Willa Brown-
Waking Hours Q&A
By Willa Brown
Sitting in on the beginning of their practice, it was amusing to watch these band members interact; there was a mixture of shop talk, upcoming gig discussions, and witty jokes being tossed about. After the talking subsided and everything was plugged in, everybody happily disappeared into their own worlds to warm up. The four came back together to form their next show’s setlist, which provided a fun insight into the logic behind the finalized order. As soon as it was settled, they started in on their brand new song titled “slow dancing” and let me tell you: oh my GOD! The sound is all-encompassing in the absolute best way. There’s emotional belting, killer bass, delectable guitar, and superb drumming happening throughout.
If you’re looking for your new favorite band… look no further! This stellar group is a Gustavus student-filled band and has been rocking the music scene since 2022; they only have bigger and bolder plans from here. Hayden Tourtelotte (Lead Guitar), Liv Hedley (Vocals/Guitar), Conor Jolly (Bass), and Henry Lundeen-Detisch (Drums) make up the entirety of Waking Hours. If you haven’t succumbed to the epicness that is their band yet, this upcoming month is your chance! Keep reading to delve deeper into the members and how they think, as well as to hear about their upcoming shows that will sweep you off your feet!
Q: Who is your biggest musical inspiration, either as a band or as an individual player?
Liv: Recently, for sound, Slow Pulp is pretty far up there.
Hayden: Yeah, for sure. For me, in terms of writing guitar lines, I would say DIIV. In terms of confirming that we’re a valid sound that exists in the world, there’s a band called Mercury. Also, Cryogeyser.
Liv: Yep. We got compared to Cryogeser recently!
Hayden: And now they’re all I listen to. But yeah, for me it’s DIIV mainly.
Liv: I think for lyrics and melody–writing the lyrics and singing–I think about the lyricism of Lizzy McAlpine or honestly, still Slow Pulp. Big Thief was an early one. I feel like less so now; I feel like lyricism for me now is very much indie singer/songwriter. Mostly women like Lizzy McAlpine, Phoebe Bridgers… Adrianne Lenker as a solo artist, too.
Henry: I guess it’s hard to say one inspiration that I think all of us can agree upon for our sound as a band, just because we all have very different inspirations.
Liv: I think that’s a big part of our sound though. All of us listen to very different music and have very different roots.
Henry: It all coagulates. I guess drumming-wise, Dave Grohl. He’s the father of modern alternative rock drumming. Taylor Hawkins–Rest in Peace–best drummer in the world. I just love drummers that have super intense endurance and, I don’t know, play hard and play loud. I’m trying to think of one other… Fletcher Shears of The Garden? Yeah.
Conor: Within rock music at least, I’ve got a lot of influences in a lot of different styles of music– I really tend to lean towards Post-Rock kind of stuff. I love all the windmill scene stuff, like Black Country, New Road. I really like Godspeed You! New Emperor. That stuff’s really cool; the really atmospheric kind of direction. How much of that I’m able to bring to Waking Hours as a bass player…
[Laughter]
Conor: … Y’know. Only so much, but I did write a song that we’re working on playing now and I tried to incorporate some of [my inspiration] into there.
Q: How do you come up with your song titles or lyrics?
Henry: Don’t ask me!
Hayden: I feel like a lot of it has been just drawing… we do the route where we kind of draw from lyrics for a lot of the songs. I don’t know if we have any that aren’t, honestly… It’s just lyrics that feel like they encapsulate the energy of the song.
Liv: Mhm. And I don’t know if it’s the way that I write music–it also happens with some of the songs Hayden writes–it’s part of… almost some of the first words we sing in the song is the title. And, at least for me, I feel like the way I write music is that I come up with the first stanza or the first line of a song and, whatever that stanza is, is how I want the song to feel and it builds off of that. It just makes sense that the title would be in that first stanza. But it kind of is what just feels right. We just changed… Well…
Hayden: Yeah, we just changed a song title.
Liv: “in my genes” to “slow dancing.” “in my genes” just didn’t feel right. Also, I feel like if I say it out loud, people are going to think I’m saying “In my denim blue jeans…”
Conor: That is what I thought the first time you said it!
Liv: Yeah. The line made sense in the context of the song. And then for specific lines in songs, I kind of write in a way where I just let whatever’s in my head come out. And then, if there’s certain things I really want to say, I try to find metaphorical ways of portraying something… That’s how I tend to write music. I’m more wordy than Hayden is.
Hayden: Yeah, I’m more ambiguous and about the soundscape.
Liv: Mhm. I’m definitely lyric heavy.
Hayden: Bar spitter!
Liv: BAR SPITTER!
Henry: Well, Con, for your one song…
Conor: For the one song, that’s really the only song I’ve ever written lyrics for. So, one thing I did is I tried to keep the number of words to a minimum. I was like “Let’s keep this brief.” I wanted it to have vocals but maybe not overdo it on that front? I would say I lean more towards Hayden’s direction of “It’s more about the feeling of the words” rather than “Aw man, you can over-analyze these lyrics and find out all of the deeper meanings.” I wish I could do stuff like that! I love lyrics that you can go so deep into them… but I don’t think I’ve experienced enough as a lyricist to necessarily be at that point yet.
Q: I know that recently, HiveMind listened to one of your songs on their weekly “listening to your music” stream; how did that feel? Are there any other famous people that have interacted with your music? Or even just an individual that really meant something to you personally?
Hayden: I think for the second part, we’ve made connections with other bands–especially just playing shows–just having members of other bands come up to you and say they liked a certain part or even just a stank face from other musicians means a lot… I guess I can also talk about the HiveMind part! That was pretty cool; I have a very parasocial relationship with those two so…
[Laughter]
Hayden: … It meant a lot to also get a stank face from them.
Henry: It was fun to watch the one guy flail his arms like he was playing the drums. I thought that was cool.
Liv: Watching the HiveMind clip, it was like “They are actively listening to the song!” and seeing their reactions to it, I felt like “Oh! They are actually enjoying this!” And I think that’s a really cool thing to see. And then, in crowds and stuff, when you can tell that people are really just vibing with a song and they get into it… It feels really good. Or, when people sing along; if I’m looking out and somebody is singing along to a song, I’m really happy. I don’t know if we’ve had a lot of other famous people…
Hayden: I don’t think so. I mean, my personal celebrities, yeah!
Conor: One thing for me is just getting played on The Current. That happened for the first time a while ago. Growing up, the Current was the only radio station I listened to. If I was in the car, my parents were playing The Current. So, to have a song that I played on be on there?
Hayden: Consistently.
Conor: That’s really cool. Yeah, consistently!
Liv: Consistently! And “miss the dog” was on [The Current] and now “what would it take?” is on there. I think [the song] “waking hours” has been played on there… “miss the dog” is the consistent one and now “what would it take?” I believe? It’s cool to be recognized in that sort of way when we’re not based in The Cities because that means that whatever we’re doing is reaching people there; we’re not submitting [our music] to them. That’s really cool to me because that means someone out there is talking about us and that’s cool to think about. And the scouting report, that was cool.
Q: Who is the first person you seek outside advice from on anything Waking Hours related?
Hayden: A couple of my musician friends / fill-in bassist. My friend Aidan would be the big one for me. Shoutout!
Conor: Ironically, the big one for me would also be my friend Aidon who is a different Aidan.
Hayden: I’ve also looked to that Aidon!
[Laughter]
Liv: We depend on Aidans in this band!
Conor: Whenever I write something for this band or a different project, I run it by him.
Hayden: Aidans keep Waking Hours alive.
[Laughter]
Liv: I feel like I show the song to some of my friends that are really into music. It just depends on who’s around when I’m really excited about something. Then kind of my mom, which is weird because she doesn’t know much about music? I send songs to her and… it doesn’t really inform me much in terms of what I could do differently but it’s fun to see what she gets excited about! Do you send the songs to anyone, Henry?
Henry: … Not really. I’ll show it to some people but they don’t give me advice on my drum playing.
[Laughter]
Q: What is your favourite song to perform and why?
Hayden: I think I actually have a new favorite recently, which is our new song called “slow dancing.”
Liv: Yeah, I second that. I really like playing “slow dancing.”
Hayden: There’s a lead line at the end where it gets really entrancing. “what would it take?” is also fun to play because I feel like it hits such a climax. It’s one of the songs that raises my heart rate quite a bit when we play it.
Liv: I also really enjoy performing “slow dancing.” The chorus of it is very open singing-wise; it’s very belty. It was definitely one of the main songs that I’ve written that has a belty chorus that feels right. All the guitar parts and the structure of it just all comes together. I think it’s just a really well-built song, so it’s fun to do. It’s catchy! And [playing] “what would it take?” I also really like “i-35.”
Hayden: Really?
Liv: Yeah. But you don’t!
Hayden: Not as much as others.
[Laughter]
Conor: For me, it’s definitely “what would it take?” That song just has a groove to it that I think as a bass player, it’s really fun to do. Some of our songs, just because of the way they are, I’m holding a note for a really long time and that’s what you gotta do but with [“what would it take?”], I can get a little bit groovier with it because it’s fun.
Henry: Yeah, “what would it take?” is fun. I think Conor’s new song is shaping up to be one of my favorites just because I feel like, with how it’s structured, I’m allowed more drumming freedom.
Liv: That song’s called “free fall.”
Henry: Yep. “free fall.” But I think my go-to favorite is probably “crop circles.” Just because I’m the most proud of that drum part. I think it’s fun to play and I love playing the fills that are in it. I think it’s groovy.
Hayden: Banger!
Q: Favorite crowd interaction you’ve ever had at a gig?
Henry: Well, I was gonna say… the stank face you talked about [Hayden], I remember at the gig that we played in Pillar Forum with Aphid and Berzica–we played after Berizca–and the rhythm guitarist was in the corner offstage looking at me. Y’know, jiving with the music. I think it was “crop circles” that I hit the drum fill and I saw him and he made a stank face and I was proud of myself. Also, Harry complimented me. He’s very good.
Liv: Oh, yeah. Drummer from Berzica.
Hayden: The first time we played “i-35” was also with [the band Berzica] and Harry came up to me after. I thought we sounded really bad playing that and he was like “Yeah, that new song was super good!” and I was like “Thanks! I appreciate it! I don’t think so, but I appreciate it!”
[Laughter]
Liv: It’s always cool when I think we’ve not done great and the people are still super complimentary because it just kind of reminds me that…
Hayden: … It’s mostly in your head?
Liv: Yeah. I am my worst critic. Always. I think one that I can think of is we played a house show in Minneapolis with Lent. It was cold outside and it was in a garage but there were a lot of people there. They were just really into what we were doing; the crowd was super energetic and I think for me singing, something that I have been more conscious of is stage presence and trying to look out at the audience more because sometimes I catch myself just staring down at my guitar. And I [looked out] at this show for the first time specifically, and I had so many moments with different people in the audience where they would know the words to one of our songs. I would just be singing with people or they’d just be really into it and even if they didn’t know the words, we’d make eye contact and kind of have a moment. That kept happening and then even after the show, people came up to me–and I think everyone else too–and was like “That was so cool! You guys are so good! We want you to come back!”
Hayden: That show was a breakthrough in a lot of ways.
Liv: Yeah. That was a really good show. This one–I remember it really vividly–this one girl, who I did not know came up to me after the show and apparently the entire time we were playing, she was by our friends. She was like “Oh my god, you’re friends with her? She’s so good! This band is so good; they sound so good!” And then she came up to me after the show and talked to me for 30 minutes about how awesome it was and it felt really cool to have someone be so excited about hearing us and seeing us play. It was a cool moment.
Henry: I’m trying to think of drummers appreciating other drummers. Doesn’t happen very often.
Conor: I guess for me, it would be the few times that after a show, people will come up to me and compliment a bass line–because that doesn’t happen to the bass players that often, right? So it just kinda feels cool in a way to be noticed, honestly. When that’s happened, usually it’s other bass players, y’know? We gotta stick together. That always feels good. It’s like “Yeah, I’m doing something here!”
Liv: I’m excited to see what the response is to “free fall.”
Conor: Yeah, because I’m playing guitar on that song.
Liv: And I’m playing bass. And I think that’s gonna be a cool switch-up.
Conor: Yeah, I think it’ll be fun.
Liv: Be up there with a big bass; it looks so weird! It’s massive on me!
[Laughter]
Q: What are your favourite venues and where do you aspire to play at? On that train of thought… Do you have any upcoming shows?
Hayden: For me, I liked Pillar Forum quite a bit. Cloudland Theater is another–the most recent. That was really nice. I think for aspiring, y’know, long term? My fantasy, in a way, is to play Best New Bands at First Ave. That would be… a pretty cool thing to play the main room.
Liv: Yeah, I agree. I also really liked Pillar Forum. I just think the energy is… it’s the perfect vibe for our kind of music. And then I have a soft spot for The Mess. That was the first venue we played in The Cities. Caroline, who runs it, is just so nice. The community there is really good. In the summertime, playing outside is just really fun!
Hayden: Backyard Blend?
Liv: Backyard Blend! I also would really aspire to play Best New Bands at First Ave. I think it would be so cool to play a venue like that and be recognized in that sort of way as well. Also, 7th Street would be cool. I love seeing shows at 7th Street so playing there would be awesome.
Conor: I really like The Mess. It’s not necessarily the venue for our newer songs; it’s not what I would call a “heavier” music venue. But, at the same time, it’s fun playing outside. It’s cool; both shows we played there were just a really good time. Very positive environment for the arts. And yeah, the dream would be First Ave or 7th Street. That’s kind of where it’s at for a musician in Minnesota.
Hayden: We have a lot on-campus stuff coming up; Senior Days, Midnight Express, Eppiepalooza.
Liv: So yeah, Friday night [April 11th], instead of Yung Gravy, we will be in The Cities playing at Seward Café for a benefit show for Ear Coffee. The benefit show is for GBC Land Trust. What’s the significance of Seward Café, again?
Hayden: It’s just an iconic venue.
Henry: My aunt knew about it. She went to Augsburg and she graduated probably early-to-mid-seventies? So, that’s pretty cool.
Liv: And then, after that, in order we have: Eppiepalooza, Midnight Express, and Senior Days. I’m excited to play shows on campus again. We haven’t done it in a while. I feel like because we’ve gotten enough traction that we’re lucky enough to play so many shows in The Cities, I think we stopped having as much time to play [at Gustavus]. It’s really important to me to play here so I’m excited to be able to do that again. Eppiepalooza is at the tornado atrium again; Sesquicentennial Plaza. Midnight Express is where it always is [in The Caf] and I think we’re closing Midnight Express. Senior Days we’re playing two 45 minute sets during the Senior Night. I’m excited for that. I’m hoping we can bring some positivity to the unfortunate situation for the seniors and losing Senior Week. I hope that it’s a fun event despite everything.
Q: What’s next for your band in the grand scheme?
Hayden: Write more fire music.
Liv: Write more music!
Hayden: Win Grammys?
Liv: Win Grammys! And aim for Best New Bands! We’ve definitely all talked about what we would do after college; wanting to keep playing music. I think it’s just about figuring out what everyone’s lives look like. I’m excited that we have another year where we can kind of just go for it and put everything we can into it… See where it goes. We applied to SummerFest, so I’m hoping for that. I think always trying to take the next step in whatever we’re writing or where we’re performing or what we’re doing. Hoping that this just keeps moving forward.
Henry: I think, for me, as long as I am able to make new drum stuff, I don’t really care how it shapes up. I just want to be able to make new drum things. That’s my favorite thing to do.
Liv: I mean for me personally, music is just what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life and if I can keep doing this, that would be amazing. Just continuing to create is my priority.
Hayden: Bangers all 2025.
So, follow their Instagram @wakinghours.band and stream Waking Hours on all platforms. Also, stream Pyramid Scheme, which is a band Conor Jolly is a part of. Above all, continue to support the arts and artists that make it all possible.