Daily Dose is your daily source for the song you absolutely, positively need to hear every day. Curated by the Paste Music Team.
We’ve all been there. Worried glances towards your significant other in the passenger seat, trying to divine fortunes from furrowed brows and hesitations. That sinking feeling that maybe this isn’t working so well anymore. But maybe it could again in the morning.
Wallows’ single “Are You Bored Yet?” is the fourth track from their debut album Nothing Happens, out everywhere today, March 22, via Atlantic Records. The song is just one of many shimmering, synth-infused explorations into the coming-of-age intricacies of young adult life—the loss of innocence, nostalgia, anxiety.
“The whole record is sort of a big collage of thoughts from youth,” says Dylan Minnette, who handles vocals, keyboard and guitar for the band. “‘Are You Bored Yet?’ plays into that really nicely because it’s all about wondering if the other person is bored in the relationship—because you’re afraid that you are, too.”
The track also features Clairo, a collaboration that came about in a series of lucky happenstances beginning with an introduction from Gus Dapperton. “He left us a little note in the green room about who he is, this really nice thing,” Cole Preston (drums, backup vocals) recalls of a show they played in Atlanta. “We ended up meeting up with him IRL, so later on in the tour, he introduced us to Matt Keller, who’s a music video director. He ended up working on a Clairo vid, and ended up introducing us to Clairo. So we would not have met Clairo if it weren’t for Gus Dapperton.”
“Are You Bored Yet?” explores a dreamier pop territory when compared to the band’s usual alt-rock stomping grounds. Chiming piano and delicate guitar riffs, layered with Clairo’s voice, weave a gossamer atmosphere that provides an infectiously deceptive cover for the song’s underlining worry: fear and dishonesty.
One thing Wallows won’t have to worry about? Speaking the truth to one another. “We’re all very comfortable with our honesty. It’s very healthy,” Braeden Lemasters (vocals, guitar, bass) explains. “We keep each other in check.”
Watch the official music video for “Are You Bored Yet?” below, as well as the band’s recent performance of the song in the Paste Studio. You can stream Nothing Happens in its entirety here.