Beyond The Break Up Songs

"I grew up in Boston but I live in Hadley now,” Wet singer Kelly Zutrau explains.

“The boys and I moved back here to work on the album. It’s very quiet and I find it a lot easier to get writing done because most days that’s all I have to do. I wake up and get coffee, and then come back and just write. It’s imposs…” she begins, but her sunny disposition disallows this. “It’s very difficult for me to write a full, cohesive song unless I’m at home.

“I feel like I get the best of both worlds. I’m very inspired by the city and a lot of my interactions take place there, but in Massachusetts I have the time and space to actually focus and get work done.” The Jonathan Richman song, City Vs Country, is brought up. “I totally forgot about that song,” she says. “I think it’s a common sentiment for people making art and music.”

Inspiration for Zutrau comes from people. “I write about how my identity is formed by the relationships I have with family and friends, as well as loved ones. When I wrote the songs on our first EP, we weren’t doing Wet seriously. It was a casual thing and I was truly writing because I felt like I needed to talk. I was really, really sad, and going through a dark time. It sounds cheesy, but I felt like the songs were for me more than other people. I think that’s part of why they resonated, coming from an honest, unfiltered place.”

Now on the brink of releasing a debut album, this time the songwriting is different. “It’s hard knowing people will hear the music. It definitely changes things. I try to be as honest and as real as possible, but in some ways it was easier before, when I was writing the songs and didn’t think anyone would hear them.

“There’s a couple of break-up songs on the album, but it’s much broader this time. You can tell that it’s about family and that it’s about being alone, and breaking up, but it’s also about being in love. It’s all the classic topics. Those first four songs were written really quickly in a specific time, while the songs on the album will come from a span of over two years of writing.”

This growth of Wet’s music also applies to the sound of the new songs. “The album will definitely be less minimal. We’re in the final stages of making the album now, and we’re paring things down because it’s definitely full. There’s a lot of guitars, string instruments like cellos and violins, piano. Real piano, not just synths. There’s also more of a country influence and a pop sound. It was important for us to challenge ourselves and not just stick with the really, really minimal, simple stuff. It’s great, but you can’t do that forever.”