Interview: Woke Up Waiting

With an EP dropping next month, Canadian pop-punk trio, Woke Up Waiting, spoke with LoudMouth to give us a little scoop on what to expect. Read the full interview below!

Shannon Rae: Lets start with a back story, who is Woke Up Waiting?

WOKE UP WAITING: Woke up Waiting is essentially a band formed of other failed bands and projects, and somehow came together to be a perfect fit. We consist of 3 dudes, (Lucas, Justin, and Sean) who met through mutual friends and knew right from the get go we had picked the right guys to do this with.

SR: Who would you compare your sound to?

WOW: We like to think we have a unique sound, but we are very heavily influenced by bands such as All Time Low, Simple Plan, 5 Seconds of Summer, and Sean likes this weird smooth jazz stuff lately so hopefully we can incorporate that into our sound somehow. We’re on the border of Pop-Punk and Pop-Rock.

SR: With starting out posting covers, were you specific about what songs you choose so that you still had a ‘genre’ so to say, or did you just pick songs you all liked?

WOW: We mostly just chose songs we liked, but we really tried to stick with newer songs that were decently popular to start out with. We’d never cover a song we hated, so we are definitely fans of all the songs of the covers we’ve done. As we get a bigger fan base we’d really like to start doing some older songs that have kinda lost their steam.

SR: What was your first cover and why did you choose that one?

WOW: Our first “real” cover was “Jet Black Heart” by 5 Seconds of Summer. We chose that one because it actually really spoke to us, and it spoke to a lot of fans that we had been talking to really enjoyed the song. 5SOS had just released it as a single so it was perfect timing to do it as a cover. To this day it’s still our most popular cover.

SR: You have an EP dropping October 20th, Better Off This Way, what will listeners be hearing?

WOW: Yep! We are beyond stoked for it to come out. You will hear 6 completely different songs that range from a soft acoustic ballad to a fast paced party song. The EP means a lot to us because it’s made up of songs that we wrote in the past years that were always shut down by our old bands, but we really liked. For example, Justin wrote the very last song on the EP when he was 14 years old and we listened to it and Sean wrote lyrics to it.

SR:What personally inspires you to write music? And what was the inspiration behind your recently released single, “Best of Me”?

WOW: Our music is very much inspired by life experiences and growing up. We’ve all had our struggles in the past, and maybe some of us are still going through some tough times. You’ll hear all about ours on the EP. “Best of Me” is just a classic power ballad about heartbreak and teenage years. It’s really about taking someone for granted and not realizing what you have until it’s gone. Our songs are always open for interpretation, so it could mean something completely different to someone else.

SR: What are your future plans? Where would you like to see Woke Up Waiting by the end of next year?

WOW: We are already planning on recording an acoustic EP after this one is released. We really hope to hit the road and tour in the next year, and hopefully get some label attention.

SR:We look forward to seeing more from you guys! Thanks so much for talking to us!

​WOW:Thanks for having us! Look forward to talking in the future. ​