Wax Chattels on their debut album, playing 'dark' music and Gillian Anderson

"To perform that stuff without just going through the motions, you have to feel that way." Photo/Guillaume Beaubatwix

Wax Chattels bassist/singer Amanda Cheng has one warning ahead of their Auckland show: "Bring ear plugs".

It's probably not a bad idea. The Auckland trio's self-titled debut album is a catalogue of swirling bass lines, keyboards and drums, all folded together into a hypnotic cacophony of sound. It's a challenging and oftentimes beautiful introduction to New Zealand's next band on the rise.

The past year has been somewhat of a whirlwind for the group, who formed in the early parts of 2016. Their set at last year's Others Way Festival caught the attention of Mike Sniper, the founder and manager of US label Captured Tracks, a partner of Kiwi label Flying Nun. Sniper, who was playing his own DJ set that night, was hooked from just two songs.

"He came and saw the first two songs of our set, got his phone out, started videoing it, then he had to go DJ," says singer and instrumentalist Peter Ruddell. "Then he sent us an email later that night, then we went to – we thought we were meeting up for a coffee, but it turns out it was lunch with him and Ben Howe from Flying Nun, and they both wanted to sign us."

Wax Chattels' debut record, recorded mainly over just two nights last year, wears its gloominess proudly on its sleeve. "Thematically it is dark," says Ruddell. "Every track has got some kind of negative energy to it."

Both Cheng and Ruddell are bright, chatty and humorous in person, so I'm wondering where the bleakness comes from. But as Cheng explains, it's about catharsis – and she says entering into those headspaces on stage can be a mental strain.

"We're not intentionally saying we want to make dark music, but I guess the things that we need an outlet for are quite dark, so it ends up that way," she says.

"Whenever we play a song or the whole set, I run through how the songs feel in the duration of playing it, and so afterwards I'm spent. I get very antisocial for like 10-20 minutes, like, 'don't talk to me, I can't do the merch table right now' … I feel like, to perform that stuff without just going through the motions physically, you have to feel that way."

The record also features their song Gillian, named after and devoted to X Files and The Fall star Gillian Anderson. After the song's debut last year, the actress herself shared it on Twitter to her 600,000 followers. It was a seminal moment for the band, and it's started cropping up in every interview and feature they do – so I ask whether they're sick of it.

"It's not like a particularly catchy song or anything so it's not going to be our one hit wonder," says Cheng. "I'm not really that concerned because it's quite mellow and it's just a cool thing to have happened."

Ruddell agrees. "It's kind of cool to be associated with someone so cool."

LOWDOWN:
Who: Wax Chattels
What: New record Wax Chattels, out now
Also: Playing Whammy Bar, June 8