pressing which we plan to do at the end of the year, we’ll get that version of the song on the record. So, yeah, there’s some little quirky things that we love. We definitely plan to incorporate some keyboard and piano, a cellist, maybe an upright bass, and some other things we want to do. I think it’ll be interesting.

It sounds like as a whole, the band is progressing in many ways, like as you mentioned before, searching yourselves, adding new sound. That’s exciting.

You know, it’s funny, when we first started writing for Chronolith, it was more of like we set out to make this boon to doom and sludge metal but with a twist on things here and there. That’s what we’ve always been about, using our influences and things to create that record that we set out to be our down and out doomy/sludge kind of record. But with this new one, it’s going to be different with a little more progressive direction I think. I definitely people will enjoy it. I love the songs. So let’s keep our fingers crossed!

Everything sounds amazing. It’s been great talking to you. Thank you for updating Doomed & Stoned on what’s happening.

It’s been good to let it out. I just want to add too that we’re going to have more merch coming. We’re going to do a new release of Chronolith CD’s with redone liner notes in a jewel case and some other things like that. Hopefully everything goes according to plan. Thank you so much again!

Waft On Tour

8/6 Radio Room - Greenville, SC
8/21 Tennessean Sludge Fest - Murfreesboro, TN
10/16 Columbia, SC (location TBA)
10/17 New Orleans, LA (location TBA)
10/18 Austin, TX (location TBA)*
10/20 Southwest Terror Fest - Tucson, AZ
10/24 Black Light District Lounge - Long Beach, CA
10/29 Third St Pub - Bend, OR**
*additional dates in Las Cruces or El Paso after Austin, TBD
**additional dates in CA, WA, and CO, with a possible show in Birmingham, AL, TBD

Follow the band: facebook.com/waftsc
Get their music: waftsc.bandcamp.com