The WAEVE have announced their latest EP ‘Eternal’ and have shared its lead anti-Valentine’s single ‘Love Is All Pain’.
Produced by James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Blur), the three-track EP is set for release on March 14 via Transgressive and can be pre-ordered / pre-saved here. The first taster of the project comes in the form of ‘Love Is All Pain’.
“Oh! Love is all pain / Thought I’d escaped it / But I need it again / It’s hard, it’s hard / It’s harder than hell,” sing the duo – comprised of Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and The Pipettes member Rose Elinor Dougall – in the chours, describing the reaitlies of Love over throbbing electro synths.
Directed by Simon Leeder, the song’s accompanying music video was shot entirely on black & white 8mm film in a nod to the post-punk synth-era aesthetic of the late 1980s. It captures The WAEVE on location around Southmere Lake at Thamesmead, South East London’s iconic Brutalist estate.
‘Eternal’ serves as a follow up to The WAEVE’s past two albums, 2023’s self-titled and 2024’s ‘City Lights’.
The WAEVE’s ‘Eternal’ EP tracklist is:
1. ‘Love Is All Pain’
2. ‘It’s The Hope That Kills You’
3. ‘Eternal’
Previously speaking to NME about their family life and “the horrors of the world” shaped their LP ‘City Lights’, Dougall said: “It’s still a miracle that this project and this life that we share has happened at all – because it was all triggered by this one tiny show that we decided to do [in 2004 at Islington’s the Buffalo Bar]. Had either of us decided not to do it, then none of this would have existed.
“Sometimes, the fragility of how things come into being can be a bit frightening. So easily, these things might not have happened. It’s hard not to full like there’s some kind of higher power at play to direct the trajectory of your life.”
She also spoke about their love for their daughter Eliza May and motherhood, and shared: “We’ve put her name out into the world and I’m obviously very protective of exposing her in any way to anybody, but I did have a big conversation with myself if that was something I wanted to share in the music we were making. It would have been impossible for me not to engage with that reality, because The WAEVE has always been an opportunity to reflect on the lives that we’re experiencing.”
She continued: “It’s important to bring light to the experience of motherhood, and what it’s like to be a mother at the same time. It’s a really underrepresented thing. It had such a huge impact on the way that I perceived myself and the process of making music. Eliza is such a huge part of our lives, and I couldn’t see how I could ignore that. I hope likes it when she’s older. I can just imagine her going, ‘What is this shit?’”
In other news, The WAVE are set to embark on a UK headlining tour which will kick off on March 16 in Glasgow before making stops in Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol and London. Check out a full list of dates below and visit here to purchase tickets.
The WAEVE 2025 UK tour dates are:
MARCH
16 – St. Luke’s, Glasgow
18 – Academy 2, Manchester
19 – The Leadmill, Sheffield
20 – KOKO, London
21 – Trinity, Bristol
AUGUST
22 – Colchester Castle Summer Series (w/ JAMES)
24 – Victorious Festival, Portsmouth
