Start Listening To: wonderbug
With their infectious music and heartfelt lyrics, wonderbug invites listeners on a journey through the highs and lows of life in a bustling city.
wonderbug is an indie band hailing from London. The group consists of Edie, Ben, Ollie, Otto. Their music features catchy melodies paired with introspective lyrics, exploring themes of love, friendship, and the complexities of modern life. With a dynamic live presence and a focus on raw emotion. Their new single, “What a Waste of Time” is a deliciously defiant blend of lovelorn lyricism that sparks the soul while making you want to dance. Their writing reflects the tangled emotions of love and longing - cathartic yet playful, angry yet tender. But beyond the music, it's the band’s personal dynamics, birth and marriage ties, that fuel their creative fire, making their art feel like a shared heartbeat. As we gear up for their debut EP, Scrap set to drop on November 8th, the wonderbug crew took some time to chat with us about their influences, aspirations, and the delightful messiness of life that seeps into their songs.
For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
Edie: We are wonderbug. we’re all from London and we make music.
Ben: It gives guitar with some nice singing. genre: garden fuzz fusion pop.
Your new single ‘what a waste of time’ has a mix of lovelorn lyricism and fuzzed-up defiance. How did the song come together, and what does it represent for the band?
Edie: Our writing process usually starts with twangs from the guitar, sometimes it sticks, sometimes it doesn’t, in this case as soon as Ollie started shouting ‘oh what a waste of time’ we thought it was jokes and it stuck. From there it was just a case of adding layers. It went from a silly song to this angry expression of love and longing.
Ollie: It was cathartic.
With all of you growing up together in West London and being related by birth or marriage, how does that personal dynamic influence your music and creative process?
Edie: It’s allowed us to all be vulnerable and open with the music and each other. Ben and Ollie’s wedding was such a special day for all of us <3
Ollie: Having my cousin Otto with me is important.
Ben: Makes it easy and natural for sure.
You describe 'what a waste of time' as finding joy in impermanence and moving on. What was the personal or collective experience that inspired this message?
Ollie: I think it’s the culmination of a lot of experiences we’ve had growing up in London. it’s a lonely place, we’ve been thrown around by working to live whilst attempting to balance interpersonal relationships.
Ben: It’s realising you gain something from every experience, even if you’re telling yourself it was all for nothing in the heat of the moment. Gotta realise eventually that you’ve grown cos of it.
Your debut EP scrap is coming out soon, and it explores themes of love, doubt, and the search for purpose. Were there any particular moments in your lives that shaped these themes?
Ben: Being romantic at the core brings vulnerability and hurt within and after so many modern relationships
Edie: For me scrap is really about realising that I don’t have the answers and I probably never will. There are real stories of failed romance, social anxiety and self acceptance told within the songs. However, this EP is as much about romantic love as it is about friendship. Romantic failures are something you can - in time - move on from but the loss of a best friend is far worse, it’s something that sticks with you for a long, long time.
The band’s sound balances raw emotion with stripped-back production. How do you approach finding that balance in the studio, especially when working with producer Yuri Shibuichi?
Ben: We've known Yuri for years, collaborating on different projects in the past, the mighty buich is wonderbug’s secret hidden member in many ways.
Ollie: We always had Yuri in mind when writing these songs. so, having him come into the rehearsals and discuss each song was really important to emphasise the live elements of songs that we enjoy.
You’ve shared stages with up-and-coming indie acts like The Orchestra (For Now) and Bug Teeth. How has playing in the London grassroots scene shaped the band’s growth?
Otto: We love the Windmill! Thinking of moving in.
Ollie: There are some really good bands we’ve been lucky to play with in London; TOFN are sick.
Ben: Everyone is out and about writing this next surge of great guitar music, these other new bands in London are friends and some we idolise big time. I’m really into Goodbye at the moment - not a London band but played with us at the Windmill recently.
Edie: Shared creative spaces keep this grassroots thing alive, our special space in Peckham Rye has birthed everything you hear/see.
‘Scrap’ feels like a deeply personal release, from Edie Chesters’ soaring vocals to the understated production. How important is vulnerability in your songwriting and performances?
Edie: I’m a big advocate for crying, I think you can write a lot better about what you know if you’ve processed your feelings properly. For me it’s also about being a woman, knowing that you are both enough and not too much.
Ben: It's an anxious ever-changing experience in the city for us - understanding that is the first step to managing it. our music should feel introspective and we want every live experience to feel intimate, we have the same thoughts and emotions you do when you hear our songs.
With your debut single ‘hiding in plain sight’ in 2022 and now a full EP coming, how has the band’s sound and vision evolved over the last few years?
Ben: We still resonate strongly with that early release, in many ways it's our hidden gem. it exposes our steady side and will always be the start of wonderbug for us all.
Ollie: We’ve evolved a lot as people in that time. We've been exposed to so many great bands from gigging around. It feels like our sound is growing in tandem with a lot of music coming out of London and Brighton.
You’ve been described as indie-grunge, but what other influences—musical or otherwise—are you drawing on to shape the sound and identity of wonderbug?
Ollie: I really enjoy the culture around 90s/00s grungey music from the west coast.
Edie: Punk and psychedelic shizzle for me but also got that bedroom pop soft spot. Currently listening to a lot of The Beth’s & The Lemon Twigs.
Ben: Bit of soft rap like 2nd Exit, Summers Sons. love 90s shoegaze - give me Slowdive and MBV. American indie/jangle like Real Estate and Frankie Cosmos.
Ollie: Think we’re all influenced by a variety of music & art,
What do you love right now?
Ollie: Mathias Jensen
Edie: Monopoly Deal
Ben: Lidl trainers
What do you hate right now?
Ollie: Disc golf. Shit sport.
Edie: The ballet flats fashion trend.
Otto: Air hockey tables that don’t work.
Ben: My relationship status.
Name an album you’re still listening to from when you were younger and why it’s still important to you?
Ollie: Next Thing - Frankie Cosmos. I love how raw it feels, both lyrically & melodically.
Otto: Songs for the deaf by QOTSA. It’s important for my air drumming practice.
Ben: Halcyon Digest - Deerhunter. felt like it had real meaning and emotion shifts across the album.
Edie: I, Gemini - Lets Eat Grandma. it’s such a fantastical world, I wanna live there.
With your EP scrap set to drop on 8th November, what do you hope listeners take away from it, and how do you see wonderbug’s journey unfolding from here?
Ollie: I hope people come & see us live in ‘25 ;)
