On Dead Waves

Q Magazine -“A smouldering blend of Edgar Allan Poe imagery, David Lynch and Chris Isaak’s guitar twang.”

The Guardian – “Theirs is a misty, spectral sort of guitar ambience, a whispered, wistful duet from Chapman and Scattergood positing them as a new take on the Nancy & Lee – or Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan – paradigm.”

Clash 8* “…mesmerising”

XS Noize 9* “Strangely seductive”

The Arts Desk – “one of the year’s essential albums”

Polly Scattergood and James Chapman (Maps) aka onDeadWaves have announced two dates supporting M83 on their June UK tour.  The band will be in Manchester on 26 June and in Glasgow on 27 June, following their headline show at Birthdays, Dalston on Tuesday 7 June 2016. In addition, they will be DJing at the Independent Label Market’s fifth birthday celebrations, up on the roof at UNIQLO in London on Saturday 4 June.

Live
4 June – London, UNIQLO, 311 Oxford Street – Independent Label Market DJ set
7 June – London, Birthdays, Dalston
26 June – Manchester, 02 Ritz – with M83
27 June – Glasgow, 02 ABC – with M83

onDeadWaves released their debut album last month, and recently exhibited photographs relating to their collaboration, mirroring the images and music on their Instagram account in the lead up to the album release.

The relationship between art and music is something the band have been keen to explore, explaining “The idea behind the exhibition is to entwine art and music, as when we wrote the album, imagery was a key part of our writing process.”

The seeds of James Chapman and Polly Scattergood’s creative partnership were sown in 2011, at Mute’s legendary Short Circuit festival at London’s Roundhouse. The night saw different collaborations with Mute artists and Polly and James paired up to perform each other’s songs.
Though each had primarily worked alone before, there was something natural about the chemistry between them. “The gig was one of the most enjoyable I’ve done ” says Polly. “And as soon as we finished, we said it’d be cool to do something else.”

The pair reconvened at James’ studio in the countryside and, starved of social contact, found the landscape provided inspiration. Launch track Blackbird, Lauren Laverne’s MPFree pick on announcement, was inspired by a frequent, feathered visitor. Listen to Blackbird here, described by Q as “… a world of smeared mascara and trailer-park heartache.” and by The Times as a “Languorous Balearic ballad with sullenly gorgeous vocals” – https://youtu.be/ZS6fiOVGk80

Listen to the band’s latest single, California, which has been garnering support from BBC 6Music and Radio 2 here: https://youtu.be/1jZqlJjXK4Y

onDeadWaves have been sharing mixes of tracks, charting a few of their favourite things right now. Follow their mixtapes here: https://soundcloud.com/ondeadwaves

Watch the album trailer here: https://youtu.be/BYygVwULYQI
Listen to Blue Inside here: https://youtu.be/WQROMzqtgbY
Listen to California, here: https://youtu.be/1jZqlJjXK4Y
Listen to Dead Balloons, which premiered at Lenny Letter, here: http://bit.ly/27alL2w

onDeadWaves is out on CD, digital and as a limited edition vinyl which comes with a signed art print.

Digital – http://smarturl.it/ODWAlbumDigital
CD – http://smarturl.it/ODWAlbumCD
Vinyl – http://smarturl.it/ODWAlbumVinyl

onDeadWaves shop: https://on-dead-waves-uk.myshopify.com/collections/prints