ABOUT THE WAIFS

2017 MARKED THE WAIFS 25th ANNIVERSARY.

We want to thank you for this incredible 25 years and look forward to the next 25! 

We are celebrating and commemorating this event by releasing 25 songs recorded live & acoustic at Josh’s beautiful house in the bushland of South Coast NSW, Australia.

You had a say in all this!  We asked ourselves what do our fans want to hear?  Over the years we have experimented with songs and instrumentation in the studio. This time, to really capture the essence of our music and the essence of who we are today as artists, we decided to sit around a couple of mics with our guitars, a makeshift junk kit & a double bass, press record and play.

So this one is for you guys.

A makeshift studio was set up (with audio engineer James Newhouse) in Josh’s unfinished kitchen. Initially it was going to be some covers and acoustic versions of old favorites. But the songs kept flowing. We recorded 30 songs in 2 weeks and didn’t even get to the covers. There are very few about Homesick and Highways!

Playing new songs completely live was exhilarating and sometimes exhausting. Some of the takes that made it on the album are the 3rd or 4th time we have ever played the song and it sounds like a band listening closely to each other, musicians that have been playing together for a long time.  

Huge love, thanks & credit to Dave (Ross Macdonald) and Ben (Franz) for holding the songs down again & again while we read lyrics from our tablets and came up with three different versions of everything. If we are the bread & butter these guys are the raspberry jam sweetening it up, making it extra tasty and bringing the sounds together.  Some of my favorite moments in the studio are when Josh, Dave and Ben start jamming. (A PUN!)  James Newhouse was amazing to work with and helped with everything from harmonies, to getting the best sound out of that old suitcase and taming the reverb of a live band in a kitchen.

We were fortunate to have Tamara Dean (http://www.tamaradean.com.au) come to stay & take stunning photos for the artwork around the property. We’d get back in a leech infested dam for you any day Tamara. 

Your involvement in our career means everything to us. You are the very reason we are still playing music together 25 years on. You know all about us… meeting in Broome, West Australia, traveling around - that old tale has been told many times.
SO, WE WANT TO HEAR YOUR STORIES...

If our music has played a significant part in any event or time in your life we’d love to hear about it.

Send us an email to; Waifsstories@jarrahrecords.com AND post them on our Facebook. We would like to share some of your stories onstage, play some songs and weave it all together and celebrate.

The album is called IRONBARK referencing the majestic eucalyptus standing sentinel over us and the resilience and inner strength of the wood as opined in the song of the same title.  

IRONBARK will be released as a double disc in March 2017.

We will be touring extensively in Australia in March & April and if we miss your town this time around we’ll be back in November & December to do it all again.