A Chat with Waver (20.05.26)
Waver return with their new album, Space and Time. A 13-track record that fuses ’90s-inspired guitar rock with the depth of a decades-long creative partnership. Formed by longtime collaborators Mike Sartor and Dorsey Stone, the Boston-based duo revisit and expand the sound that first defined their early work. Built on melodic songwriting, layered instrumentation, and reflective lyricism, the album marks both a reunion and a reinvention of their signature style. We chat with Waver below.
OSR: After years apart, what inspired you to reunite and create Space and Time?
Sartor: Neither of us ever lost our passion for music, but we both took professional and personal paths that didn’t leave much room on the page for getting the proverbial band back together. But in late 2024, we both reached a point in our lives where we felt we had the time and energy to jump back in with two feet. And we were both really excited to see how our sound had evolved over the years.
Stone: I never stopped thinking about Mike.
OSR: How did your experiences outside of Waver shape the sound and themes of the new album?
Sartor: Both of us have now had the opportunity to pursue professional careers, become parents, and travel extensively. Like a lot of things, songwriting is easier when you have breadth of experience to draw from.
Stone: Can’t write a single about divorce without one.
OSR: The record blends ’90s rock influences with a modern sensibility. How did you strike that balance?
Sartor: The 90s sound is impossible to shed; that really is the core of our sound. But over the years we couldn’t help but absorb some of the more innovative sounds and styles of recent years. We write with a larger color palette than we had during our last go around.
Stone: David Gilmore and Joe Satriani were still around in the 90’s, right?
OSR: What does the title Space and Time represent to you both personally and musically?
Sartor: The title is a nod to our prolonged hiatus, but is also meant to highlight what we hope is a sense of timelessness, maturity and perspective that comes from the record. Sometimes one needs to take a step back to take a step forward.
Stone: Agreed. It’s what we needed evidently: enough time and space to create both.
OSR: Can you describe your songwriting process for this album? Did it differ from your earlier work?
Sartor: Typically one of us will come to practice with an early stage idea and some of the key lyrics and changes, but we try to make sure we first get together on a song while there is still a lot of white space for the other to fill in.
Stone: Yeah, certain songs are undeniably Mike’s or mine at the beginning, but they don’t end up that way. If you just toss GarageBand tracks back and forth, it risks being formulaic; the best collaborative results are in real time, at least for us. Every once in a while, like with the song ‘I Miss You’, it’s genuinely 50/50, even the lyrics.
OSR: How did recording at Ugly Duck Studios in Boston influence the album’s sonic identity?
Sartor: Brendan McGillin’s drumming was of course a huge part of our sound. But most importantly, as our sound engineers, Brendan and Dan Babai did a remarkable job of translating our vision into a more polished product. Dan was instrumental in helping us think through the key song transitions that truly helped make this an album rather than a collection of songs.
Stone: 100%. We got so lucky with those guys. Some musicians refer to their sound guy as the [fifth] member of the band or whatever, but in our case it’s really true with Dan and Brenden. Doesn’t hurt that they’re both Berkeley.
OSR: Were there any standout moments or unexpected breakthroughs during the recording sessions?
WAVER: There were some fun last-minute additions that showed up for the first time in the studio. One favourite was the addition of the backup vocals on the bridge to ‘Always Awake’ – it wasn’t something we’d contemplated before, but as we recorded we realized that there was a nice opening to fill out the body of the bridge with an extra melody.
OSR: Tracks like ‘Always Awake’ and ‘I Miss You’ carry strong emotional weight. What stories lie behind them?
Sartor: There’s a theme of distance and loss underlying both of those tracks.
Stone: I appreciate the question. I think the impact gets back to the life experience piece. Those songs are based on real events. ‘Always Awake’ being a relationship at a crossroads, and ‘I Miss You’ being loosely based on the death of my brother, without making it too personally specific. Everyone has experienced loss.
OSR: How has your creative dynamic evolved since your early days performing in Boston?
Sartor: The bottom line is that we’re more mature now and we’ve grown as artists. There are certain traits like subtlety and deliberation that take a little while to develop. We’re more patient in our approach and better communicators with each other.
Stone: Agreed. Listening to each other and what the song itself wants and needs, rather than showing off what you can do. I see myself more as a foot soldier of the song.
OSR: What do you hope listeners take away from Space and Time?
Sartor: We hope it leaves the listener with a sense of nostalgia and introspection. We sought to write an album that has a timeless feel, and we’d like to think that comes across and translates into something that feels both familiar and new at the same time.
Stone: I hope the album grabs you by the short-hairs.
Many thanks to Waver for speaking with us. Find out more about Waver on their Instagram, Facebook, and Spotify.
