This year has been a really huge one for us. Actually this whole decade really changed all of our lives and changed WLTS as a band forever.
This year we managed to spend a week in the bush to record a new record, release album number four and tour it to China and around Australia. It’s been massive. It’s been fun. It’s been exhausting and challenging but overall pretty damn awesome. We also got to tour with our post heroes Russian Circles and Tangled Thoughts of Leaving.
We got on the soundtrack for Ricky Gervais’ After Life and got Twitter props from the big man himself. This still makes our head spin. We even got our own red wine and hot sauce! Really pushing those merch boundaries!
We finished the year with a bunch of shows around the country that ended up being probably one of our best Australian runs. All the shows were pretty electric especially Sydney and Melbourne. There was even a Taylor Swift club night disco load out in Perth which was something to behold. Thanks to everyone around the country who came out to support us and buy our merch. We couldn’t do it without you. We also started working with an awesome new lighting designer, Dutchy, and he’s brought a whole new element to our live shows.
All in all it’s been a solid year and the new album has been received pretty well considering the weight it was carrying from the last one. We even charted for the first time ever at #41 on the ARIA charts! Now is the time to reflect and work out how to make next year better along with our live shows and the next record. Yes, we’re already talking about album 5 and are keen to get into writing.
Next year will also be massive again with a huge European tour on the horizon and a couple of other things in the pipeline! We’re stoked to be apart of Dunk!Festival again and also excited to be venturing into the UK for the first time and playing at Portals Festival in London.
It’s also been a very tough end to the year for a lot of people in Australia due to unprecedented and catastrophic bushfires that have ravaged the country. There has been loss and tragedy mostly around the time of year when it’s meant to be for family. There have been some very dark days for some families affected by the fires and severe weather events. We’d like to keep them in our thoughts as we head into 2020. We also, thanks to some of you, managed to donate some money to the families of the two firefighters who lost their lives protecting their communities from the most violent fire fronts we’ve experienced.
We should move into 2020 as a united front of empathy and willingness to learn and understand more about each other and what is to come and try and navigate it together. Look out for one another.
Be kind to each other and the planet.
Much love from all of the WLTS crew and families.
