Windwaker Chat Breaking All The Rules On Their New Album

Shattering all restraint, Windwaker tear at the seams of their sonic boundaries, refining and finessing their craft into something truly unique. Concocting an unsuspecting recipe of electro-charged violence, sickly-sweet pop hooks, bouncing hip-hop moments and slick riffage, the charismatic quintet move towards exciting new territory with each new release. And fresh new album HYPERVIOLENCE is the summit of their efforts – out everywhere now via Cooking Vinyl Australia and Fearless Records.

The Melbourne outfit— Liam Guinane [vocals] Jesse Crofts [guitar], Indey Salvestro [bass], Chris Lalic [drums, programming], and Connor Robins [synths and samples] —have grown a dedicated and passionate fanbase, amassing millions of digital streams since their inception in 2017. Music Feeds sat down with Liam to chat about their brand new release and what’s next!

Windwaker – ‘Tabula Rasa’

Music Feeds: Congratulations on the release of your sophomore album ‘HYPERVIOLENCE’! Could you talk us through what the album means to you and was there a particular goal with this album in comparison to Love Language?

Liam Guinane: HYPERVIOLENCE means a variety of different things for the band. In a lot of ways it’s a time capsule of where the band was at the end of 2022 to 2023 and I think we’ll look back on it as that. As far as any concept goes, it was an opportunity for listeners to get to know me (Liam) and the anxieties I felt re-entering the band as vocalist. In the beginning it felt like a fight between who I know I am, versus the person who I am expected to be in the eyes of those looking in. Not only this but the conflict I was seeing in the world both online and offline framed how I would choose to write the album overall.

Every song was written from two conflicting perspectives, one side being more tender and sensitive to others, while the other being more destructive and selfish. These two sides battle out their perspective across the album, sometimes within the same track itself like ‘Break the Rules’ for example. The lyrics are based on a back and forth between an introvert and an extrovert arguing over how they would rather spend their night. There’s a point on the record where I found acceptance in these contrasting points of view on songs like ‘Haunting Me’ and ‘Juliet’ which further reinforced the more sensitive, pragmatic approach I take personally in my life.

MF: You explore a few different genres on the new album, is that something that you feel is integral to Windwaker?

LG: It is something integral to the sound of Windwaker as our blend of styles and genre has been a characteristic of our music since Empire in 2019. It’s also worth noting that this blend isn’t something we try to force or cram into our music for the sake of being different. All of us individually have vastly different music backgrounds and influence that these blends find a way of just naturally happening. I don’t see that changing for us, we’re always looking for new things to inspire us to push the needle forward for us in the name of art and music.

MF: What are three records that shaped HYPERVIOLENCE for each member?

Liam: SOS – SZA, GLOW ON – Turnstile, Scaring The Hoes – JPEGMAFIA & Danny Brown

Connor: Charli – Charli XCX, Skin – Flume, Sempiternal – Bring Me The Horizon

Indey: Golden Cobra – Limp Bizkit, Trauma – I Prevail, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out – Panic! at the Disco

Chris: The Resistance – Muse, Born Pink – Black Pink, Justice – Justin Bieber

Jesse: Nothing is True & Everything is Possible – Enter Shikari, Alien – Northlane and Immersion – Pendulum

MF: Have the songs been written with the live show in mind? Having played a few of them live already, how has the reception been? Are there plans to tour the album across Australia?

LG: Part of the fun of writing Windwaker music is the challenge of how we can pull it all off live. It’s a bit more creatively liberating and allows us to have no restrictions when we write. Having Connor in the band really helps to keep the performative aspect of the show alive as well. Without him, it would be really easy to rely on backing tracks for all the electronics which, to us, would leave a lot to be desired for the audience. With that said, the new songs have been performing really well to the crowds we’ve been playing to, especially at the moment in North America where a good majority of the audience are hearing and seeing us for the first time. We’ve been so pleasantly surprised with how instantaneous the reaction has been, particularly opening on our latest single, ‘Get Out’ which is only a few weeks young. There are certainly plans to tour the album across Australia before the year wraps up, stay tuned to hear more on that!

MF: What’s next for Windwaker?

LG: We definitely don’t plan to stop on the show front so be sure to look out for future announcements soon. We also had some leftover music that didn’t make it onto HYPERVIOLENCE we would love to still share with the world, so hopefully they’ll be more new music sooner rather than later. We’ve also started writing together in the RV as we travel through the US so we should be pretty quick to get back to writing another record when we get some free time back in Australia.

For now, you can buy or stream Windwaker’s new record HYPERVIOLENCE right here.