3 Questions for Great Waves, 2010 Sound Off! Finalist

The competition was tight at last Saturday’s third semi-final round of Sound Off! Underage Battle of the Bands. Ultimately, Sammamish’s Great Waves came out on top, overcoming Kelso’s SEACATS for the win. SEACATS ended the competition as a potential wild card entry into the finals, and the band was later granted the fourth position on the list of final round artists. So tomorrow night’s competition is set! Candysound, Hooves and Beak, Great Waves, and SEACATS will battle it out using variations of the same weapon, music.

Great Waves offers five songs on its website, all of which feature lead singer Ashley Bullock’s silken vocals - on Konza Plains her style reminds us of Decemberist Colin Meloy’s- and go from Americana roots to alternative rock with soaring guitar lines.

Guitarist Will Holmes was good enough to chat with us about the group’s sound and experience as one of Seattle’s many exceptional underage bands.

You guys seem to have a communal kind of vibe going on. Can you tell us a bit about how you all came together and how you work together?

We come from a pretty wide variety of musical backgrounds. David and I are classical musicians, Elliot is a UW Jazz student, Paul has played in dozens of rock bands, Ryan likes hip hop and Ashley is mostly self taught.

Paul and I met in the eighth grade. We played together in many bands until meeting Ryan and Ashley during our junior year of high school. Together, we have been gigging and writing songs for about 3 years (minus time away in college). After we recorded our Blue Blood EP, David (who played on it) and Elliot (who didn't) joined to fill out our live show. David and Elliot are extremely talented musicians, so it didn't take long to integrate them into the band.

You play shows with other local underage groups, including fellow finalists Candysound and semi-finalists A Cozy Kitchen. What’s your take on the young music scene in Seattle?

I have been an eager listener of young local music for a while now. I grew up fanatically following the Schoolyard Heroes and Mon Frere. They really were rock stars to me.

My take on the underage music scene is that its epicenter appears to be moving away from Seattle. I'm not sure where Candysound and A Cozy Kitchen are originally from, but right now they are Bellingham bands. Pan Pan, The Lonely Forest, The Oregon Donor, The Mission Orange, Candysound, A Cozy Kitchen, the Next Door Neighbors and many other young bands I love, all seem to be coming from up North. There must be something in the water up there... Tacoma has a pretty rad scene as well.

You released the Blue Blood EP late last year and you also wrote some new tunes for your Sound Off! performance. What is your song writing process like?

Our songwriting process is surprisingly straight forward for a sextet. I will come up with a couple guitar lines and bring them to Ashley. While she works on the vox, I'll listen to what she's doing and figure out the basic structure of the song. When a rough idea of it is formed, we'll bring it to Paul an Ryan. They'll add their parts and help finalize the song structure. After the basic tracks are finished, we bring the song to Elliot and David for the extras (percussion, harmonies, mandolin, guitar, violin, keys).