Edmonton Art Rock Group, Ways In Waves, Releases “Ovum Nova,” an Incoherent Expression of Grief

Ways In Waves is the brainchild of Brian Raine, a multi-instrumentalist and music producer living out of Edmonton, Alberta. His project combines aspects of rock, art-pop, and electronic music together into a mixture that propels the listener through controlled chaos. 

The song “Ovum Nova” initially began as a project with the YouTuber known as Polyphonic who also created the music video for the band’s last single “Who in War.” Noah of Polyphonic is an incredibly prolific visual artist, and for years now he’s been making album covers for bands that don’t exist. Brian and Noah thought it would be fun to put music to these, and “Ovum Nova” actually began as a single from one of these fake bands called The Ptarmigans. 

For Brian, it’s amusing that it almost feels like he’s stealing from the fake band, The Ptarmigans, somehow in releasing this song. It really felt like he was able to harness a different element of his creativity given this slightly absurd premise.

“Oftentimes, when I’ve had to confront grief in my life, I’ve found that it’s tough to put your finger on how it’s going to manifest, when it’s going to show its face, and how to deal with it,” says Brian Raine. “To have coherent words expressing this just seemed so antithetical to the ethos of this song. And so I made ‘Ovum Nova’ into an incoherent expression of grief. The lyrics speak about futures that could have been, the futile process of seeking solace and not finding it, all within the mood of being trapped at a house party in a thunderstorm. Counter-intuitively, the song is very energetic, and one of the more punk influenced things I’ve written, which serves as a sort of facade for these very sad lyrics to hide behind.”

1. What did you enjoy most about the recording process of this new release?
I had a blast creating Ovum Nova because I was writing it with a fake band in mind, I imagined them having two lead singers, playing guitar in a less precise style than what I usually go for myself, using certain production techniques that I have generally strayed away from from in the past… in a way it was a way of excusing myself from pressures or standards that I hold myself to. This was incredibly liberating! I particularly enjoyed creating the female lead vocal – I sang all that down an octave and then tuned it up an octave, shifted the formant forward quite a bit, played around with a very different delivery, etc. 

2. Share a nugget of advice that has resonated with you most over the years.
“Nobody knows what they’re doing” is so incredibly useful to keep in mind. As you navigate your place in music – and the arts in general – you’ll find people who say that they know what you should be doing and how, and the reality is that the arts are changing so rapidly that anyone who claims to know it all likely doesn’t, and they probably want your money. So the best you can do is create art that you love and put it out into the world in any way you can.

3. Who would be your dream artist/band to co-headline a tour with?
It would be a dream come true to open for a band like Protest The Hero, we’re all fans of them in the Ways in Waves live band, and although our music isn’t as heavy as theirs, it’s been heavily influenced by their approach to rhythm, song structure, and attitude. 

4. What sets your music apart from others in your genre?
I think it’s tough to pin Ways in Waves down to one genre, we fluctuate between several and I like that! It keeps things interesting, and it allows different songs to have different identities. I think that my approach to layering and song structure is a bit more adventurous than many of our contemporaries, I’m not afraid to mess with the order of sections, with changing keys whenever it benefits the song, or with replacing a chorus with an instrumental, etc. I’m kind of tired of hearing the first 20 seconds of a song and being able to predict the next 2.5 minutes. I’d rather be surprised, I’d rather keep my listeners engaged by presenting new ideas.

5. Tell us what your favourite song is at the moment and why.
I’ve been in love with “Feathers” by the band Palm. Eve and Kara, the guitarists/vocalists/keyboardists of that band have been incredibly influential to me, and there’s a cohesion achieved in that song that I keep returning to and aiming for in my own creativity.