Air Waves
image by Nate Dorr
When Pitchfork's Guest List asked Dan Deacon what his favorite new band is, his reply may sum up Nicole Schneit's of Air Waves music best, "The music she writes is like a favorite blanket wrapped around you."
The Brooklyn based songwriter first found solace in her guitar, composing escapist songs with fantastical stories and catchy choruses. Not wanting to be tagged as strictly a singer-songwriter and desiring a full-band sound, in 2007 Schneit teamed up with fellow Brooklynites taking on the name Air Waves. A few band member changes later, Air Waves is hitting the road with Scott Rosenthal and Dan Bryer. A medley of folk, rock, pop, and country, Air Waves serves up fantastic imagery with unforgettable melodies with named influences such as Neil Young, The Clean, and the Velvet Underground. Passive towards trends, image, genre and all things on the periphery of being in a rock band, there is a genuineness in Nicole's voice that echoes throughout every aspect of Air Waves, cutting straight to the essentials of communicating something larger than words.
Critics have labeled Air Waves as everything from sparse pop to folky punk, a sign that Air Waves does what every great band in their time has managed to do - find a way to be both comfortable and compelling in being themselves while creating a body of work beyond genre classification. Already in a short time span Air Waves have not only made a name for themselves in Brooklyn, but elsewhere by touring extensively down both the East and West coast sharing the stage with such notable acts like Cat Power, Songs: Ohio, Beach House, Dan Deacon and The Rapture to name a few.
Recorded by Baltimore producer Chester Gwazda (Ecstatic Sunshine) in a Long Island basement, their debut self-titled EP (Catbird Records) features five songs, without a single misstep or wasted moment. Schneit has a voice that creeps up on you, the sort of subtle but infectious haziness and rasp that turns an understated melody into something that echoes with depth and nostalgia.