play with earth! 0.03 – On needing to come back to earth even when we are down-to-earth

wave to earth’s shorter EPs focus on themes linked to nature and the elements, with the songs within each album often resembling a series of paintings. The evocative quality of their lyricism and sound always paints a picture or a scene in your mind when you listen to it! 

Their previous two EPs, ‘wave 0.01’ and ‘summer flows 0.02’ were themed around fire and water respectively. ‘wave 0.01’ expresses entering the world with a burning sense of curiosity. Songs like ‘gold’ and ‘bird’ about finding one’s place in the world express this desire to find oneself and were a bold and glowing introduction to wave to earth. ‘summer flows 0.02,’ then, takes on a more contemplative theme as it reflects on the waves of life while floating through the sea. After this, I see ‘play with earth! 0.03’ as sharing two earthly themes. The first is about remaining down-to-earth, while the second is about coming back to earth after burning out in search of something more. In all, it’s about grounding oneself. The songs evoked these earthy sounds and images for me – I could usually envision a vast expanse of land with a calm breeze blowing over it for most of the songs. Overall, the album seemed to show how it can feel to dream big dreams and then the struggle of learning to let them go as they may evade you in this increasingly demanding world.

The album opens with ‘are you bored?’ an ambient track that embodies the title with its lazy, lethargic feel. The saxophone is really prominent in this track and I loved how it added to the relaxing vibe of the song! The similar, repetitive melodies add to the feeling of lazing around, not having much to do. It’s an easy and calming introduction to the album – it was slightly different to wave to earth’s usual sound and really let us focus on their instrumental capabilities and the way their ensemble fits together. In a way, this track is their ‘earth,’ the ground or foundation they stand on, as they introduce us to this earth-themed album.

The next track is almost an answer to the previous song: are you bored? then, play with earth! This answer to the boredom of the previous song is seen in the fun and groovy sound of this one. ‘play with earth!’ opens with the feeling of being out of place in the regular world: “our days are so long/feels like we don’t belong/just leave this world behind/we’ve still got so much to feel.” With this track, wave to earth dive into describing what it’s like being part of a demanding materialist and capitalist society. Being part of the constant hustle and grind expected of you, one can feel drained and out of place. When the singer feels this way, they leave behind the oppressive pressures society places on them. Instead, they embrace the joy of being in touch with the nature that sustains us all – “playing with the earth/in this endless glow.” 

In a materialist and capitalist society, limits on resources, money, consumption, effort and time are all considered as endless as the desire for economic growth. Thus, everyone is told to work endlessly, to earn endless money and consume endlessly, beyond one’s needs and beyond the Earth’s capacity. The societal idea of success is always having the peak of opulence and excess, and we lose touch with the happiness that comes from simplicity. wave to earth describe dreams inspired by this very simplicity – “The shimmer of the waves/ Echoes like our dreams and/ We just embrace the flow.” They dream of experiencing and thriving in the world around them to the fullest, without losing themselves in pursuing big dreams that are often temporary, unsustainable and unattainable as the world grows ever more difficult to live in. This song expresses their belief in being grounded and down-to-earth – rather than losing themselves in a race to the top of the ladder, they see themselves being in touch with the Earth they live on, remembering the beauty of what sustains them and not losing themselves in purely human pursuits. In the second verse, they explore a sense of FOMO at having left behind the materialistic human world – “the crazy days without us.” They watch others get ahead and maybe even achieve material success. But they realise “no one cares about us/So we just dance.” In a world that hyperfocuses on individual success through money, community, kindness and a human touch are lost. People do not often see the beauty of the simple things when they work their lives away without even a moment for themselves or their loved ones. A society that promises glory through this endless work and consumerism is, thus, unfeeling – it doesn’t care about you, so what are you truly missing if you leave it behind? They thus dance and enjoy their time experiencing the beauty of the trivial found in nature.  

‘play with earth!’ thus almost seems like a theme song for the band, showing their approach to life and their art. They just go with the flow and enjoy their time on earth with its beauty as long as they can. Their values, much like this song, preach simplicity, love and care for the world they live in. They are often seen reusing the same outfits, sharing each other’s clothes and shopping vintage or second-hand clothing and furniture. Bassist John Cha often talks of living simply and minimally, while songwriter Daniel Kim often focuses his lyrics on the value of friendship, love and connection in one’s life. Thus, wave to earth’s belief in friendship and connection while renouncing excess and materialism is notable in their manner and throughout the rest of this album. 

‘annie.’ continues with this theme of renouncing materialism and excess in favour of living simply in an environment that comforts you. The title “annie.” is chosen cleverly – it had everyone wondering who this mystery girl could be, seeming like wave to earth would be describing some kind of ideal person or dream relationship. However, “annie.” spins off the Korean word for ‘no’ [아니, ani] and encourages us to say ‘no’ to anything that promises glory and success at the expense of our sense of self. As wave to earth gain more and more recognition, it’s natural that they are offered the promise of excess and opulence like “jewels” and “fancy parties.” However, they reinforce the need to maintain a down-to-earth nature. They stay grounded in their roots and reject these offers, feeling as though they don’t fit in with these things. They admit that giving up these things that everyone is told to dream of could be perceived as a strange choice (“you’d call me a loser/Why won’t you compromise?”). But they are tired of shallow, material glory that will take away their ability to live a life where they can learn and grow with the people around them: “Fuck you, I am saying/ ‘No, I wanna stay with no subtle change…’” 

I really loved the transition into the chorus. Daniel’s aggressive tone on “Fuck you” was such a shock – it was so unconventional to hear this soft-spoken singer with his famously gentle voice shout out curses like this! His delivery perfectly achieves the intended impact though. The first part of the song sounds resigned and sad (the piano reminded me of Billy Joel’s ‘Vienna’), as though the singer is complaining that they don’t belong with big names, they hate fancy parties, maybe they’re just a loser. They then switch up completely to say, “fuck you” – “fuck you” for offering me all this fake glory constantly, trying to take away my ability to grow as a person and learn from experiencing the vast world around me. “Fuck you” for assuming everyone aspires for a life working for fame and excess at the expense of their own passions and creativity. The angry “fuck you” is accompanied by the initially mellow music and rhythms picking up at the chorus. 

The second verse is also poignant, describing losing oneself in the pursuit of this so-called glory. When you are told all your life that the only way to success is to study hard and then get a well-paying 9-to-5 job that saps most of your energy and time all day for the rest of your life, you may feel like you are “losing [you] to hold a smile, just to bear it all.” You need to do this for the far-fetched long-haul dream of success, but where do you, your likes, passions, and dreams fall within the mix? Where is your creativity, your time to rest and relax, when you barely have a few hours to yourself at the end of each day? Many people who get caught in this corporate race eventually feel drained and burned out – they feel like they have lost themselves and forgotten who they are in the pursuit of what they are told is happiness. They lose themselves to bear the weight of capitalism and the effort it takes to survive in this society. 

Thus, people realise they can’t “fail, compromise and lose [themselves],” constantly making room for the future and the expectations of others at the expense of their current life wasting away before them. They decide that “boy, I’m gonna smile” – they will be happy on their own regardless of being offered a glimmer of success at the end of the road at the expense of their own self-awareness, creativity and growth. “Fuck you, I am saying no,” to all of this. The song ends by urging the listener to also “say no” when they feel that they are being ‘compromised,’ when asked “why won’t [they] compromise” for the promise of money, fame, success and glory. ‘annie.’ explains how wave to earth and the listeners should stay down-to-earth, grounding us away from dreams that, sadly, are now too difficult to reach in today’s demanding and increasingly unequal society. So, not dreaming of intense and draining labour to get to ‘fame’ and ‘glory’ does not make you a ‘loser.’ wave to earth ground us in the reality that success is lived “with no subtle change” and “no lies.” It is in authenticity, discomfort and learning to grow and change as you live different experiences in life. Yes, it may not mean having a big house and going to fancy parties, but you will have love and a belief in yourself to keep you going through everything. 

Previously released as a single, ‘pueblo’ finally finds a home on this album! The remastered version is beautiful and sounds crisper. The added instrumentals and harmonies add more to the forlorn and lost feeling this song embodies. The constant rhythms embody the steadiness of a long journey, as though accompanying someone trudging along through nothingness. The melodies are also reminiscent of a hot desert road with the sun beating down. Where ‘annie.’ is a decision to prioritise oneself and one’s dreams and growth over an environment that forces one to stagnate, ‘pueblo’ moves on to implementing this decision and leaving behind this restrictive, unchanging environment – but also shows how difficult it is to do so when it’s the only thing you’ve ever known. 

The song opens confidently:

“Before the day I leave this town

I’m gonna burn all my places
And throw away all my memories here
Then I’m going away

I’ll never get lost
I’m sure there’s a lot of fun out there.” 

The singer is certain about leaving behind their current environment. They want to completely forget it ever existed and erase any evidence of being part of it. They are sure leaving is the best choice and seem to know exactly where they’re headed. The chorus, sung the first time, describes the town the singer leaves behind: “there’s nothing left/streets full of ruins and rubbish/I walk a little longer and lie down/Is there anywhere else I can go?” Here, the question at the end is rhetorical: the obvious answer, to the singer, is that there is nowhere else to go seeing as they see no prospects for themselves in this town they leave behind. 

However, as the journey continues, the singer begins to face doubts and artistically describes the dilemma they face in the second verse. As their first day away from home comes to an end with the sunset, the singer watches the sun set while the moon rises in the sky and is not sure if it was the right choice to leave things behind. Unable to choose between the glaring sun of their past that tried to take away their dreams and sense of enjoyment, and the fickle moon of the now uncertain future that they face alone, they make fire of their own, trying to comfort themselves with a new kind of light and gain courage from within to move on to the future. While in the previous pre-chorus, the singer was sure “I’ll never get lost,” now, they are confused – “where should I go? Please tell me, what should I do?” They wonder what the next step is for them, where the path they chose truly leads to. Now that they are alone, they are not as determined as they were earlier when confronted with the reality of the vast, unending journey through the earth before them. The chorus, sung the second time, is now desperate rather than confident. Daniel’s voice sounds sadder and more desolate that the town is covered with “ruins and rubbish.” He now asks, genuinely and desperately, “Is there anywhere else I can go?” He seeks the sense of comfort that he used to find in the town he left. He knows he can’t go back, but doesn’t want to face the long road on his own now, an equally fearful prospect. The song ends in further desperation – “How long do I have to walk down this street? Is there anywhere else I can go?” The singer feels this journey is unending, trying to escape this environment that constrains them and holds them back – they wonder if it’s really possible to escape at all, or if they are destined to be stuck here forever. 

Taking your life into your own hands for the first time and making the choice to let go of beliefs and systems that have supported you and been all you have ever known is a double-edged sword. It starts out feeling great – you feel confident and ready to take on the world, proud that you have discovered who you are and where you want to go. But as you trudge down this path, often on your own, challenges start to come up and make you question your own beliefs and dreams. Desiring independence, both financially and socially, at a young age is very common – young people these days often dream of having their own small apartment to rent alone in a cosy city with good food and friends around. But as life grows ever more expensive and finding stability and community is ever more demanding, it’s almost as though one must trudge through the endless nothingness described in the town of ‘pueblo’ to reach the faraway something that is even the simplest of dreams. 

After ‘pueblo,’ the songs on the album shift from the theme of being down-to-earth to coming back to earth. ‘beck.,’ the next track, is based on the manga by the same name, but here I focus on it in context of the album to have a slightly different meaning. ‘beck.’ is a song of shame, of coming back to earth. In ‘play with earth!’, ‘annie.’ and ‘pueblo,’ the singer is determined to reject materialism, to live simply and pursue their own dreams, leaving behind a chaotic and demanding world that locks us into tiresome daily routines. However, ‘beck.’ is the singer’s shameful realisation that it’s idealist to try and completely escape a world that thrives on money – as it is the only road even to simple comforts. Realising this, the singer returns, dejectedly, back home, back to earth, possibly to the town they left behind in ‘pueblo.’

The first verse shows this realisation. The singer is “broke” and realised their dreams “weren’t big enough.” They thought they could survive meagerly on their own – but the truth is that money does buy happiness to some extent. It’s not easy to live comfortably or even modestly without having to compete, run and be part of capitalism for it. Thus, they are “so ashamed on [their] way back,” procrastinating by “play[ing] with the cats” and not wanting to face the “mess[y]” reality of having nothing when they return. They don’t want to go back, but they must – after all, there’s nowhere else to go, as they found in ‘pueblo.’ The singer recalls their failure to achieve their dreams. They have struggled so long to become someone who seeks to have the simple, they barely remember how to fit back into the world they rejected but now must return to. They can’t remember what drew them back home, if there is even something worth fighting for in the place they return to. However, they still hope for a sense of community in returning home – “just the thought of not being alone gets me through.” 

Indeed, the title of this song plays on the dichotomy between the words ‘beck’ and ‘back.’ The manga ‘Beck’ focuses on Japanese rock band Beck’s struggle to fame. The boys who formed the band had a rather average life before they dreamed of fame. This shows the desire to commit to the humanity and simplicity of art, of influencing others by creating it – rejecting traditional high-paying jobs and economic structures to instead discover one’s own feelings and express them to touch the hearts of others too. However, playing with the words ‘Beck’ and ‘back,’ the singer has to come back to earth, come back home – possibly on realising just how much one must struggle to achieve fame and gain recognition even to provide a sense of comfort and support to others through art. 

I saw this song as showing us how even the beauty of art and the community that can be found through it is somewhat corrupted by capitalism. Content grows shorter in this world and you have to scramble for people’s attention rather than appeal directly to their emotions. Making art is not considered economical although it is driven by the strongest of passions, and achieving dreams of simplicity and community is difficult when everything is now surrounded by financial constraints and an inhumane virtual aspect. It’s hard to separate even things like art and friendship that should ideally fall outside the realm of money and competition that dominate this society. But, one way or another, even youth who do not dream of work these days realise just how entwined everything is with money. In a way, it feels a bit shameful to have to re-evaluate your dreams and try to fit within a system you hate. It feels like giving up something close to you. Throughout, Daniel’s voice conveys this very sense of shame and dejectedness at his failure – the guitar solo at the end is almost like a breakdown as one accepts their shame at having failed, at realising there’s only one way to survive no matter the idealism of your dreams.

The pain and shame conveyed in ‘beck.’ then transitions into the mellow and contemplative melodies of ‘slow dive.’ Probably my favourite song on the album, its melodies evoke a water-like sound and give the feeling of floating in a lake while reminiscing about life. This song is like a moment of respite after returning home ashamed, beaten down by the harsh world after trying to survive it on idealism alone. It reminded me of scenes in fantasy movies where a hero is badly wounded after a fight and rests in a lake or pond to feel the water cool their injuries and their mind. Here, as the singer dives into the lake, away from the town of ruins and rubbish, they find some respite from their wandering and from the struggles they have faced in trying to confront a demanding world. While they find themselves fragmented (“pieces of my mind”), they slowly begin to see a very small sliver of hope (“Cause it turns me to light but it isn’t bright”). They struggle with reconciling their desire for simplicity and minimalism with a world that needs one to commit to struggling for money to ensure one’s survival and a good life. They feel that they are scattered and confused in trying to do this (“Can we just throw all of my pieces/Just don’t know how I can glue”). But at the same time, the learnings they have had were beautiful in some way and showed them something novel – possibly even about the place they were so keen to leave behind in ‘pueblo (“but it’s slow, slowly shines for a while/Feels like I can stay forever here”).’ They want to stay in this lake of limbo forever, just looking over their thoughts and being comforted in the waves of their own mind. 

There is a gap between the shattering of one’s idealism when confronted with the realities of how demanding capitalism is, and the time when one begins to engage with both idealism and capitalism once again. This is a period of realising that you need to find a way to work within the dominant system today to experience some degree of happiness and comfort in your life – that intermediate period where you let go of your idealist dreams, but try to work out how to reconcile and compromise with the demands of the world to make a life you dream of, is often relaxing and lets you learn a lot about yourself. That relaxation, contemplation and solitude is comforting enough to want to stay by it forever. 

The album ends with ‘holyland,’ which expresses the alternate emotion one could experience after realising the need to leave behind idealism and engage with capitalism – a sense of nostalgia and longing. Contrary to ‘pueblo,’ the singer now looks on the town they so wanted to leave behind as holy and regrets leaving it to pursue their dreams: “Been chasing my greed without you.” They then wish to go back to how things used to be, seeking comfort within what used to be their home and searching for the same reverence and solace they used to find within it.

“Can you settle down my soul?
Take me back to the days of old with you

Oh holyland

Watch your breeze take over me

Just like we used to be

Let me float in your arms

So come back to me” 

The next verse sounds as though the singer is lost in a daydream, reminiscing carefree times in their holy land. This first part of the song sounds very dreamy and nostalgic. You can almost feel the slow and gentle breeze that Daniel sings about here but also feel the sadness that most of the romance of the holyland is nonexistent. There’s nothing inherent in the land that makes it holy besides the singer’s memories of it and the romance they think has been left behind. This is bleakly realistic. Even in lands that many religions consider ‘holy,’ there was nothing inherently holy about any place before humans gave it such significance by associating it with something sacred. This can be to the comfort of many who seek solace in religion. Many Indigenous communities also protect nature in lands they consider holy, leaving it flourishing and pristine. However, historically, holy lands have also caused much war and destruction. When naming, inhabiting and using a holy land is done at the expense of other peoples or religions, excluding them and pushing them out to maintain holiness, a ‘holy land’ is probably no longer holy. Instead, it is filled with nothing but empty ideas of sacredness that it will now certainly not live up to in being used for discrimination. It’s thus interesting to think about how the value, romance, importance and holiness we see in a particular area comes from within ourselves. It can comfort us, but it can also set us back, exclude others, and force us to live in the past. 

Contrasting the dreamy and beautiful first half of the song is its powerful outro which seems to show the singer coming to terms with the fact that the holiness and beauty of this land is but their own illusion. They are torn between the comfort of nostalgia and the reality that their future looks bleak and there’s nothing before them in the so-called ‘holyland.’ They experience “peace on [their] eyelids,” which seems like the “peace” of the holyland is but a dream that will disappear when they open their eyes – as suddenly as the song’s sound changes from dreamy and nostalgic to loud, grating and painful. The singer also realizes “how vulnerable I’m in this land.” As they spend their days in their home languishing in nostalgia, they are also stuck in a limbo and a rut, they are not moving forward and changing as they wished to in ‘annie.’ They are vulnerable to the pain of being stuck in the past and in memories, and to never seeing a new version of themselves.

The play on the words “piece” and “peace” in the last two songs is very interesting. In ‘slow dive,’ “piece” is used to show how a sense of “peace” arises from your mind being in “pieces” of confusion. In ‘holyland,’ we see much the opposite – this imagined “peace” of the holyland gives way to a mind that is fragmented into “pieces.” And yet the word “peace” never features in ‘slow dive,’ and “piece” never in ‘holyland.’ These songs thus come together to intersect slightly as the album ends, showing how the mind can both hurt and heal itself by constructing illusions that we must break through.

The themes of this album deeply resonated with me and I always enjoy when tracklists are arranged in a way that tells an interesting story, as wave to earth so often do. I had a slightly different take on the story in this album, I’ll admit, but I suppose the things I’ve been thinking about of late reflected even in my favourite music for me. All the songs are so beautifully crafted and lived up perfectly to wave to earth’s evocative lyrical and musical quality with ever beautiful instrumentation. I’m grateful that I was able to watch the songs from ‘flaws and all’ and the previous albums performed live in concert (exactly 6 months ago today) and that in another 5 months, I will get the chance to see these wonderful new songs played before me in my home city and country! I look forward to the next (air-themed?) EP by wave to earth – may it blow us all away!