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Waif Premiere: Music Video

QWAM//

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Waif Magazine recently sat down with Brooklyn-based pop-punk band QWAM to discuss, “Mall,” the lead single off their forthcoming full-length debut.

Waif Magazine: Thank you for meeting with me, Happy New Year, how were your holidays?

 

Felicia Lobo (Vocals): Fine

 

Rachel Zisette (Drums): They feel far away now

 

FL: Yeah it does feel very far away

 

WM: A month ago

 

Eddie Kuspiel (Bass): Three weeks

 

FL: But overall good, it’s been a good new year I think

 

WM: Feeling good about 2019?

 

FL: Yeah

 

RZ: I think so yeah

 

FL: We had the first practice back, and it was sort of like oh these are all my friends and we’re doing stuff, cause we haven’t played a  show in a long time, we haven’t done anything in a long time

 

EK: Months

 

WM: What was the last thing you did?

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FL: We did a weekend tour at the beginning of December, but we haven’t played in Brooklyn in literal months

 

WM: I haven’t seen you guys play in 6-8 months

 

FL: That’s wild, but yeah now we’re doing it on Tuesday

 

WM: So there are two sort of realities about this interview. One is which I think I’m gonna do like a shortened interview to release with the music video

 

EK: The music video is coming out tomorrow?

 

FL: Yeah

 

WM: And then the magazine comes out on Wednesday, so I’m gonna put the full interview in that, but for the Wednesday version, at that point your show [at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn on Tuesday, January 22nd] will have happened. I wanna know: how did it go? Who was there? What makes the show legendary or big - looking into the future, talking about it in the past.

FL: It was so sick

 

EK: It was sold out, we sold all the tickets

 

FL: The audience was so crazy

 

EK: Felicia crowdsurfed

 

FL: I did

Matt Keim (Guitar): A guy came up to me afterwards and told me that he cried cause he was so excited

 

FL: And he was naked, that was the weird part, that’s why it got so weird

 

MK: Oh wow I don’t remember the nakedness, maybe I just don’t remember that moment, I feel like I should remember something like that

 

FL: Retail and Nice Knife [the supporting acts] were both awesome, we haven’t got to play with Nice Knife ever before, and with Retail it’s probably been over a year, so that was awesome. 

 

WM: I heard there were some big celebs there

 

FL: Yeah, absolutely

 

WM: Can you name three off the top of your head?

RZ: Ariana Grande was there 

 

MK: Dwayne The Rock Johnson

 

EK: Ed Norton

 

FL: And she had this weird thing because she didn’t have her ponytail on because it was actually a clip-in, so she had a bob

 

MK: And she was riding around on The Rock’s shoulders all night

 

WM: That’s a good pair

 

MK: I think that’s the next blockbuster movie

 

RZ: Has she been in - she doesn’t do any acting right?

 

FL: No yeah that’s how she started, she was on…

 

WM: Broadway

 

FL: She was, in 13!

 

WM: She was on Nickelodeon

 

RZ: I don’t know anything of hers

 

FL: She was on Nickelodeon in Victorious?

 

RZ: So like as a kid right?

 

FL: As a kid

 

RZ: But she hasn’t done like any adult TV, drama

 

WM: She is not in any adult films

RZ: No Adult films? Dammit. I was trying to Google search that film

 

WM: So we’re back, we’re here, in Brooklyn, you guys haven’t done a show in Brooklyn in a few months, we’ve just come back from a holiday break - other than going on a weekend tour, what have you guys been up to? What’s going on?

 

EK: So much. 

 

FL: We have this album that’s gonna go out into the world 

 

MK: We took a bunch of pictures, I spent two days spray painting a TV

 

FL: We had to buy extra spray paint, and then after he spray painted it, he realized the TV turned on, which was shocking, because we didn’t think it worked at all. 

 

MK: What else? We’re planning a tour. There’s not much going on in Arkansas

 

RZ: There’s gotta be

 

FL: There’s gotta be someone somewhere

 

RZ: Well we set ourselves up pretty cool because we got all the music for this thing done in September and October so then it was like, what else goes into this album? And then we realized that it was a lot of things. But this group is really good about…

 

FL: Plans

 

RZ: Foresight. So, I’m on board. 

 

FL: But it was a shocking moment when we realized that we had taken the pictures just being like ok this thing comes out in April, and then Matt on his way home

 

MK: On Monday

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FL: On Monday had a panic attack because he was like the single’s coming out in a week which means we’re supposed to have the pictures edited and on the Facebook and the Bandcamp and the video and all this stuff, so that wasn’t as planned as we like to be but now I think we’re prepared

 

RZ: Right, we stay prepared so we don’t have to get ready for anything 

 

FL: That’s right

 

RZ: Ample resources. We just have to - when I say that, I just mean see what Matt’s up to

 

FL: Is there tea in a hot toddy?

 

WM: Yeah

 

RZ: Tea? There’s tea in it?

MK: Not always

 

WM: I think so

RZ: I thought it was just water lemon honey

 

FL: I guess I’ve had it with tea before, somebody made it for me with tea, but this is like just alcohol

 

EK: I think this is delicious 

 

FL: No it’s good, but it doesn’t have the tea flavor I thought it would 

 

WM: So sort of switching gears: can you tell me a little bit about your new single, “Mall”? Where did it come from? How does this single contextualize the rest of your forthcoming album?

 

MK: I wanted to write some words that were kinda fun to say and then - this sounds so dumb - and they were kinda snarky, I was inspired by that Lizzo “Phone” song, and then we started singing it as a group, and it turned into the thing it became about going to the mall

EK: We wanted an excuse to go to Flushing and eat dumplings

 

FL: I personally love malls, I think they’re so fun, it’s like all these people in one building, fitting all of American culture into a small place so you can just walk around and look at everyone, and you can eat there. 

 

WM: And then, especially after listening to the rest of the album - you guys start off with a song about how nobody actually wants to do anything, they just want to lay in their beds and watch other people do it - how do songs like “Mall” that are more about these fleeting activities fit into this larger vision that you guys have that’s a bit more philosophical, if you will?

 

MK: “Mall” is about remembering all the shit you used to do with your friends in the mall and how hilarious it is now, but it’s also kinda like “fuck it - let’s go to the mall” so it’s the going and having fun and being stupid after the I don’t wanna leave the house

 

FL: It’s also about the superficial things that we talk about in a lot of our songs, that sometimes it’s okay to indulge in those things. A lot of songs on this album are looking back on like - a favorite quote of myself is, “I’ve been mourning my youth since I was 19” which is really true of myself. I feel like the moment I turned 19, I started being really nostalgic about everything that happened before, and a lot of those things are TV shows and going to the mall and these things that are not very deep concepts, but are also what formed my existence. There’s something about these superficial things coming up and being loud about them. 

 

MK: Fuck it I’m going home with my brand new shoes

 

FL: Yeah, I liked these shoes, so I bought them. Sorry. 

 

WM: Can you talk more about how you yourselves toggle between this sort of youthful vibe of the band and also being a grown-up band that’s actually trying to make waves in an industry?

 

MK: Well you wanna project the idea of the first thing, but you can’t do that without doing all the stupid adult working stuff. It’s all about the fun and having a great time, but to get things done you need to do a lot of stupid emailing and work and stuff

 

FL: So you can get to more fun. You don’t get to go on tour unless you send a bunch of emails.

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WM: What do we have to look forward to with this upcoming release and everything that comes along with that?

 

FL: Can’t wait to get back on tour. We have a really good time on tour together. 

 

EK: Bougie. 

 

FL: We’re bougie as fuck. 

 

MK: We hit up so many pho spots. 

 

FL: We get the pho, we get the salad at the grocery store, we have a good time. It's also so different, like when I hear my boyfriend talk about his tour versus our tour, they’re such polar opposites just because our bands’ personalities are super different, but I can't wait to do that again. Whenever that is. April. 

 

MK: On top of this music video, there’s gonna be some more

 

EK: Fame and fortune. 

 

FL: Oh yeah, for sure. 

 

WM: I just have a couple quick questions to wrap this up. What does Waif mean to you?

 

EK: Waif?

 

WM: I work for a magazine called Waif Magazine

 

EK: Right right

 

RZ: I’ve been trying to figure that out since I met you 

 

WM: What does it mean to you?

 

RZ: I've been searching

 

FL: It’s doing something so hard that you're not doing it at all. That’s what I understand. But also I don’t know

 

MK: It's like a mixture of confidence and sarcasm and manipulating perceptions

 

RZ: To me it’s like you reflect on everything that’s going through the world and it goes through your perspective or your filter of your opinion, and then whatever comes out, there’s no wrong answer about what something is 

 

WM: Do you guys think that you are Waif?

 

FL: Not really. I don’t know ! I think Rachel’s really Waif. 

 

RZ: I think I am 

 

FL: Rachel’s like super Waif

 

RZ: That’s why I’ve been trying to figure out what it is because I think I am this

 

FL: You are Waif

 

RZ: I can just feel it, you know

 

MK: I really want to be, but I don’t think I am

 

FL: That’s okay

 

MK: But I really want it, but I can’t achieve it

 

FL: I don’t know, I don’t think I’m naturally Waif

 

EK: I think you guys have to tell me if I am or not. ⧫

 

 

 

The music video for QWAM’s latest single, “Mall,” premiered in Waif Magazine on January 21st ahead of their appearance at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY on January 22nd. 

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