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Brooklyn-Austria-based power indie rockers superWAV release aTypical, a heady, bluesy EP

By Kath Galasso on November 28, 2023

Brooklyn-and-Austria-based power indie rock band superWAV are back with aTypical, a heady, bluesy EP that’s for the rock fans. Formed in 2020 by She’s Excited! multimedia powerhouse Anne Wichmann and indie guitar heavy-hitter Volker Wichmann, these German-born siblings set out to create a stripped-down rock sound reminiscent of all the best eras of power rock. With their new EP, they’ve stripped down even further. It’s time for brass tacks rock, and superWAV are here to bring it.

We wanted the songs to be straightforward, direct and in your face. Basically: Let’s take out everything that the song does not need. Reduce it to pure guts! Yet the theme of archetypes is a complex one, and its exploration is adding a thoughtful layer to the music

-Anne Wichmann

With their first EP, 2018’s Elements and subsequent 2020 single “The King,” it seems superWAV intended a stylized form of rock with some programming and electronic elements. As Anne’s other project, She’s Excited! is multi-genre, it’s easy to see where the two would meet, but for aTypical, the siblings wanted something more raw and rock.

Channeling the blues tones of bands like The White Stipes and PJ Harvey but with the feedback of Sonic Youth or even Sabbath, in Volker’s guitar work, Anne’s normally smooth Siouxsie Sioux-like vocals take on a gravel timbre that goes perfectly with the riffs.

The pair are separated by an ocean and half a continent, but working together seemed to go seamlessly, according to Volker:

It’s so much fun to work together again, and exciting to find new ways of collaborating across such a long distance. For ATYPICAL it feels like we picked up where RAWJAW (the Wichmanns’ earlier band in the early 00s) ended – yet finding our own sound of today in every tune.

-Volker Wichmann

The psychological element to was also something Anne and Volker had fun exploring. With each song named after one of the five personality archetypes, the lyrics explore these in ‘atypical’ ways. The stripped down rock also gives space to these more complex lyrical concepts, and each track’s music was meant to back up the archetypal analysis contained within.

While the sound is brass tacks rock, like many things the Wichmanns do, there are layers to aTypical. The production of the album is also where this layered style comes in, as the siblings mixed and engineered it in the Italian alps while blasting other power rock music greats like Monster Magnet, Alice in Chains and The Kills. An aTypical approach to typical rock.

With this just-released (October 11) rock masterpiece, superWAV is set to create a new superwave of many-splendored rock.

Listen to “aTYPICAL” on Bandcamp.
Stream or playlist on Spotify.

Musician Names/Instruments: Volker Wichmann (guitar), Anne Wichmann aka She’s Excited! (programming, vocals)
Producer Name(s): She’s Excited! & Volker Wichmann

Tracklist: 1. The Lover; 2. The Warrior; 3. The Everyman; 4. The Innocent; 5. The Magician

Websites:
Official Website: https://www.superwav.rocks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/superWAVrocks
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4Na37ltqVU0CoWpcF0nhPD
Bandcamp: https://superwav.bandcamp.com/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/superwav-rocks
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@superWAVrocks

Artist Biography:

Sonic waves across the Atlantic Ocean

superWAV is the Alternative Rock project of the siblings Anne Wichmann (aka She’s Excited!) and Volker Wichmann, currently based in New York City, USA and Innsbruck, Austria. Having played in the Psychedelic Stoner Rock band RAWJAW (discography, EPs) in the late 90ies, they now produce their own version of Indie Rock while being thousands of miles apart.

Their debut EP “Elements” fuses Electronic Rock elements with experimental sampling in the fashion of Dirty Projectors. Their second release “ATYPICAL” goes back to the roots of Alternative Rock, combining elements of Stoner bands like Kyuss, Garage Rock bands like The White Stripes and Indie Rock bands like The Kills.