Atom Splitter PR

Life equals love. We make every decision based on the pursuit of or in the service of love, either deliberately or subconsciously. Love drives us and drives us crazy, but we live for it and ultimately die with it. Windwaker present a different perspective on love through their full-length debut album, Love Language [Fearless Records]. The Australian quartet—Will King [vocals], Jesse Crofts [guitar], Indey Salvestro [bass], and Chris Lalic [drums, programming]—examine the aftershocks of love and the changes made in its wake over a soundtrack tilt-a-whirling from moments of insane heaviness to heavenly release. After amassing millions of streams independently and building buzz around the world, the band deliver an unpredictable and undeniable exploration of love across twelve tracks.

“Love Language details our own personal experience with love and lust on an internal and external level and our synergy as a collective not only when it comes to creating art, but just co-existing in the same timeline as each other,” explains Will. “We have seen each other transform as people over the years, and it has come paired with a lot of pain and suffering. However, we all have this unspoken bond that this band was going to be FOR SOMETHING, to add purpose and meaning to our lives, and, in turn, help others. From day one, our hearts were chained to this record. If this record flops or soars, it is truly everything we needed it to be. The album was all us.”

Bubbling up out of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Windwaker first landed in 2017. They built a growing fan base with independent EPs such as Fade [2017] and Empire [2019]. The latter boasted “Colourless” and “My Empire,” which each cracked 850K Spotify streams. In between selling out headline tours, they joined Beartooth on the road, while I Prevail tapped them for an upcoming 2022 run across Australia with Motionless In White. Along the way, they inked a deal with Fearless Records and wrote, produced, and engineered Love Language by themselves over the course of 2021. As such, the album projects their voices equally.

“We were all equal songwriters in this, and all ideas were considered,” he continues. “A great portion of the record was written and tracked over band Zoom calls throughout lockdown. Some were done in random beach house Airbnbs when we were actually allowed to see each other.”

Windwaker paved the way for Love Language with a bonkers cover of “Toxic” by Britney Spears. They preserve the iconic opening orchestral sample only to veer off the road with guttural guitar groove and fluttering falsetto courtesy of the frontman.

“You’d think it was because of the Britney case and the Netflix docs that just dropped, but honestly, it was a genuine coincidence,” he grins. “Indey pitched us to cover the song for Knight and Day Festival, and we were all like, ‘Yes, that song is a banger’. Once we started laying down some guitars, it had to be put out!”

Meanwhile, Love Language kickstarts with “Beautiful.” Electronics underline a bouncy gallop, ebbing and flowing from punchy verses into a melodic hook, “Tell me what it is to be beautiful,” before a nearly rapped-growled bridge. On the other end of the spectrum, a Spaghetti Western-style riff echoes beneath breathy verses before snapping on a cathartic freakout. The rollercoaster culminates on “The Rain.” Pulsating synths glow in tandem with his syncopated delivery before giving way to one last hypnotic and high register vocal revelation.

“I’d say the songs follow the story of a character who travels out of their comfort zone in order to feel something new and, as a result, gets hurt numerous times,” observes Will. “Ultimately, the character is thankful for the suffering. When you experience extreme highs and lows, new benchmarks are set in your brain as a reference point. A situation that may have seemed bad in the past may not feel so bad by comparison when you really face your own definition of hell.”

In the end, you may just fall in love with Windwaker by the time it’s over.

“We’re just stoked if you like what we do,” he leaves off. “Love it or hate it, we hope you’re thoroughly entertained by the record. Memes and trolling aside, we just want our audience to have a good time and be happy.”