The duo Wasia Project has just released their second EP Isotope. Isotopes are different types of atoms of the same chemical element. Which means they're connected, but they are also individual and stand by themselves. You can also relate that to the band Wasia Project, which consists of the siblings Olivia Hardy and William Gao. The EP describes a journey through different emotions, questions about identity and love. I met Olivia and William in a café at the Reeperbahn Festival in Hamburg. We talked about their process of writing songs, the feeling of home and more.
How do you create songs? Do you write on paper in the classic way, or do you do everything on the computer?
William: It's a real mix, but I'd say we are pretty classical in the sense of pen and paper.
Olivia: It depends, if I'm really trying to work out lyrics, I'll use the notes app. It is easier, when I'm on the go. But yes, I think we write a lot on pen and paper. We have a lot of random notebooks and scribbles.
Do you have a specific order in which you write music? Say, first the lyrics and then the instrumentals?
William: I think it depends. And it is also slightly different for both of us.
Olivia: Our collaboration is the ideas coming together. But yes, we formulate the ideas in different ways.
William: For me, most of the time, it's melody, lyrics and chords together in one. And everything affects the other. That's how it is normally for me, which is not always a good thing. Because when we're working together, I can't logically separate them. Olivia is really good at writing a great melody, then a beautiful lyric. And then being able to sit and being like: 'Right, I've got these amazing melodies and lyrics. Let's start to put it together.' It's incredible to watch. I almost do it in awe because I can't do that, I can only do it all at the same time.
Olivia: It really depends, either the melody or the lyrics come first to my mind. And then we're trying to formulate that idea into something concrete. Our ideas are always very flowy at the beginning. We have to work hard to try to organize them because it gets really messy. But we organize quite well, and then we develop it further.
Where do you draw your creativity from? What inspires you?
Olivia: Obviously all sorts of creative things are very inspirational. But I think life in general and especially meeting people inspires me. Hearing different things, different opinions, all of that. Most important for me is personal space. Alone time is important for both of us to get new ideas, because you really have time to reflect and think. And that's where I'm most inspired: When I'm alone, thinking in a space that's uninterrupted.
Your EP Isoptope has just been released. How would you describe the EP with a few keywords?
William: Cathartic, self-reflective and definitely explorative.
Olivia: And I would say cinematic and a growth.
"Only by looking inward, by leaning into the darkness, did I find the passage to grow, to cherish the world and accept my very own".
Wasia Project at the end oft the short film
There is even a short film for the EP. How did that happen?
Olivia: We finished tour in America and it was one of our first big tours in America.
William: We ended up in Topanga in this random building. We thought of this thing of the Isotope being a character and a concept EP. And then there was this film that we wanted to make, to show all the music videos squashed into one, because it was conceptual. It felt like the short film format was what fitted best to a concept piece like this one. The question was: Do we want to do three very different music videos or should we just put it all in one and follow the character through a series of scenes?
The Song "Is This What Love Is?" describes the experience of uncontrollable emotions. Do you have some kind of methods that you use when you feel anxious and overwhelmed with emotions, like on tour?
Olivia: Honestly, I should say songwriting, but I just cry. (laughs) Crying is fine. It's the most cathartic thing.
William: We did a radio interview a couple of weeks ago, and they were like: 'What do you get annoyed about each other on tour?' And she said: 'When William goes for his walks.' But that's actually what I do. When I get overwhelmed or when everything is a bit crazy, I'll just go for a walk. And then I bump into Olivia, who's just crying.
But I mean, it is really good to cry and just let it all out.
William: It is! It's good to walk as well. Such a healthy and beautiful thing. It's a beautiful day in Hamburg and walking down the street has just been so nice! It's very calming.
Olivia: Yeah. I think space is the main thing and just letting yourself feel. A lot of people have said, write it down, but it kind of stresses me out to write it down because I have to really think about that I am feeling sad.
William: Olivia is the most 'in the moment' person I know.
The song "Takes Me Back Home" is a love song about feeling safe with another person. What does 'home' mean to you? Is it a place, a person, or something else entirely?
Olivia: It can definitely be a place. That's something I realized after the tour. It was one of the first times I've really been away from home home, where the family is. Just an atmosphere, a place like London and the people in that place, really make me feel at home. "Takes Me Back Home" is related to the nostalgia of when you're really young, and you go somewhere else that's also part of your home, but not really. The first visualizer of the music video was us really young in China. That's a different feeling of home because you can feel really safe. With our grandma there is this huge sense of nostalgia, but it's kind of distant. And I think, obviously falling in love, then you feel at home. It's those main things: people and places.
I need you here with me / I need you right now / To take me back home / And make me feel warm
Wasia Project in "Take Me Back Home"
How is that experience, like you said, being not with your family and not being at home for a long time?
Olivia: Well, we're about to find out again. For me, it's quite overwhelming. I find it strange, because every show you play is special, but to do it every night, it feels weird to have a sense of regularity to that. It's a lot. Not only that, but travelling is quite tiring as well, even though it's amazing. You are always moving and if you're somebody who likes stillness and space, you have to get used to it.
William: I love travelling, and I definitely feel present when I'm on tour. I feel very in the moment. But it is still stressful, especially doing headline shows, because it is a lot more than just work. We are at the helm of this tour, it's our names on the door, so with that comes responsibility and pressure. But we are feeling good about it. We're getting everything together.
Olivia: Also outfits and deciding what to wear is one of the most stressful things of everything. Because I want to wear something different every night and there are so many shows. And, of course the responsibility to take care of yourself. Like going to sleep on time is your job, making sure you eat well.
Would you say you are very perfectionistic in the studio?
William: (laughs) Yeah, we are complete perfectionists.
Olivia: It's very good in some ways. Especially vocally, I think as well. For the main vocal I'm the biggest perfectionist ever. It's hard because on records you can make it sound anyway you want because the song is the song. But there are so many options. So, you're always wondering, 'what if that or what if that...' ? But it pulls together. At some point you just have to let it go because otherwise you'll be there forever: finding new things to have a problem with.
Were there many songs which didn't make it on the EP? You said in an interview with BBC the song "Somebody Come Through" almost didn't make it?
William: We originally had this track that partly ended up on the EP Tell Me Lies, which is a string arrangement. It's a string piece with a mini orchestra. And originally, that was a full song that was about five minutes long. It's a really beautiful song, but something was not landing in that place, that we wanted it to land. So we kept our options open. And then there's a song that we'd be working on a couple of months back. The song was there and we were like: 'Let's try this'. What happened was, we spent a week on it and that song became "Somebody Come Through". And this was really late in the process, it was in the last two weeks. It was a really fun process to go through and I learned a lot from it.
Olivia: Yeah, definitely. I think it was fun, because we had been going into the studio at different times, like months apart. And there was one big chunk of time when we really got through everything. So, by the time we used that song, the one that we didn't end up putting, it felt really old, like I wasn't enthusiastic to work on it anymore. And then our producer was like, why don't we just do a new one entirely? We got really excited by that. So, we just did something new that we liked.
Do you have a favourite song of the record that you are looking forward to playing live?
William: "Somebody Come Through" is really fun to play live.
Olivia: Yes, we've started already playing it, but it's really fun. We are actually playing it tonight! I really think all of them. "Is This What Love Is" we have played for quite a while now, but it still feels fresh though. I always love how that sounds, it feels more like us now. Because we play older songs, and they feel very much like we just shrink back to ourselves three years ago. But now this feels very current.
Isotope was released on August 29th via LAOLAO Records
TOURDATES GERMANY
3. November - Huxleys - Berlin (hochverlegt!)
4. November - Stadthalle - Köln (hochverlegt!)
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