holaOLA: Waterstrider

Sunday, January 10, 2016

Monday, March 23, 2015

Artist Making Waves: Waterstrider - "Nowhere Now" [indie rock / afropop / world]

So far this year, Oakland, California's indie-rock five-piece Waterstrider has been featured on Hype Machine's weekly Most Blogged Artists list three times. That's saying a lot, considering they aren't a major label electro-pop band or remixing already popular songs. What they are doing is making danceable indie rock with afro-beat percussion, catchy guitar hooks, and energetic vocals, which certainly deserves all the hype it's getting.

In preparation for the release of their debut album Nowhere Now, Waterstrider has shared four beautiful singles, each one differing quite a bit from the last while sticking to the worldly instrumentation that sets them apart from the rest of the indie scene. With their most recent single, the title track "Nowhere Now", the band really embraces the upbeat guitars and percussion characteristic of afropop but the distorted bass and lead singer Nate Salman's frenzied falsetto and not-so-sunny lyrics provide a unique contrast, a slight contradiction that really makes Waterstrider interesting.

Stream Waterstrider's 2011 Constellation EP on Bandcamp (available for free download) and listen to the first four singles ("Nowhere Now", "White Light", "Redwood", and "Calliope") from the upcoming Nowhere Now LP below. You can pre-order the album on Bandcamp (and get 4 tracks now) or get your hands on one when it hits shelves April 6.