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[dearwaves]

wave to earth’s bad pieces

The band’s upcoming creative direction towards a more reserved foundation, shaped by of peace, plurality, and a deliberately “lazy” coziness

With the release of heaven and hell, wave to earth appears to be moving towards a broader conceptual direction, one concerned with how people exist alongside one another. At the center of heaven and hell is judgment: the tendency to divide the world into binaries of right and wrong, virtue and fault, heaven and hell. Rather than affirming these distinctions, the song questions them, suggesting that moral certainty is often shaped by perception rather than objective truth.

The song seems to suggest that peace doesn’t come from getting rid of contradictions or having everything make sense. Instead, it comes from accepting that different emotions, beliefs, and experiences can exist at the same time, even when they don’t fully fit together.

The album title, inspired by the Bed Peace protest, reinterprets their message through the band’s own distinctive emotional lens

John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s 1969 Bed-In for Peace (Bed Peace) was a nonviolent pro peace protest. Instead of marching or confronting political leaders, they stayed in bed for a week, inviting journalists, artists, and visitors into their hotel room. By turning an intimate domestic space into a public platform, they argued that peace could be expressed through dialogue, openness, and presence rather than conflict.

This philosophy closely mirrors heaven and hell. Where the Bed Peace rejected confrontation as a path toward peace, the song questions the rigid moral binaries of “right” and “wrong.” Rather than insisting on a single truth, both suggest that peace begins by making room for different perspectives to coexist.

Dongkyu described the album as “a shelter for people who are exhausted by the world. It’s about imperfect pieces & finding comfort together without pretending to be complete.” In this context, the album’s cozy atmosphere becomes more than a visual identity, but a metaphor for peace itself. Like the Bed Peace, the shelter is transformed into a place where “imperfections” are welcomed and people are allowed to exist without the pressure of becoming whole.

How the members described the concept so far is silently tied to the protest itself: instead of treating the home as a retreat from the world, Lennon and Ono reimagined it as a place where dialogue, empathy and coexistence were welcomed. Peace was expressed not through force or certainty, but through openness and the willingness to create space for one another.

Rather than offering easy answers, each invites us to pause. The Bed Peace transformed a cozy space into a public call for peace; heaven and hell explores the tension between emotional extremes; and bad pieces seems to suggest that our imperfections aren’t obstacles to connection, but a part of it.

pieces in this context, can be understood as fragments of oneself, and labeling them as “bad” does not necessarily mean they should be discarded. Instead, the album seems to move toward a more unified perspective, one that asks what it means to acknowledge our imperfections rather than conceal them, and whether wholeness comes not from cutting them away, but from allowing them to coexist.

bad pieces could be seen as an invitation to slow down, sit with uncertainty, and embrace the idea that healing is not about repairing every flaw, instead it encourages us to make peace with our imperfections while extending the same understanding, and compassion to those around us, recognizing that everyone carries unseen fragments (pieces) of their own.

[dearwaves]

wave to earth’s heaven and hell X 怪物 (2023)

I’m writing this still pretty much teary-eyed, but I can’t let the first impression linger for too long. I continue to be so incredibly impressed by the level of thought and emotional depth within wave to earth’s artistry, especially in the way they explore such nuanced themes throughout their craft. While some of the interpretations I’ll point out may be very subjective, this perspective resonated with me in a meaningful way and I kind of wanted to share it because of how strongly it connected with me personally. I definitely missed a lot of important details since I watched the mv pretty early on and some scenes probably need deeper nuance or background context to be fully understood. But even from the subtext I was able to pick up on I already appreciated it as a very strong and thoughtfully crafted piece of art.

What makes the mv stand out to me is how deeply yet softly it engages with queer imagery. Its themes are woven through isolation, masculinity, and the quiet longing to belong. Throughout the video, the protagonist boy is constantly surrounded by men moving together, dancing together, existing together, bound by a kind of collective masculinity that feels instinctive to everyone except him. While they remain unified, he wanders alone, observing from the outside and reaching toward something that always seems just beyond him, his counterpart, but also the sense of belonging. He feels different, yet in many ways he is exactly the same as the men surrounding him. They are dancers, and he dances too, yet there is still a lingering sense of unfamiliarity. Despite sharing the same outward actions and environment, he remains emotionally disconnected from the version of masculinity being performed around him.

The distance between him and the other men creates a sense of unfamiliarity as though he is witnessing the version of manhood he is expected to grow into while simultaneously realizing he cannot fully recognize himself within it. The men share the same posture, clothing, and body language, creating a visual sense of brotherhood that also feels very restrictive. There is closeness in between them but very little vulnerability. Everyone kind of appears unified yet pretty emotionally sealed.

The boy’s alienation within this environment mirrors the plot of Monster where queerness is not expressed through overt romance or explicit confession, but rather through estrangement, the feeling of existing within a world you are expected to “belong to” while quietly sensing that “something” essential within you exists outside of it (that “something” in this case being the boy’s freedom).

One of the most striking motifs in the video is this constant sort of drifting. The boy repeatedly latches onto what he believes he should want, only to slightly detach himself from it again, endlessly moving between longing and distance. It reflects the confusion of trying to mold yourself into expectations that never fully feel like your own, while still deeply yearning for the acceptance that comes with them.

The religious imagery adds another layer that felt impossible for me to ignore. It’s one of the motifs that says the most when you read between the lines, since religion and masculinity often operate together as systems of expectation, shaping ideas of what is considered acceptable, pure, or “normal.” Within that context the music video feels like a portrait of growing up surrounded by constant performances of masculinity and trying to imitate them, while never fully seeing yourself reflected back within them.

The feeling of carrying the weight of who you are expected to become and the understanding that acceptance may only come if you remain within those boundaries, instead of breaking away from them connects the mustache scene really well. It in fact made a huge impression on me too. To me, it feels almost symbolic of maturation and the pressure to “become” a man according to social expectations while still feeling emotionally disconnected from what that transformation is supposed to mean because of the way society has shaped it. It pictures the strange experience of looking at yourself and recognizing something deeper within you that others either cannot see or refuse to acknowledge.

This is why the video reminds me so incredibly much of Monster. Both works explore queerness through the perspective of someone who feels out of place long before they fully understand why. In Monster, Minato and Yori’s relationship is constantly misinterpreted by the adults around them who are turning innocence into something suspicious, simply because it has only existed of social norms. Heaven and Hell carries the same message: the loneliness of standing outside the collective and watching others fit naturally into roles and spaces that feel inaccessible to you. In this protagonists boy’s case, the role to be a free dancer and being in the space with the other unified men.

Daniel’s line “like a child, purity is the way” kinda hit me more from a societal standpoint. The question of where “corruption” is actually located and how one is pure simply trying to exist honestly before everything gets defined for them from the outside by force. In this context impurity doesn’t come from who someone is but from what gets added onto them, like social pressure, judgment, and the meanings others project onto them.

By the end of both narratives there is a sense of acceptance and freedom, the realization that home and solace is not found in forcing yourself into the majority but in existing honestly alongside others, even after spending so long feeling alienated from them.

The ending of the MV suggests that true freedom comes from breaking away from the expectations imposed onto you and allowing yourself to exist honestly, as you are, beside the people you love. The final scenes of the two boys running together capture this idea perfectly. As previously mentioned, not as an act of rebellion, but as a quiet and powerful liberation. As if the biggest and most important form of freedom you can possibly grant yourself, is to allowing yourself to simply be.

I loved this music video deeply. It left a lasting mark on me along with a few tear stains on my cheeks. I’ve had my fan card laminated since long ago. But this truly solidified my relationship with the band’s craft even more.

[dearwaves]

Play with Earth, the sense of unity & Margiela

At the Play with Earth 2024 Seoul concert, Daniel explained that the band dressed as “doctors” to heal the audience through their performance, mirroring the healing they themselves receive from their fans.

That meaning completely flew over my head at first and my immediate thought was much less philosophical: Margiela!

As someone who has spent some time studying the brand’s philosophy, the white coats instantly reminded me of Martin Margiela’s atelier uniforms.

Through that lens the reference took an added layer to the concert concept for me: the kind of a collective uniform & mutual participation. I felt like it suggested a space where healing “circulates” from the artist to the audience and from audience back to the artist, dissolving the boundary between one another. I later also noticed the garments were constructed using up cycled Margiela pieces stitched directly into the coats. To me this choice speaks volumes about the band’s creative vision. The teamwork between them and their creative representatives is always such a bliss to witness and I especially loved how this one aligned with sustainability and intentional reuse. It feels on brand for wave to earth as their name simply already feels organic

Fashion and music are always in conversation and seeing wave to earth consciously engage in that dialogue while embedding not only emotional but also environmental significance into their work is so interesting especially knowing some members and their creative staff engage with fashion on a deeper level.

Speaking of emotional significance I’ve always loved that Margiela’s original use of the white coat was rooted in the idea of collective work privileging the idea of “we” over “me.” The coat became a physical manifestation of that philosophy, it dissolved individual authorship into shared creation and in a similar way wave to earth’s own identity feels born from collectivity since Daniel (who seems to be keen on Margiela…and very much is) was first a part of the project “We Are Not 0.00” and from that shared origin the name “wave to earth” eventually emerged as if the band itself came to life through the language of “we” before “me”. The musical dynamic between the band especially in performance is probably the strongest testament to this shared philosophy.

That’s basically what made this imagery linger for me and why I loved writing about it. I loved the feeling of seeing a shared space where care, creativity, and community moved in every direction at once all while paying a quiet and passive homage to fashion. Probably my favorite moment since their styling have become more polished and refined.

[dearwaves]

See you space cowboy — in the oddity space

Cowboy Bebop has been a huge part of my life since long ago and I even consider it one of the greatest animes to come out in the 90’s. Or to ever come out actually. Not only it had a huge impact on me but the entire animation scene and pop culture; it crossed borders, genres, and audiences in ways few series had before. Just the phrase “see you, space cowboy” evokes something in me that i cant even decipher and has been widely used across many cultures and fandoms and as I have the habit to interconnect my favorite hobbies and interests I decided to share my thoughts on why the album ‘Anomalies in the oddity space’ reminds me of cowboy bebop so much. This album also came out at a very specific period of my life when I was dealing either with insane lows or insane highs and it helped me overcome it just like Cowboy Bebop did in the earlier stages of my teens.

this is just a subjective opinion and doesn’t have to apply to reality even tho I’ve peeped daniel, the songwriter and producer, owning the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack vinyl lol

Anomalies in the oddity space (atos) feels like a cosmic cousin to Cowboy Bebop to me. Both drift through huge and unpredictable spaces with a mismatched crew of outcasts who stay true to themselves - laughing through mishaps and finding beauty in the in between moments of their lives. Every track is like a mini episode; a journey through joy, sadness, and absurdity, kinda like Bebop’s space adventures. Both live in liminal spaces; the quiet between gunfights and the loud between silences - just like The Poles’ tracklist on this EP. Bebop’s jazzy, ‘noir’ space western vibes and Atos’ textured rather punchier rock meet in their themes of wandering, togetherness and the bittersweet pull of the unknown spaces.

Music in media isn’t just -in the background-, it’s always part of the story, and in my opinion if Yoko Kanno paints Bebop with jazz, funk, and blues, The band does it with a rock like parallel universe,

in short, it’s like as if you were to flip the Bebop vinyl onto it’s b-side.

The first kicker of the idea that the EP and the series could be connected in my mind was the spacey aesthetic and vibe the visuals gave off and also the song titles…at first I thought the album was a little tribute to Bowie (ref. to his song space oddity/daniel’s flash tattoo, the british slang-ey lyrics), but Niel debunked that so I thought…you know what….why not just come up with my own interpretation of the album to shake off the embarrassment of getting something related to my favorite band (that I’ve studied so hard) wrong…and so here I ended up lol.

The official visualizer has crowns, which also reminded me of Jean M. Basquiat after peeping Niel’s Basquiat tattoo on his arm. His work’s all about identity, rebellion, and fragmented worlds, and it fits Atos and Bebop perfectly: the album is all about messy, playful, defiant mischievous maybe even naive energy while drifting through chaos, in both – highs or lows. Life in Atos, like Basquiat’s art is a bunch of improvised moments, holding onto small joys even when everything’s unpredictable…like all trials are already behind the characters, so future setbacks feel almost insignificant as long as they remain united and true to themselves and their identity.

Bebop’s vibe is kind of gritty and lived in with smoky bars, neon lights, and all the leftover human drama and stories. basquiat’s messy, chaotic style just fits with that world, it’s wild but also kinda just makes sense. putting crowns in the visualizer, it gave me a message that the poles might be connecting their music to that same energy and rebelliousness and confidence, like how the bebop crew does their own thing and sticks to their own codes while floating through a crazy, unpredictable universe.

Underneath the cool exterior, both Atos and Bebop are about fleeting, connections and shared adventures. the poles’ chemistry is like bebop’s crew: playful, tight, resilient and sometimes it reminds me of that kind of energy that spike spiegel, the main face of the show has, very cool and relentless.

Life in both is drifting, moving through the unknown, making the best of it, and keeping it all crowned.

Not just the visuals, but the lyrics really hit that bounty hunter vibe of cowboy bebop for me. Tue song space kids grabbed my attention before I even fully listened to it or got all the lyrics. Lines like “countless planets unknown,” “fuel might run out,” and “universe became ours” feel like the Bebop crew hopping from one weird journey to the next, never really safe, always chasing the next adventure, encountering danger and chaos and just rolling with it because well, as long as they’re together, they can overcome anything.

“in a flash, we’re surrounded, but fear not… we’ll persevere” feels exactly like Spike, Jet, and Faye getting ambushed mid job and somehow rocking with it. There’s also this weirdly romanticized, resilient attitude: “that’s just our way of life” is basically living on the edge, dealing with crap, but somehow finding freedom in it. Underneath all the humor there’s this melancholy vibe too, not knowing when fuel’s gonna run out or when life might just hit you, accepting the lows in your life and living through them, it’s so similar to Bebop’s bittersweet tone, where everyone carries their past and story with them, which isn’t always the most happiest one. some of the lyrics also capture joy in chaos: “doesn’t matter, let’s sing and dance until we’re spent” is basically just spike spiegel philosophy “whatever happens, happens”.

Little everyday mishaps like “blimey, woke up, bumped me noggin” feel exactly like life on the Bebop, cool but humorous at the same time. Even tho this was rather daniel’s effort of coming up with brit-like slang-ish lyrics since he’s mentioned taking a lot of inspiration from british bands in the past lol…and another example of what just really cemented this album as very cowboy bebop esque in my mind is the “countless planets unknown” line, which hit that classic imagery and plot of the show: a crew wandering the galaxy, laughing, struggling, chasing bounties, and somehow finding warmth and connection in all the chaos because they’re together.

Basically if Spike, Basquiat’s painting and this album all got stuck in the same spaceship and timeline, this is what it would feel like - to me at least…what ultimately ties them all together is this weird, spacey, kinda bittersweet vibe?…the way they just roll with chaos, find little bits of joy, and somehow remind you that even in the weirdest, most unpredictable places, life can still be pretty beautiful and worthy of withstanding all the hardships that get thrown at you as long as you accept that being surrounded by those who you love and those who love you back, are your ultimate power.

Did I just win the niche olympics?

[dearwaves]

with rings and knots,

wave to earth, 0.1 flaws and all.

Something that’s always caught my eye is the visuals representing a musical release. This one’s in particular catching my attention the most since I consider this the band’s most “well curated” era at the time.

Wave to earth has always been going for a minimalistic style which I always thought was very on brand for them. I love the imagery of things they often mention in their music included in their graphic designs, though the visual direction for f&all felt the most cohesive to me, at least since their debut.

When the album came outI wondered what the cover was, it reminded me of a tree, and as someone who’s been supporting the band for a good while now, I wanted to connect the dots so that I can understand their artistry to the fullest.

The first thing I thought was wood; a tree, a branch, or maybe even a piece of driftwood. It made me think of Daniel talking about how he grew up surrounded by nature and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a hand in designing this with Seungki–turns out he actually did. There’s something about the texture of wood that feels really personal, at least to me. The knots, uneven grain and flaws make each piece unique. The band’s artistry revolving around human-ness, dark or light, flawed or not, and this album’s title being “Flaws and All” made me think about how despite all it’s imperfections, it still holds together and has it’s quiet way of enduring. It also carries this little feeling of time passing, growth and change and compared to something cold like metal or plastic, wood just feels warmer and more human-like? It tells a certain story of how we shape things and get shaped in return as people.

wave to earth is a band, using instruments that are primarily made out of wood or have important parts that are made out of wood. All wooden instruments have a unique charm because their sound comes from a living material. As instruments get played they eventually get worn down or even damaged, carrying the history of every note and every performance in their marks and scratches. Some even choose to get their instruments relic’d, as the instruments looks like it has it’s own story to tell, personal preferences though.

you could apply this as an easy example to the bodies of guitars and how overtime they get scratched, sometimes even on the pick guard, or drumsticks with marks where the drummer hits them.

There’s a quote I really love by a renowned guitarist and guitar maker. It highlights the natural elements involved in crafting instruments and draws a beautiful connection between human touch and the instrument itself. To me it perfectly captures the spirit of wave to earth and the essence of this album:

“Tonewoods—the types of wood used to make instruments—are fascinatingly complex, much like people. No two pieces of wood are exactly the same, even if they come from the same tree. Factors like where the tree grew, its age, how its rings formed, and how the wood was dried all affect how the wood sounds. Plus, every guitar maker works with tonewoods differently, so each instrument ends up with its own unique voice.”

At this point I was certain about what message the album cover is supposed to convey, but there was one more thing that left questions marks in my mind, and that is the usage of chairs in their art but not only that, it was the chair tattoo on Daniel’s arm that was the main kicker for all the questions I had.

I was left hanging for a bit but a bit after the album release Daniel shared his own perspective in an interview. It didn’t answer all my questions but it for sure made me think about what type of art I consume and from what place it originates from

This article left me with a lingering feeling after reading it. It made me reflect on how something so beautiful and healing is actually something painful for the creator, considering Daniel has mentioned this painful factor of creating music many times. What I appreciated the most was the raw vulnerability and honesty he put in this statement.

To me, raw honesty and integrity from an artist are the most important things, it reflects in all art and creates a certain connection and relationship with the listeners. Personally I think the relationship wave to earth have created with their fans should not be taken for granted. It’s something very beautiful and raw, especially hearing and seeing it in their music. Their music feels less like a product and more like a release of the soul. Always raw, unfiltered, and deeply human. It’s the kind of expression the world seems to be missing most right now. And it’s a place that I’ll always keep going back to solely because of this.

One last thing about my favorite part of connecting wood to wave to earth’s craft is how all of them like interior. I mostly noticed they tend to gravitate to wooden furniture, at least Daniel and John judging based on their own spaces. I love seeing those I idolize take on the same interests as me, it makes me feel more seen and motivated to keep pursuing my secret passions…kind of silly

Music & wood/wooden furniture, just like us people come from a place of human effort; they start as raw materials, whether it’s sound or wood and are shaped by people and their environment through care, time, and skill. There’s something important in how both are made by hand, refined through experience, and infused with emotion. They’re not just objects or sounds that exist in the background, but they become a part of our everyday lives as they hold stories and a kind of presence that grows with us over time, especially for musicians and people who’s lives are infused with music, we live with them and they quietly shape our spaces and experiences.

I love how everything about this album feels so thoughtful and detailed, perfect from A-Z, such an amazing piece of cohesive work, yet so vulnerable, flawed and human. I’ll have a hard time finding a piece of art more meaningful to me, something that’s taught me more important lessons and something that’s given me more beautiful words than what the band has given me up until now.

I’m excited to see where will these experiences lead wave to earth and their approach to future projects and I’ll forever remember this era of theirs as one the most important turning points in my life.

This album has become my absolute solace and I’m happy that it’s also the people who made it that I can look up to and learn from.