Review Fix Exclusive: Written Years’ Wade Ouellet Talks ‘Lost in You Now’ And More

Review Fix chats with Wade Ouellet – lead singer and songwriter for the Written Years, who discusses the band’s origin, creative process and goals for the future, as well as their new single, “Lost in You Now.”

Review Fix: How did the band get together?

Wade Ouellet: Kane (drummer) and I had been playing in bands since high school. We’ve actually known each other since we were both 8 years old. Somehow we both ended up in Vancouver living in the same little basement suite and, out of that and our experience together, Written Years became a thing. Since then, we’ve built it up to include some other great friends and collaborators. Brian, our bass player, actually saw the first show Kane and I had done together under the name!

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Ouellet: It’s always been there. I picked up a guitar at about 10 years old and I was a goner. Within about 6 months, I think, I was writing songs. My friend had a cool little recording setup in his basement so we would record our ideas live. I later took a class in high school that taught me how to properly demo songs. We were lucky enough to have that option then.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Ouellet: It changes all the time but usually the best ideas are the ones that kind of slap you across the face and you have to stop everything you’ve been doing. I use to base my songs around an acoustic guitar but now it’s a bit different. Generally, we’ll be writing in unison with the creation of a demo, which I can then take to the other guys as a sort of reference and we figure it out more from there.

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Ouellet: The idea that you can have this little idea of a song in your brain and someday, if it’s one of the lucky ones, it may become something more than an idea and eventually make it out into the world. The idea that there are other people who can relate to these feelings within the song and attach their own personal experience to it is the most rewarding for me.

Review Fix: What makes “Lost in You Now” a special track?

Ouellet: LIYN was the first song we did in the whole process where we were like, “Okay! This is what we want to do.” We thought it would be kind of a one-off dark dance track but after some soul-searching, it sort of became the blueprint. LIYN felt really special as well because of the video that came with it. We re-shaped a lot of our ideas around that song but where it’s really come to be something else is with this new one we just put out…Superficial Feeling. I definitely feel like we were able to take it to the next level with this and I’m extremely proud of it.

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Ouellet: Someone said ‘Alt Dance’ not too long ago and I like it. I do think our stuff is danceable but there’s certainly a lot of sentiment and a little darkness to it. I address some pretty candid/vulnerable things in my lyrics.

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Ouellet: Live shows will always be different. You get to be a little more spontaneous and apply a certain energy to each song – you can really play with the visual side and determine how you want it to come across. We definitely add a lot of energy to our live renditions – I like to dance and flail around madly on stage. It’s nice to just let loose and really not give a fuck for 30-50 minutes. At the same time, we’ve had some songs that we’ve been able to make really intimate versions of live and that feels really special. We always want to keep that side to our work.

Review Fix: What are your goals for 2018?

Ouellet: We really just want Superficial Feeling to live a good life for awhile here. Other goals definitely include expanding our touring front and connecting more with our listeners out there – meeting more like-minded artists. We’ve got our live show to a place where we’re very happy with it and want to keep advancing on that.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Ouellet: Like I said, we really want to put emphasis on SF for awhile here while we conspire our next steps and start bringing in the visual component. Outside of that, though, I’m sure we’ll also have more music to share ;)

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Ouellet: People can check out the track primarily on Spotify but it’s available in all the usual places. It really helps people like us out when listeners share/save that stuff so, if you’re enjoying it, please do pass it around. It goes a long way!