Making Cool Waves

The Zeldas Talk New Album

When we last spoke with the band The Zeldas, they were working on a new album. Now, after months, those efforts have resulted in Cool Waves, their debut record. Band member Mike Luce opens up about what went into it, and how the pandemic both helped and hindered its process.

The album is eight tracks of rock and roll fusion, a mixture of indie, psychedelic (reminiscent of Pink Floyd), and soft rock. The band’s songs flow smoothly from track to track and you can tell they not only put time but great effort into it. “Writing new songs and recording demos is my favourite thing to do at home in my spare time,” Luce says of what prompted The Zeldas to put out an album. The COVID-19 pandemic meant “that suddenly I had a lot more opportunities to devote myself to making music. In this way, I kind of have COVID to thank for giving me more time to refine the music into what I believe is a much better album.”

As for recording the album during the pandemic and the challenges that came with it, Luce says that “when I begin writing a new batch of songs, I usually start off by recording musical ideas. [...] So, in this way the beginning of a new album is often a very solitary process for me, and I was able to continue working on the first five songs on the album throughout the pandemic.” He adds that when the second wave of the pandemic loomed, “I began to think it would be best to finish the album by recording new and/or unfinished parts individually at home and then send the tracks through email.”

As for the album itself, when asked what track he is particularly proud of, Luce says, “Whenever I start writing and recording a new album, there always seems to be one song that comes together quickly and stands out among the others. This was the case with the track ‘Sunshine Sunflower.’ When a song begins to come together this way, I begin to feel this special sense of momentum that I love.”

“We have two new songs that will feature all six members of the band and are just about ready for release,” Luce says of what’s next. While two of the members have moved to Montreal, Luce states that the original lineup of The Zeldas may press pause for a while and focus on a tiki-themed acoustic version of the album. “Maybe the four remaining members of the original lineup who still live in town might do a one-off show where we perform all of the songs wearing brightly coloured Hawaiian shirts,” he says.

Check out The Zeldas and their new album at thezeldas.bandcamp.com.