This week’s Artist of the Week goes to Inner Wave.

Blending a mix of psychedelia, funk, and surf rock, Inner Wave first started making music over a decade ago with founding members Pablo Sotelo on guitar and vocals, Elijah Trujillo on guitar, and Jean Pierre Narvaez on bass and vocals. In more recent years, the band has expanded to a five-piece group to include Drummer Luis Portillo and Jose Cruz on keyboards.

Inner Wave is based in Los Angeles, which is fitting because the majority of their music evokes cheerful moods and conjures up sunny, laidback vibes. To date, Inner Wave has released four studio albums, starting with III in 2013 and leading to the most recent record, Apoptosis, which was released in September 2021. Prior to the release of Apoptosis, Inner Wave faced many of the struggles and dark times that many musicians faced as the pandemic hit— they had tours canceled and a cloud of uncertainty looming over their next moves. Ultimately, the band persevered and came out of the lowest part of the pandemic in a stronger position. Sotelo says that they reverted back to being very hands on, like they were for the first 11 years of being a band. “Now I feel very confident: we’re like a musical tank,” he says.

The fourth album was recorded over two weeks in which Inner Wave quarantined at the studio True Sound, where Cruz also lived at the time. “Apoptosis is a biological term for the death of cells, which occurs as a normal and controlled part of an organism’s growth or development. Basically, it’s when your body lets certain cells die so that new healthy cells can grow,” Sotelo explains. “It was indicative of what we had just gone through this whole year, with losing a member, losing management, losing a tour, shows, losing friends, losing almost everything. And then starting from the ground up.”

It’s been over a year now since that album’s release, but Inner Wave is currently on tour with Foals, and I’m very much looking forward to hearing some of those songs live. If you’re in Chicago, you can catch them at The Vic on December 2nd and 3rd, or view the rest of their tour dates here.