WALKEN // Five Seasons In One Day

When we covered Walken’s debut EP What’s Your Environment? not too long ago, it was clear that this Brissy act was not just another slacker rock band to wear their local influences on their sleeves like many in their alt scene.

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While it was clear that Walken are cut from the Violent Soho cloth, what they produced with their influences was a fresh take on the modern sounds that highlight what makes the alternative scene so exciting. Walken have certainly carved out their own lane by covering a diverse range of styles but fueling all the performances with their distinct character and noticeably heavy tone.

The band are fully aware of their genre-hopping habit, and how it’s displayed on this five-track release. They explain it’s intention, with the goal in mind to be a mini-concept release, as a result particular influences that achieve a similar thing.

“It’s like a half baked concept EP in a way. It’s not fully realised but it’s kind of there. The whole thing was when we were writing initially, I was going through a huge Regurgitator phase. Unit, that specific album was a huge influence for the EP. It’s kind of why it jumps around a bit genre wise. That’s the whole basis of the EP, which is a difference in genre take or a different sub genre take and a weird blend of stuff per song. An individual emotion or feeling per song as well.”

 I was going through a huge Regurgitator phase. Unit, that specific album was a huge influence for the EP.
[ Matt ]

They go on to explain their aim to not just create 5 different sounding songs as a showoff of versatility in saying that “We just wanted to make it as cohesive as possible while still jumping around the spectrum as much as we can”.

Walken successfully have created a grower with What’s Your Environment?, a release with instantly gratifying elements but when given time, the subtler aspects of the creative songwriting gradually rise and shine through. It’s a tactic that they’re aware is what makes their influences so special in saying “We like those artists even if the music seems like it could be a bit simple or easily digestible on the forefront, you can listen to it for six months and still find layers that you didn’t realise or lines that you didn’t realise have double context.” – however its commendable for an act to execute such a musical goal.

Listen To WALKEN On Hysteria Radio Here.

This EP took 6 months under construction, but for reasons beyond creating just songs, the band wanted to go that extra mile in crafting a grander artistic statement with the physical format of the record, “It’s taken ages to get it out. It’s been in the works for two years, off and on recording. All the artwork concepts and all that sort of crap. It’s very rewarding to have it finally out.”.

They sound passionate when justifying their venture for a larger visual undertaking; “I just hate when bands have a great, really good album of songs and then you can just tell when it came to releasing it in a physical format that it did not put half the effort into it. Like why would you half ass it? Why have you gone to that much effort to make the songs as good as you want, it just doesn’t make sense to me.”

This multi-faceted, genre-melding EP is the real deal, the sound of two years’ worth of writing/recording/designing. As stated by the band “It’s the Chinese democracy of EPs”, but good of course.

You can purchase What’s Your Environment? here.