Feeling overwhelmed by the fast-paced party season that’s upon us? Well, take a break with us and listen to Tape Waves, extremely pleasant, chill summer jams that’ll ease out that afternoon hangover – or ease you into one – while you watch the US Open. The Charleston, South Carolina duo are releasing their second album Here to Fade next week on Bleeding Gold Records, and we’re premiering it right here with an exclusive stream for all your overstimulated ears. So put some headphones on and relax, and read our quick interview with the band below. –Maya Eslami

WHAT YOUTH: How did you guys meet and form Tape Waves?

TAPE WAVES: We met working at a call center. We were both miserable there, and didn’t really know what direction we wanted to go in with our lives. We discovered that we both liked writing and recording our own songs, and that we had a really strong bond when it came to music. We started dating first, but music was always a big part of our relationship. We always liked going to see bands and listening to records together. Jarod kept saying he wanted to start a band with me, and so I said that would be cool but I didn’t think we would actually do it. Then a few months later he recorded some music. I was really impressed and asked him to teach me the songs. It kind of kept going from there.

Were you guys influenced by any other bands?

Beach House, Yo La Tengo, The Magnetic Fields.

You guys are married and in a band together. What’s that like?

It’s really cool being able to create music together. I love that we have something to show for it. It can be hard sometimes because you can’t just walk away from it. If a band practice doesn’t feel right, too bad because the other person from the band is having dinner with you!

Tell me about the new album. What was the writing process like? 

We wrote all ten songs together over the last two years. A lot of the songs started with voice memos of ideas that Jarod had recorded on his phone. If I liked them then we would see if we could build a song from it with vocals and chord changes. We knew that when we were writing this album we wanted to play around with tempo and song diversity more than before. We also wanted to add more instruments to the recording. One of our friends gave us his Q-Chord so we were really excited to use that on “Close Your Eyes”.

Do you guys plan on touring for the album? 

We will be touring the West Coast in January 2017. Dates soon!