On their new song, “The Notice,” the Los Angeles indie-folk catharsis machine Wax Owls serves up an earnestly disquieting rumination on change, loss, and the dull pain of moving on. The song is a taster from their forthcoming second EP, due this summer, which the band says returns to their more understated, folkier roots.
Chris Tsaganeas leads the cathartic vocals on Wax Owls, which are made whole by Gerry Hirschfeld (drums and the song’s producer), Shannon Meske (keyboard), Rich Fuchs (guitar), and Bobby Digital (bass). Together, they form a gentle, airy, emotionally heavy soundscape, an aesthetic hallmark the band is still refining.
“The Notice” begins as a hushed talk with the past. There’s a soft urgency to Tsaganeas’ voice, as though he’s wrestling with a kind of pain that doesn’t fall all at once but settles in slowly. Hirschfeld’s production coats the track in a warm but weathered texture, setting sparse percussion against gentle guitar and keyboard melodies that swell and recede like familiar thoughts that come washing back up.
The band explores the emotional landscape of a life-changing event in this song. It’s about learning to let go of things but guarding what matters, how long the healing takes, and the inner hope that whatever you’re feeling is only temporary. The track’s cinematic quality makes sense, considering its upcoming sync placement in the indie film Ethan Bloom. Yet even without a visual context, “The Notice” feels like a moment in a life in transition, understated, reflective, and deeply relatable.
Having earned prior accolades from respective arbiters like Alexrainbird, Wax Owls show they’ve found their groove in the indie-folk world, not with shiny hooks but with earnest storytelling and emotionally intelligent songwriting. “The Notice” seems personal, introspective, and refreshingly unforced. This is a song to include if you’re compiling a playlist themed around personal growth, heartbreak, or self-discovery. It lingers with you quietly, like a note left behind and re-opened long after the moment has gone.
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