New Music: sundayclub – Blue Wave

Shoegaze and dreampop are among the best genres for capturing a hazy sense of love and nostalgia. Blue Wave shows sundayclub are among its best exponents.

On this sweetly flavoured number from their upcoming SUNDAYCLUB LP, Courtney Carmichael and Nikki St.Pierre speak of ‘missing those days,’ though the song is as much about place as time. A hint of frustration occasionally makes its presence known, and as the song unfurls, that thirst for days past seems less certain. Just because you were happy there once doesn’t mean that going back is the answer. Familiarity is reassuring, but it can also be a trap of sorts, stopping us from moving on.

The song also plays a trick with time, as it reflects on memories as they are being made, leaving us at risk of missing the moment, instead focusing on how we will feel in the future, leaving us at risk of forgetting about the now.

The song has its own ‘madeleine of Proust’ device: Courtney’s first car, a 2009 blue Pontiac Wave (lovingly named ‘Trudy’ after its previous owner), and the memories Courtney and Nikki started to associate with the car itself and with a specific period of time in their lives. The car quickly became a vehicle to explore the space between the past and the present.

“This song reminisces on the early days of a relationship in the midst of inner turmoil and uncertainty over what the future might hold,” says Carmichael. “It’s about wanting to be a different, better, and more evolved version of yourself despite not being there yet, and seeking escapism in the past as a way to find solace.”

“I felt impossibly restless at the time of writing the song and was just generally tired: tired of feeling like I wasn’t progressing, tired of being patient with the record we were making, tired of feeling vulnerable and overlooked. By looking back into the past, I could escape into a feeling of wistfulness to distract myself from how frustrated I was in the present.”

SUNDAYCLUB is out on the 10th of July via Paper Bag Records and is available to pre-order on Bandcamp on vinyl, digital, and CD. Be sure to connect with sundayclub on Instagram for album and artist news, including details of a short Canadian tour this July as part of Loveless Collective.

sundayclub are supported by Manitoba Music, as well as Manitoba Film & Music and FACTOR Canada