The Return of Buffy the DJ Slayer: An Interview with Wallows’ Cole Preston
Photo courtesy of Atlantic Records.
Wallows is my fangirl band. If you’ve known me long enough, or have scrolled an extra ten seconds on my Instagram profile, that’s probably not much of a surprise. “Nothing Happens” was there for me at the pinnacle of my teen rediscovery, a soundtrack that guided me through all the carpool sing-alongs and not-so-bright gutters of my high school experience. I could talk about it forever, but I owe so much to these three dudes.
Getting to watch people do what they love surrounded by the people they love elicits a certain kind of indescribable joy, one that I undoubtedly needed at the time. As other Wallows fans can attest, at our core, this is why we love the band as much as we do. We have fun because they’re having fun, seeing three best friends doing exactly what they’ve wanted to do since the moment they met as elementary schoolers. Having watched them grow to see the success that they have, it’s hard not to feel this immense sense of pride for how far they’ve come by just being themselves. And on the helm of the release of their third studio album, I had the unique and special privilege of interviewing Cole Preston: Wallows drummer, USC alum, and ⅓ of the poster that currently hangs on my bedroom wall.
Gia Canto: So before the interview, I asked you to pick a song or a few songs that remind you of your time at USC. So tell me a bit about those songs, why you chose them and what they bring up for you, etc.
Cole Preston: Cool, let me see what I picked. Wow, it's weird to say but my time at USC started almost 10 years ago, which, I don't know how time went by so quickly. I started in 2014 and graduated in 2018, so picking the songs for this was so nostalgic. You don't really realize how fast time goes until you do, and then suddenly you're like, oh my god. Yeah, it was fun putting these together, I'll just go from the top down.
Vampire Weekend, “Diplomat’s Son” is the first song I picked. I mean, if you listen to Vampire Weekend I think you know too, that they're just the most collegiate band ever for some reason. It’s the sound of walking through the halls of a college or something. I think their records started coming out when I was in middle and high school, so you know, just growing up with that band and then going to college. When I imagine myself as a freshman at USC I sort of imagine myself listening to their records. And “Diplomat’s Son” is just one of my favorite songs of theirs so that's why that's on there.
Okay the second song I picked is, wow, “I’m Too Funky” by Thumpasaurus. So, are you familiar with this band at all being a USC student?
GC: Not at all.
CP: That’s so funny, I feel like, when I was at USC, I was in the Music Industry program, and it was in Thornton mostly so my friends were just like, kids in the music school, you know? And Thumpasaurus was a combination of like pop music majors and I think some were studio jazz, or jazz of some kind. They put together this band of just, all of them incredible players and they just made party music, kind of, I would say. But it's musically very challenging and elevated.
They'd play parties all the time, so like, when we'd go out, is the Pink House, is that still a thing?
GC: Yeah! The Pink Castle, I think, is what they call it now.
CP: The Pink Castle, woah sick. Ok, they had Pink House, Pink Castle and then across the street was the KXSC house, is that still a thing?
GC: I think it’s changed, was that the one with the winding staircase in the back or was it a different one?
CP: I think it may have been and then for a time, overlooking the backyard someone made this big KXSC sign with lights on it. Gosh, I used to live right across, what's the street where Nature's Brew is?
I used to live, like, right behind Nature's Brew so it was close. But anyways, Thumpasaurus would always play various parties. Their bass player, his name is Logan Kane, the house that I lived in, it was a house with 10 bedrooms, and just like this rotating cast of people. And Logan lived in the house for a year or two and he's just a ridiculous bass player. They've since gone on to play on Jimmy Fallon and like, they're doing tours. So yeah, but anyways, “I'm Too Funky” came out like my sophomore, junior year. And so yeah, just fond memories of being in various parties at USC and just watching Thumpasaurus play.
GC: My next question was going to be, actually, about the fact that you lived close to the Shrine. I was at both of your Shrine shows last year, and you guys mentioned that you thought up a bunch of your early singles in a house not too far off campus, if I’m remembering that correctly.
CP: You’re absolutely right.
GC: It must have been so surreal to have played multiple nights just a few blocks away from Thornton, super close to where it all started.
CP: Oh, totally. I mean, when we played those shows, it's like literally across the street from USC.
And I had been to shows, I went and saw Tame Impala at the Shrine Auditorium, like the one with the seats and everything. So us playing there was pretty sweet. And me and my girlfriend took a stroll through campus and I was just like, full nostalgia blast mode, which was cool.
But yeah, I lived in that house and that's where we wrote so many of the Wallow songs as early as the Spring EP. I know, the song “These Days” was started in that house because, do you know who Remi Wolf is?
GC: Yeah, of course!
CP: So Remi also lived in the house so we lived together for like three years, and me and her and our other friend Julian we were just fucking around and like making demos and stuff and that was the inception of these days. And then Dylan and Braeden heard that and we finished it as Wallows. And yeah “Are You Bored Yet?” was made in that house, so much Wallows history. Technically the first ever Wallows show happened because we’d throw parties. My friend was on the Ultimate Frisbee team, and technically the first Wallows show was us playing the Ultimate Frisbee team’s prom night that we hosted at our house, which is so funny. So much history right over there.
GC: And you guys have been making music together since you were like 11 and now you're playing shows at The Forum and Madison Square Garden on the Model tour. It's amazing to have watched you guys grow, and as a longtime fan, I just could not be happier for you. What do you continue to love about making music with your best friends, getting to share all of these insane experiences with the same people you started making music with all those years ago?
CP: Wow. I mean, we're so lucky. I feel like it's just a series of various lucky moments and various coincidences that have allowed us to do this. And we're so lucky.
It's nice that we've known each other since we were kids, because we all grew up with the same interests and discovering and sharing the same stuff with each other. Obviously we have different personalities, just because inherently that's how it works, but when it comes to making music and talking about music and whatnot, we're all wired very similarly. So when we go and make songs and do tours and everything, we all just trust each other, we all have each other's best interests in mind.
And yeah, we're just so lucky. I don't know how it all worked out but it did, and it's really cool.
And a lot of people that I've met at USC are also involved too, like Danny, who also lived in that house who tours with us.
GC: Shoutout Danny.
CP: Shoutout Danny, Danny Ferenbach, Trojan legend. And our first ever Wallows tour, our tour manager, front of house like he was doing everything at that time, Cole Karaba, also USC grad. Our lighting person for a while, Landon, a USC grad. So there's a lot of people that I knew in college that came on board as part of the crew. And just, all of us have known each other for so long at this point, so we're super lucky.
GC: Keeping the Trojan family alive.
CP: Absolutely.
GC: I also asked you to pick a few songs that inspired the new album, so I’d love to hear more about the album and what you’re most excited for in anticipation of its release.
CP: Yeah, so it’s our third record, Model, out May 24th.
GC: Yup.
CP: I mean, we all listen to so much music, it's hard to pinpoint exact references. I think, when we work with John, our producer who also produced Nothing Happens, when we listen to something as a reference, or if we're talking about a song, he'll play it for 15 seconds on his phone instead of the speakers. He's like, “I don't want us to be too influenced by this other thing.” Or sometimes if you have a reference in a writing session or something, you kind of accidentally end up like writing that song in a way. So I think we try to recall things in our minds more.
But as far as like songs and bands are I can remember that for “Calling After Me” we wanted to make a sort of Phoenix inspired song. Specifically something like they're Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix album. I mean, obviously the two singles like “Lisztomania” and “1901” they’re so exacting and so precise in the way that they're written and produced and everything. We wanted to have a song that was that light on its feet, but still had energy. Just a more down the barrel Wallows song, because sometimes we're guilty of just going super insane and layering and layering and just like going forever. When you're in a studio and you have all these things at your disposal, it's fun to just go full maximal. But for that, it was like, let's just do drums, bass guitar, since it has to sound big and poppy or whatever.
Another band that we kind of all discovered together is this band called Cleaners from Venus.
GC: I love that band!
CP: Yeah, yeah. I say they're a band, but it might just be like, Kevin Parker style, it might just be a dude. But yeah, like “Only a Shadow” is so good, and there’s a song called “Mercury Girl.” But that's like, cool, sort of, older music that we all were thinking a lot about. Let's go with those two, that’s what comes to mind right now.
GC: Alright, for the last song, I asked you to pick a song that you can’t get enough of right now. I’m giving you free reign to gush about all the things you love about whatever song, or songs that you’re thinking about right now for as long as you want.
CP: Okay, it’s hard to pick. When I was flying home from Austin, there’s this band called The Radio Dept., and I’ve been a pretty casual fan, I knew the one that had the most streams or whatever. But for some reason, I just decided to download all their records for the plane ride home. And I was like man, like this is music that I would love to make. It’s just texture-y and pretty-sounding, and it’s drum machines. I don’t know, it’s like, bathtub core or something. When I was on the plane I was just like “Oh my god this band is so good.” Specifically, their first two records are amazing. The song “Heaven’s On Fire,” man that song is so good. I’m like a newfound huge fan of that band. So awesome.
GC: That is the perfect transition to my next and final question, my most important question. If you were a KXSC DJ, would your DJ name be Buffy the DJ Slayer, and if not, what would it be?
CP: Oh my god. I mean, yes, Buffy the DJ Slayer. There’s this DJ called DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ, and when we were on tour me and our photographer, who also went to USC, Dillon Matthew on Instagram, we were just firing off various, like, “insert DJ into TV show name”. Yeah, I'd be Buffy or honestly just DJ Cole.
GC: DJ Cole!! We have a bunch of DJs like that, but we have some really fun ones though. My friend is DJ Schmelly, and she was my DJ mentor, so when we would go on air together we were “Schmelly Cheez,” it was perfect.
CP: That’s, that’s serendipitous.
GC: Yeah, those were all my questions, is there anything else you wanted to add for the listeners before we go?
CP: I mean, this was really fun. In finding songs for this I went way deep into my Spotify playlists and I found a few playlists that I had called “KXSC.” And in order to get a show you have to have a DJ mentor right? And they kind of show you how to use the thing down there. So I think I did that, and then there was a night where he couldn’t make it or something, so I did like one show on KXSC.
GC: No way! Oh my goodness!
CP: And the playlist it’s just really fun. There were some deep cuts in there, like it must have been 2014 but I was bumping like TV Girl in the set and stuff.
GC: Daaamnn!!!
CP: I was like onto something back in the day.
So there you have it, Cole Preston: Wallows drummer, DJ slayer, and confirmed KXSC alum.
More songs that remind Cole of USC:
“Lariat,” Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
“It All Works All the Time,” De Lux
“Mood,” Porches
“Shaolin Monk Motherfunk,” Hiatus Kaiyote
“Sky Mall,” Vulfpeck
Listen to Wallows’ newest album, Model, out everywhere May 24th.