“Music has always been a matter of energy for me, a question of fuel. I have always needed fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” – Hunter S. Thompson
A novel metaphor for euphonic stimuli. Music as high-octane, full-throttle, fire-stoking. f#%k-around-and-find-out fuel.
It’s worked as the main source of power for Vancouver band The Wivez since its rubber first hit the road in 2015 when frontman Jordy Birch (Pure, Guilty About Girls), drummer Slam T. Hide (The KLF, Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction) and bassist Rob Edmonds began bonding as each others’ musical better halvez.
Since then, they’ve been playing and producing tunes that tap directly into that ancient, ever-thrumming pulse that powers the seekers and finders. The movers and shakers. The chewed-up-and-spat-out. The ne’er-do-wells and malcontents. The beer drinkers and hell-raisers.
The Wivez recorded their first singles ‘Dead in the Middle’, ‘Havana’ and ‘Baby, I’m Bored’ with their trademark, damn-the-torpedoes, one-take ethos for Van City Records in 2016. Future singles included ‘The Death of Me’, ‘How Weird is Now’, ‘Off+On’, ‘Let’s Get Serious’, a cover of ‘Surfin’ USA’, ‘Take You Higher’, ‘Wildlife’, and a newly released EP in March 2024 entitled ‘Boyz/Toyz’ that features the tracks ‘Boy Toy’ and ‘Black Shellac’.
In 2023, guitarist ‘Bean’, (formerly of Mystery Machine) hitched a ride and climbed aboard as a fourth wheel, adding a decisive new snarl to the shtick.
Their influences run deep through genres and decades of decadence and debauchery, but there’s a shared sweet spot on the atlas where the the wave of ’60s surf music slams headlong into punk rock – a jangled, bedraggled, roughshod fever dream that never breaks.
Throughout it all, there’s a shared appreciation for the wheelman, the fella riding shotgun and the boyz banging on the backseats. Just a ragtag band of better halvez burning asphalt and blowing red lights on long roads that lead to nowhere and a horizon that’s blissfully out of reach.
Soul sick? Sullen eyed? Slack jawed? Don’t idle. Slide in, punch it and let The Wivez take you higher.
The Wivez. Straight fuel for serious consumers.
THE WIVEZ ARE:
Jordy – guitar & vocals
Slam – drums & vocals
Robe – bass & vocals
Bean – guitar