SOMA Magazine SOMA Film and Music Issue Aug 15 | Page 76

Music

California Wives
text by NoelaNi Piters

The band California Wives may hail from Chicago, but there is
no doubt that a golden state-of-mind exists within their music.
Art History, their 2012 debut album, brims with new wave vibes of
buoyant synth and lilting melodies. This time around, their latest
EP, Heavy—released on vinyl July 23rd—hits home with a new
marriage of substantial guitar riffs and meditative lyrics. The
two records focus on the throes of youth and the self-questioning that accompanies adulthood. Lead vocalist and keyboardist
Jayson Kramer left a potential medical career in 2009 to pursue
music professionally, so it’s no wonder his muse dwells in that
period of extreme change and possibility.
California Wives comprises Kramer, guitarist Graham Masell,
and drummer Joe O’Connor. Kramer has been busy these last few
years—amidst the EP, he has started the label HOMHOMHOM
Records with some high school buddies, and is soon hitting
the studio to record the next full-length album with his fellow
Wives. Early on a Monday morning, Kramer talked to SOMA
about the band’s evolving sound and his own musical comingof-age process.
74

What was the process of making your newest
record, Heavy?
Things wer