People seem to be falling in love lately, whether it be hopeless romantics or couples on cute dates; love is in the air. Love letters, paper flowers, Homecoming proposals—love is everywhere, even in music where Wave to Earth is becoming popular for their unique style of Korean indie love songs. 

Back in 2019, Wavy, a label originating in South Korea, formed the Korean indie rock band Wave to Earth. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Kim Daniel, drummer Shin Donggyu, and bassist Cha Soonjong. As of Oct. 9, 2024, they’ve released four albums; wave 0.01, summer flows 0.02, 0.1 Flaws and All, and play with earth! 0.03.

When they started off, Wave to Earth was barely known for their name and songs.

They blew up in popularity during the recent years due to their unique take on Korean indie music and many fans enjoying their music. There’s a sense of comfort in Wave to Earth’s lo-fi, jazz instrumentals, and generally the lyrics of their songs seem to resonate with peoples’ hearts. Songs like “love.” or “peach eyes” give you this feeling of being on cloud nine, a daydreaming sensation; their lyrics focus on the aspect of being lovestruck. Wave To Earth’s music is generally a ‘safe space’ that people can relate to and seek comfort in.

“Since we make comfortable songs and sing in English, there is a lot of space [within our music] where people can [enter],” said Kim, the band’s songwriter. “I think the overall key to that is just making good music.”

The fact that the songs are sung in English means a lot, rather than the band’s native Korean,  because the commonly spoken language resonates with a greater audience. When you’re able to fluently understand the lyrics, you know the meaning, and it isn’t just a foreign language that sounds appealing to the ear. Wave to Earth’s songs are considered “beautiful and heart-striking” because of how touching the lyrics are, and the upbeat, jazz melodies make it so you never want to skip a song. 

“‘peach eyes’ is my favorite song,” says freshman Xiaoxiao Lu. “I feel happy whenever I listen to it because it gives me comfort, and makes me feel like I’m in love.” 

“seasons” is one of the most popular and adored songs amongst Wave to Earth fans, solely because the lyrics illustrate what it means to be in love. The lyrics, “I’ll give you all my life, my seasons,” give the emotion of longing and the comfort of loving somebody so much you’d be willing to give them your all—your life. Another favorite song is “bad,” where the most replayed line is, “How can my day be bad when I’m with you?”

Wave to Earth’s instrumentals, vocals, and lyrics make their songs stand out compared to other romantic artists. For example, Beabadoobee, The Marias, and PinkPantheress are popular indie artists who sing love songs, and share a soft, slow and gentle vibe in their music. Their lyrics often speak about love in a vague way, such as “I’ve been stuck by the glue onto you,” from Beabadoobee’s “Glue.” However, Wave to Earth’s style is different from these artists, as they have a more upbeat and faster pitch, containing calm vocals that really speak the words of love. In music, artists often want the instrumentals to have more power than the words, but Wave to Earth really puts meaning on the words as if speaking the actual emotion of love.

Wave to Earth: 0.03 Tour sold out all tickets within a month of release in June, and it’s remarkable as even now, there are still incredibly popular artists like Cigarettes After Sex or Coldplay who don’t manage to be completely sold out.

Freshman Katie Chen said, “I only know them because of their song ‘love.’ since it always appears on my [for you page] on TikTok, but they’re nice to listen to, and I really want to hear more of their music from just that one song.”

As of now, Wave to Earth continues to thrive in the music industry with their beautiful love songs for couples and hopeless romantics alike. 

For Wave to Earth, “We don’t have to stand out, we just have to make music.”