The Wonder

About

You start a band in Paris.

You love all kinds of music but when you play guitar it comes out as late 90s indie rock. Nothing you can do about it. Finding other indie rockers in Paris isn’t easy but you do – Alex (bass) and Nico (guitar). Your brothers in indie rock. Nico is also a studio wiz. Milan joins on keyboards and backing vocals and she has the voice of an angel. Soon, a new arrival from Naples, Fulvio, joins on drums.

You make an EP (Pilot 2015) and then an album (Love 2019).

You play as many shows in Paris as you can (as well as London, Prague, Melbourne). You open for bands like Spiral Stairs and Rolling Blackouts CF. You play the great small venues of Paris: La Maroquinerie, Point Éphémère, Pop Up du Label. A journalist from Magic RPM (France) says of the Love record:

“Astonishing moments ... beautifully captivating”.

You get invited to SXSW 2020. The break you’ve been waiting for. You’re ready. Two days before you’re due to leave, the festival is cancelled: Covid. You don’t touch a guitar for a year.

As Covid lifts, you receive an email – will The Wonder open the Pavement show in Paris Oct 2022 at Le Grand Rex?

Pavement are your all-time favourite band. Le Grand Rex was where you spent your last euro to see Tom Waits in 2008.

You dust off your guitar, write some songs especially for the show. Songs about second chances and continuing on when things get hard. Songs of redemption. The band comes together and brings the songs to life. It’s effortless and fun. It’s like no time has passed.

You open for Pavement in one of the best shows of your life. You play Listen to the Radio, a song about the dream of doing exactly what you are doing that night, and it’s one of the highlights of the set.

With Nico at the helm, you take Listen to the Radio and the other four new songs and go to a studio in the 10th and record them live in a weekend. You record your vocals with Nick Huggins (Dirty Three, Jen Cloher) at Resting Bell in Australia. Dan Long (Local Natives, Film School) mixes it in Los Angeles, Dave Gardiner (Jon Spencer, Bad Brains) is the mastering engineer.

It ends up being one of the favourite records you’ve ever made. The songs are alive and melodious and the band in top form. The songs are about things you truly care about like hope and love and overcoming adversity.

In the search for artwork ideas you find an old illustrated Japanese fireworks catalogue from the 1880s. The wonder-filled, childlike images seem to perfectly match the songs.

Looking at the images, you come up with the EP title: ‘Pop’.

You can’t wait for the world to hear it, and you know that it would not have been made if it wasn’t for Spiral Stairs from Pavement asking you to open their Paris show, and for that you’ll be eternally grateful.

THE FIRST SINGLE – BONES OF CLARITY
OUT NOW
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