When Oklahoma City indie outfit Bored Wax was looking for a name, it decided to pay homage to its three loves: surf rock, wordplay and indifference.
“We were all listening to older surf and punk music, and this name kind of popped up,” singer and guitarist Billy Muschinske said. “We thought we’d change the spelling of ‘board’ to kind of fit our mood, which is, frankly, pretty careless.”
Muschinske, bassist Christopher Day, guitarist Nick Landrum and drummer Peter Werneke formed the band in late 2012, playing their first show last April, though the memory of it is admittedly hazy.
“We played in our friend’s garage, and everyone was way too drunk and swinging from the rafters,” Muschinske said. “If I remember right, one of the amps got entirely soaked in Pabst.”
Bored Wax’s infectious hooks and catchy melodies seem to invite that sort of revelry, especially in an Oklahoma scene noticeably lacking artists peddling that brand of straightforward guitar pop. They count the bands on Sub Pop Records and Captured Tracks (Beach Fossils, Wild Nothing) as some of its chief influences, though they favor the louder end of that spectrum.
“We’d like to call ourselves beach punk, and others have said we have some elements of DIIV and Real Estate to what we do,” Muschinske said. “We like to think we’re a little louder, though. People say they like the whole dueling guitar aspect that Nick and myself are trying to perfect. We try to keep a more upbeat feel, and we’re happy to see people come out and dance around.”
Bored Wax has little more than a demo and live video to its name so far, though the group stays busy writing and recording in its living room studio. The four-piece plans to put out recorded material this spring or early summer, likely in the form of a cassette tape.
“Our aim is to travel once we’re done recording and have put out our five-track record,” Muschinske said. “We’ve been writing during this recording process, which got us a little sidetracked, so we’re sitting on a lot of material that we’d like to put out as well. Three-fourths of us are in school, so we’re limited on the traveling situation, but hopefully this summer we’ll be able to get out of state and play to new people.”
In the meantime, if you want to hear Bored Wax play, just invite them on over.
“We love house shows, community and the DIY aspect making and putting out music,” Muschinske said. “Let us play in your basement.”
