Download “Look Alive”
After the release of their recent 7 song EP Vuelve Al Mar, Los Angeles’ Wait.Think.Fast. are celebrating the new year with the release of a free download of their new single “Look Alive”. The band has been garnering the praises of LA Weekly, Performer, NPR, LA Record and many Spanish TV, Radio and Print outlets who are celebrating the bands use of bilingual lyrics. One such track “Cien Fuegos” will be featured as KCRW’s “Top Tune” of the day on Tuesday January 6th. Those in Los Angeles can catch the band live this Thursday January 8th at Pershing Square in Downtown LA for Spaceland on Ice. This show will be free and starts at 8pm.
*******
"The songs are solid without being rigid, and pretty without being cloying. My fave is the breezy, LA-atmospheric "Cien Fuegos," on which Argentinean-born vocalist/keyboardist Jacqueline Santillan floats seductive Spanish over a Beach Boys/Radiohead/Elliott Smith vibe" – LA Weekly
“Haunting, tightly crafted, with thoughtful lyrics” – NPR
“How do you say “dreamy” in Spanish? This intoxicating bit of shimmering shadow-pop (reminds me of the ethereal, folky work of the Golden Palominos in the ’90s) serves its metaphysical themes well… A couple spins of this disc and you won’t even notice that it’s bilingual and you’re not.” – Buzzbands.la
“People love those uncommon songs that get you feeling happy and sad both for the same four minutes; here waits a set you haven't heard yet.” – LA Record
“An indie darkland of whirlpooled, noise-spiked atmospherics cut through by the lipcurled and smoke-hewn sensuousness of Jacqueline Santillan’s bilingual vocals.” – Web in Front
“Wait. Think. Fast. is a perfect musical amalgamation of the gentrification that is happening all over the east side. The band takes the influences from all over the underground rock spectrum and adds its tinge of Spanish spice with Jacqueline Santillan acting as a Spanish singing Patti Smith.” – The Deli LA
Bio: Growing up in the suburbs of Los Angeles, Argentinean born Jacqueline Santillan was forbidden to sweep after sundown because to do so would summon el diablo. Never leave a croissant upside down on the table, her mother warned, unless she wanted to disrespect God.
However outlandish these superstitions may seem to an outsider, it’s these old world beliefs coupled with her American upbringing that has shaped both who Santillan is and the music she produces as the frontwoman for the shimmeringly beautiful L.A.-based foursome Wait. Think. Fast. A Latin-American hybrid evidenced by the way Santillan seamlessly slips back and forth from her native Spanish tongue to her second but more commonly used language English, Wait. Think. Fast. is a band steeped in duality and dichotomy.
Comprised of Santillan on vocals and piano, Matthew Beighley on bass, guitar, and vocals, noise enthusiast Apolinar Quintero on guitar and vocals and rounded out by Thomas King on drums, the band is the convergence of several cultures coming together to form something singular and unique.
“We are four people from very different parts of the world with four very different musical minds,” explains Santillan about the cosmopolitan make up of the band. “She’s from South America, Polo’s family comes from Mexico, I’m from Chicago, and Tom is from Boston by way of Athens,” adds Beighley.
It was Tom’s connection to the Athens alternative rock scene that sealed his fate in the band. “One of my biggest influences is early REM so growing up I was really into the Athens scene.” explains Beighley. “Tom and I connected right away.” Santillan and Quintero, on the other hand, bonded over a shared love for the Latin American crooners they grew up with - performers like Roberto Carlos and Camilo Sesto.
While the city of Angels is what brought them together, something stronger has cemented their bond. “We all met in Los Angeles but I think what we all have in common is the kind of music that we are all really passionate about and create,” exclaims Beighley.
That music is at once cinematic, emotional, poetic, heartfelt and at times spooky. Fueled by Santillan’s rich classically trained piano playing and deeply textured with effects-laden guitars, cascading drums and rumbling bass.
Wait. Think. Fast. emerged onto the local scene in 2006 with a self-released self-titled EP that garnered great write ups in the local media, the blogosphere, and even caught the ear of NPR, who singled out the sassy music industry reproach, “Bad Men,” for their "All Songs Considered” program. “Argentinean born singer/pianist Jacqueline Santillan's sultry alto often sounds like PJ Harvey sitting in with Interpol,” they declared.
The band toured the West Coast on the strength of the EP, playing with the likes of the Helio Sequence, Mia Doi Todd and Castledoor and became a fixture at East Side venues in L.A. like The Echo, Spaceland, the Echoplex, Silverlake Lounge and others.
In 2007 the band started writing new material, energized by the growing musical connection the foursome experienced from the onset. In no time the band had a handful of new songs, eventually spawning Vuelve al Mar, Wait. Think. Fast.’s new seven-song collection, due for release on the forward-thinking digital label Origami.
Recorded by Earlimart frontman Aaron Espinoza at The Ship in Eagle Rock, the album was co-produced by Beighley and Santillan. From opener “Cura,” the record bursts with spacey production, powerful songwriting, inventive flourishes and oozes with the sounds of Santillan’s homeland. A steady drumbeat and bouncy bass give way to spiky post-punk guitars while Santillan’s sensuous vocals and evocative piano anchor the song to great effect. The final track, “Pajaros de Papel,” is a beautiful, soaring ballad filled with strings and blasts of horns, which even if you don’t understand a lick of Spanish, will resonate emotionally with you.
“Cien Fuegos was written as the theme to an imaginary movie,” Beighley says, and illustrates his love for film soundtracks, citing directors Stanley Kubrick and Terrence Malick as his musical inspiration in the band. Meanwhile, “Surface Streets” charges forth like modern day Blondie. Quintero’s imaginative guitar playing on “Signals” reveals his love for Spanish flamenco and the angular attack of Bernard Sumner and Joy Division, while Santillan sings out as if Thom Yorke were an attractive Latina and not a pasty Brit. And while Radiohead is an obvious influence, famed Argentinean composer Ástor Piazzolla is just as much, straddling the lines between classic, contemporary, Spanish and English.
Santillan’s imagery-laden lyrics, which straddle the line between first person narrative and poetry, hint at her literary influences. In fact, their moniker is derived from Herman Hesse’s famous allegorical tale, “Siddhartha.” The main character and namesake of the book explains his greatest assets with the lines “I can wait, I can think and I can fast.” Santillan was so taken back by this simple, yet profound sentiment, she decided to name her band after it. And so Wait. Think. Fast. was born.
Now armed with their new songs, the band plans to hit the road and is eager to play the States as well as places like Mexico City and Buenos Aires, scenes they admire and should fit into quite nicely. People there probably won’t think her superstitions so bizarre.
01. Cura
02. Clear Our Name
03. Heavy Water
04. Cien Fuegos
05. Signals
06. Surface Streets (Or the Tree That Owns Itself)
07. Pájaros de Papel
