Wallows have had a tremendous year. From the release of their sophomore album to their biggest headlining tour to date, the American indie rock band has a lot of highlights to look back on—but it's far from over (ironically, contrary to their album name). 

The band, comprising childhood friends Dylan Minette (vocals, guitar), Braeden Lemasters (guitar), and Cole Preston (drums), are starting 2023 strong. Continuing the success and excitement of their Tell Me That It's Over tour, Wallows are set to perform around Asia for the very time this February. Bringing to life the heartache and blissful love of their latest record, the trio will be performing in Manila, Tokyo, Bangkok, and more. 

Ahead of their long-awaited Asia tour, Bandwagon caught up with Wallows to talk about life on the road, their friendship, and the music that keeps them company. 

You guys had a great 2022 with the new album, the tour and multiple festival performances. So what's been your favourite moment of the last year?

Dylan: Releasing the album was I think one of the best moments of the year. It just felt amazing, we were in New York and had a lot of we did like a surprise show. It's fun when you have all the release press because it's fun to be talking about it now that people can hear it and [and we love] seeing the fan reactions. That's still one of the highlights for me.

And the whole tour! We played this venue in LA called The Greek Theatre—that's been a big staple venue for us growing up in Los Angeles, that was a cool moment. Yeah, it's all been beautiful highlights and it's still happening. 

Touching more on the tour, this is your biggest headlining tour to date. What's the entire experience been like?

Cole: It's been kind of a whirlwind, I'd say. We're doing more shows on this tour than we have in the past for any album or record cycle of ours. It feels like as soon as one batch of shows is over, we're already somehow in the next batch of shows but it's been great. We're lucky that the three of us, the rest of the touring band and the entire crew, everybody's really close friends. We all have the same hobbies and interests so we're all playing the same board games and playing the same sports. I don't think any of us can complain. It's been awesome.

That sounds amazing. I'm guessing you guys have a lot to keep you entertained and creative while on the road, with it all feeling like a road trip with friends. 

Cole: Yes. [In terms of creativity], I'd say like we're not really ones to write so much on the road—at least yet. Especially we're in Europe right now so it's like busy and we were walking around, there are all sorts of things going on. But we're gonna have to sort of get into that mindset pretty soon so that might change.

This February, you guys are kicking off the Asia leg. What are you guys most looking forward to this part of the tour?

Braeden: Going to Tokyo—for me. I'm really looking forward to that. And I'm really looking forward to seeing how everyone reacts to the band because we never played there ever. It's gonna be really, really, really cool to see that. 

Dylan: I'm the only one in the band who's been to Tokyo but I don't really didn't know too much about any of the other places we're hitting—so even like Manila, I'm just excited. That's the first place we're going so I'm kind of excited to just land there and thrust into it immediately. None of us have been to the Philippines so I think it'll be all of it, I'm kind of equally excited about every bit of it.

Like Braeden said, just playing for any kind of Asian crowd for the first time will be pretty amazing. It'd be a new experience. I'm excited to meet everyone and see what it's like. It's gonna be cool.

 

 

 

 

 

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The three of you have been friends since you were kids. How do you guys balance between being friends and bandmates? Especially on tour, when things can get busy and hectic. 

Braeden: It kind of blends together at some point. I feel like our friendships, especially with Cole, kind of started with the band and then the band was the friendship and the friendship was the band. Going to band practice and then going to like a baseball game or something was not different. You know what I mean? It's like a grand hobby or something—we love to play tennis now, and that doesn't necessarily feel different than going to the studio. Technically, it is different because it's very different but it's easy like it's almost like we're not wearing a bunch of different hats at all, it's kind of like the same hat.

Cole: One big giant hat.

Braeden: In my dream last night, me and Dylan got into an argument about a setlist. So, let's make it a reality (laughs).

How do you guys usually deal with arguments during a tour? There's not a lot of time so how does that usually go?

Cole: I think that our definition of like an argument is much different from another band or other people who work together. We don't really argue, we more so just have an open forum.

Dylan: We have fistfights.

Cole: Yeah, we do fisticuffs (laughs). No, it's like an open forum. It's very just honest and no BS [conversations] and we just get to the point and try and do the thing. So, I don't really think we argue necessarily. 

 

 

 

 

 

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While on the road, who are some artists that you guys listen to? 

Braeden: The only thing I've been listening to the last couple of days is pure meditation playlists. So, ambient music, I haven't listened to any music at all. 

Cole: There's an artist called instupendo that I've been listening to that's like instrumental kind of songs. It suits the rainy snowy European energy. Yeah, yeah.

Dylan: To be honest, I've quite literally only been listening to the new Andy Shauf songs. He has three songs out from his new album, and I kind of listened to all three of them in a row, like three times in a row last night. I can't wait for the record so that's sort of what I'm into right now.

Finally, what message do you guys have for your fans in Asia that are excited to see you see perform?

Cole: I think we all see online how excited everybody in Asia is. But honestly, especially in Manila, how excited everybody is to have us come to play and how long people have been fans of ours. So, thanks for sticking with us and we finally get to come and hang out and play a show. We can't wait—after all these years—for all the shows.

Listen to Wallows' Tell Me That It's Over here.