The third day of the Norman Music Festival will feature five headlining bands, including Spaceface, Wet, Mothica, The Drums and …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of the Dead.
Spaceface is a psychedelic rock band from Memphis and Los Angeles. Self-described as a “retro futurist rock band,” the group is made up of members Jake Ingalls, Matt Strong, Eric Martin, Daniel Quinlan and Katie Pierce. According to Spaceface’s website, the mission of the band is “to acknowledge the blurred pain that lurks in the corners of one’s vision on a day-to-day basis while providing a brief escape for anyone who needs or desires it.”
Active since 2012, the band was started by Jake Ingalls in 2011. The band describes their music as a force that “harnesses the transcendent pulse of the spacetime continuum into catchy songs that whirl and twirl, bend and stretch, attract and propel.” The band’s first full-length album “Sun Kids” was released in 2017. Their second album “Anemoia” — meaning nostalgia for a time one has never known — was released in January 2022. Described as “addictive listening” by Louder Than War, the album features 12 “dreamlike” melodies.
Spaceface has toured extensively in the United States, performing at music festivals like Norman Music Festival as well as touring internationally. Their performances are known for their inventive light shows and props.
Spaceface will be playing on Saturday, April 30 at 5:40 p.m. on the Fowler Auto Main Stage.
Another headliner for the weekend is Wet, an indie pop group based in Brooklyn, New York. Their ethereal sound is created by vocalist Kelly Zutrau, drummer Joe Valle and guitarist Marty Sulkow. While Zutrau is Wet’s main writer, the band has found great success and value in collaboration. The group signed with Columbia Records in the early 2010s and now produces with Other-Exotica LLC.
This year, Wet is doing a U.S. tour that includes major cities Washington D.C., Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and many other music-centric hubs along with the Norman Music Festival. They will also be performing in Toronto and Montreal in Canada.
Singer Zutrau says her journey with music began when she was a child.
“I have a big family, and my mom was a single mom for a lot of my life,” said Zutrau. “A lot of my early memories are me and my sisters in the car with my mom going somewhere and singing together.”
Zutrau said that she was in musical theater when she was younger and that she shares the experience of being a performing artist with her mother, who was a child actor. After her musical theater days, she took a break from performing but still wrote songs in her free time while she was in school.
Zutrau said she doesn’t necessarily set specific goals for herself when it comes to creating music. She said that making music is a way for her to process what goes on in her life and connect with her fans when her experiences align with theirs.
“It’s part of my way of getting through life, and it helps me make sense of things,” Zutrau said. “If it happens to connect with people or resonate, (it’s) because it’s sort of a universal experience.”
Like artists across the world, Wet is grateful to be performing live again after the gap caused by COVID-19. Zutrau said that the pandemic was a clarifying experience and made her see what parts of her life she found most valuable.
“It just makes you realize which parts of your life and your job that you really care about. … You kind of want to focus on those and not do any of the other stuff that wasn’t that important before,” Zutrau said. “We’re so grateful to be able to (play live) again and to connect with fans and people all over the country.”
The band recently released a new single “Where Did the Day Go?” as well as “Letter Blue (Reprise),” their new EP. Zutrau said a new production and light show will accompany the new music Wet is bringing to Norman Music Festival.
“I think it’s going to be a really special show and we’ve been working hard to make it exciting for people,” Zutrau said.
Skating Polly performs during the 2019 Norman Music Fest on April 27.
Wet will play Saturday, April 30 at 8:20 p.m. on the Fowler Auto Main Stage.
Headliner Mothica is an American pop musician from Oklahoma City. Born McKenzie Ellis, the artist’s career blossomed after a TikTok video of her reacting to hearing her song “VICES’’ for the first time went viral in June of 2020. The video has almost 1 million likes and five times as many views. Mothica has no record label, publicist or manager, describing herself as a self-made musician, and attributes much of her success to TikTok.
Ellis draws from her struggles with depression, sobriety and attempted suicide when writing her songs, according to Apple Music. In 2011, the singer-songwriter attempted suicide, which inspired her “forever fifteen” track released in 2021, which reached No. 2 on the Apple Music top charts. Other popular hits include “No One,” released in 2015, and “Clear,” a Shawn Wasabi remix with Pusher released in 2016.
Mothica will play on Saturday, April 30 at 7 p.m. on the Fowler Auto Main Stage.
The Drums, another headliner for Norman Music Festival, are an alternative indie band based in Brooklyn, New York. Their journey began when founding members Jonny Pierce and Jacob Graham met and became close friends at a summer camp when they were younger. Other members have since joined the band and left, and Pierce remains the sole member.
The Drums’ first gig was in the Cake Shop in New York City in October of 2009. Since then, they have released five albums: self-titled “The Drums” in 2010, “Portamento” in 2011, “Encyclopedia” in 2014, “Abysmal Thoughts” in 2017 and “Brutalism” in 2019. They also released their “Summertime!” EP in 2009. This spring, The Drums has been on a worldwide tour that includes Switzerland, Indonesia, China and Mexico, along with the Norman Music Festival.
The Drums will play Saturday, April 30 at 9:50 p.m. on the Fowler Auto Main Stage.
Headliner …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead is a punk rock band from Austin, Texas. Often abbreviated as T.o.D., which reads “death” in German, Apple Music describes the band’s sound as “an unlikely but powerful combination of punk fury and prog-rock ambition.” According to the band’s website, the band’s name comes from an ancient Mayan ritual chant.
Co-founded by songwriter Conrad Keely and Jason Reece, the band first performed in 1995 and has since released a total of 10 studio albums. Their latest album “X: The Godless Void and Other Stories” was released in Janunary of 2020. Keely and Reece alternate between drums, guitar and vocals. Other band members currently include Alec Padron on bass, Ben Redman on guitar and drums, and AJ Vincent on keyboard.
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead will play Saturday, April 30 from 10:50 p.m. to midnight on the Alley Stage.
