Sometimes you’ve got to go solo to let your true colors fly.
The psychedelic brainchild of Boston musician Andre Bellido, Plastic Waves began as Bellido’s first attempt at making music on his own. “I’d tried forming a few different bands in college, but nothing came of them, so I began working on songs in my bedroom and I started forming a vision for the kind of sound I wanted,” Bellido told us.
The end result, which we’re thrilled to premiere today, is a five-track EP that puts a twist on traditional kaleidoscopic psych-pop, bringing in swells of gritty, snarling rock at every turn. Plastic Waves’ debut release will transport you across decades and through every crevice of your mind as it deftly explores genres. Still, Plastic Waves stays anchored to its psychedelic roots — a sound perhaps best represented on album closer “Melancholy Sleep.”
In fact, “Melancholy Sleep” was the first song that Bellido penned as Plastic Waves. Anything but sleepy, the track builds from a contemplative hum to a swirling chorus, culminating in crashing drums and searing guitar — as if the soundtrack to a turbulent dream. It was after writing this song that Bellido knew he had found his sound: “It became a template for all of the songs I would end up writing,” he said.
From there, Bellido recorded the rest of his vision in his apartment in Boston and back at home in South Florida. The collection ranges from the expansive, hook-laden “You Never Listen” (which Bellido names as his favorite, even though he “almost scrapped it in the early stages”), to the soft and hazy “Pushing Me Down.”
Get a first listen of the EP below, and come out to support Plastic Waves at their EP release show tonight, February 16, at Great Scott. (Bellido will be joined by a band that he’s assembled for live shows.) You can also catch them at Middle East Corner on March 7 and at Out of the Blue Too on a date yet to be confirmed.