Wage War: Living Up To Pressure

With their third studio album Pressure nearing its arrival, the anticipation has been intense for Florida’s finest WAGE WAR. Guitarist Cody Quistad speaks about the pressures of creating a third album, living up to their breakdown hype and the journey from their MySpace streaming days to now, three albums in the bag and heaps of success on their horizon.

“It’s been a journey” says Quistad. “At first when we started making this record, we were nervous as you would be anytime you make a new album. As the songs came together, there was a confidence that broke through the nervousness and now we’re just itching to get it out and show the world.”

The grappling weight of pressure appears to be the centralised theme for this album, tackling the pressures of living up to their third album and the pressures of life. Quistad took us back to the band’s mindset of creating the album’s name and diamond artwork cover, explaining, “we all sat together on a long drive and talked about what the album means to each of us. At the end of the day, there’s always pressure when you go in to make an album but we really felt it on this one. The third one always seems like a make or break, but I truly believe we channelled that into drive to make what I think is our best record yet. I guess you could call Pressure our diamond… even that sounds corny,” he laughs.

As well as their mouth-watering riffs and killer breakdowns, WAGE WAR have an open honesty within their lyrics that’s forged a unique and emotional bond with their audience but also opens them up to a greater deal of vulnerability when wearing their heart on their musical sleeve. “I’m a comment reader,” Quistad admits, “and I hate that but I like to know what people think. I can read 100 positive comments and then as soon as someone puts it down it ruins my day. However, that’s my problem to deal with and those comments are few and far between.”

The depths of WAGE WAR run deeper than surface level. Fronting under their previous persona EMPIRES, the band have a varied history spanning them back to MySpace circa 2010. Speaking of the monumental years that would eventually shape them into the breakdown warriors they are, Quistad says, “the songs we did under that name are what we got signed on and how we cut our teeth. We played shows for 10 people, we self-released and booked our own tours. All of those things helped us become the band we are now and establish the same work ethic we have today.”

It could be argued that MySpace helped pave the way for modern online streaming services, opening musicians to the creative ventures to be had with online music. But the relationship between the artist and the streamer is one of tainted love. “Streaming services are love/hate,” Quistad explains. “The exposure we see from streaming and playlisting is awesome but the payout and sales equivalents are never the same. I could be wrong, but I believe 1500 streams is the equivalent of one album sale and the payout is like 0.006-0.008 cents a song. Basically, you have to be a pretty big band to see a dime from that. It does make music very accessible though, so it’s just the give and takes.”

It seems almost coincidental that as they enter this new phase of music their older works reach new milestones with the debut album that helped define their career, Blueprints, reaching its near five-year anniversary and thus leaving a reflective moment for the career for WAGE WAR. “We’ve learned a lot about ourselves, each other, and the ever-changing music business. It’s hard to adapt with all the changes but we just always keep our heads down and work hard. I’d never change the relationship us five have. We’re brothers and I feel like it’s a big reason we are where we are.”

Upon waiting for your new album’s arrival you’ve given fans a taste of what’s to come with some new singles that display an expansive range of vocals and gnarly riffs. When you sat down in the studio to record this album, what was the goal with how you created the tracks?

Cody: Our goal is always to write the best songs we can. Whether a heavy or melodic song, we always want it to be catchy and from the heart.’

WAGE WAR have always been known for your killer breakdowns but being a heavier band do you ever feel that pressure (no pun intended) to live up to your own hype?

Cody: We’re never gonna stop being a heavy band and we will always have those songs. Granted we’re not writing 6 minute breakdowns anymore, but there’s always going to be the crushers on a WAGE WAR record.

From just the singles alone we’ve seen a lot of progression and growth from your previous work. What does the new album project for the future of WAGE WAR?

Cody: Hopefully just putting us in front of more people! We’ve expanded our sound so much that we hope to acquire a very diverse fan base and we’ve already seen that happening with these new songs. See y’all down the road!

Pressure is set for release on August 30th via Fearless Records.

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