WAAX's Marie DeVita On Documenting Her Downward Spiral Through Her Music

Rising Brisbane rockers WAAX have made a huge sonic progression with their second EP Wild & Weak, taking their distinctive brand of melodic punk-tinged indie-rock to a whole new level. Teaming up with Brisbane/LA producer Miro Mackie (Major Leagues, Jeremy Neale), the recently reconfigured WAAX sound far more ambitious and assured than on 2014 debut EP Holy Sick, an evolution frontwoman/chief songwriter Marie DeVita largely attributes to a new range of influences.

"I think we wanted something really contemporary, and something really angular," she reflects. "We wanted to have a bit more of a post-punk influence for this record, so that informed a lot of the writing and production. And also just experimenting a lot - I think we really wanted to find our sound and really hone in on it.

"We take a lot of inspiration from bands like Gold Class and even local Brisbane bands like DZ Deathrays and [Violent] Soho - just anything really. We were always just looking for a contemporary sound, and I was really inspired by Kurt Vile's latest record [2015's B'lieve I'm Goin' Down...] as well - when he put out [lead single] Pretty Pimpin' I remember thinking, 'I want to write a song like that!' Then I started thinking, 'Okay, maybe I'm ready to start singing about more internal issues and what I'm going through', so it was a bunch of things."

The lyrics on Wild & Weak are indeed extremely personal, far different in tone than prior WAAX missives. "It's the most personal thing I've ever done," DeVita affirms. "The last record was very external and about wanting to change the world and all this stuff, but this record's more about how I want to save myself from going insane, and I want to find a way to overcome this.

"I had a lot of personal issues that came up in-between the records - especially with changes in line-up and problems in my personal relationships - and I went down a bit of a spiral, so I thought I'd document it with this EP. Each song represents a stage that I went through in that process, and the whole EP's kind of a diary and a story with each track as a chapter.

"Moving away from what I felt comfortable was difficult, but we were doing so many different things that it just came out naturally. I was singing more, I was feeling comfortable with my vocals and with my songwriting, plus I felt like I had a lot more to give on an emotional side.

"I really wanted to show that sense of vulnerability because I think it's a completely different side of my personality - a really vulnerable side - whereas on the last record I put up a more tough exterior. It was something that needed to happen, and I think it's helped form more of our story."