One of the bands on our “50 Acts You Won’t Want To Miss At SXSW” list was Atlanta band, Microwave. A unique blend of genres, we were intrigued upon first listen and kept wanting more. We recently spoke with vocalist, Nathan Hardy, about their debut album, their experience at South By Southwest, and where the band name came from. Check out the interview below!
This was your first time performing at South By Southwest. Did you guys prepare differently for South By versus playing any other show you would normally play at?
We spent a couple weeks touring through the Midwest on our way out to Austin which was really fun. Aside from that, we had some delicious tortas and quesadillas at Licha’s Cantina where they held the Audiotree showcase. It was a beautiful place full of beautiful people.
Speaking of your debut album, Stovall was initially released in August of last year and it received a ton of great feedback. What song off the album was your personal favorite to write/record and why?
My personal favorite (Nathan) to write and record was Stovall cause I was in the midst of the bullshit which the song is about while we were in the studio recording it and it felt really good to get drunk and whine about it into an expensive microphone.
So we have to ask – where did the name Microwave come from?
When I was 2 years old, my babysitter put me inside a microwave and threatened to turn it on as a punishment for hardcore dancing in the living room while my parents were at a Megadeth show. (she was a big Chiodos fan and was heavily against hardcore dancing in the living room). I can’t be inside elevators or small spaces to this day and I hate bagel bites. Just kidding, we were just drunk one night and thought it was funny and I love
bagel bites.
Being that South By Southwest is filled with tons of incredible acts, were you excited to catch any artists in particular? Did you stumble across any new
artists that you are now a fan of?
We have been long time fans of Mew, a super sick space-rock band from Denmark. We didn’t have SXSW badges to get into see them, but we watched from side-stage through a gate. They walked out where we were standing afterwards and we got to shake Jonas’ hand (Mew vocals) and Tito (Microwave Drums) got to show him his Mew tattoo while his legs turned to jello like a young schoolgirl. We also discovered a band called Rozwell Kid
which is a hummus-themed power pop band from West Virginia. They were absolutely incredible and we hope to see them many more times in the future.
What can we expect next from Microwave?
We’re going to be in the studio at the beginning of May recording a song for a split which will be announced soon. Then, right after we finish recording, we’ll be headed out to the west coast for a tour which we will also be announcing soon. We have a lot of things in
the works for the rest of 2015 as well.