Wave to Earth Trade Lo-Fi Jazz for a New Sound on bad pieces
Written by: Deborah R.
The South Korean trio brings its latest era to the U.S. on "the pieces tour."
Over the past couple of years, wave to earth has built a global following on lo-fi jazz; however, on their new album, bad pieces, the South Korean indie rock trio has transformed that sound into something new.
Daniel Kim, John Cha and Dong Q spent the making of the record studying music of their past and borrowing the instruments and textures behind it. Kim says those older sounds feel analog and bring "a certain type of inspiration." Cha says the goal was to establish a new sound for the band, noting they couldn't repeat what they'd done before "because that sound was already out there."
The band doesn't call it a reinvention. They describe bad pieces as the record that sounds most like who they are right now.
This shift arrives at a high point in their career. Wave to earth played more than 100 shows across 2024 and 2025, including 29 sold-out US dates, and sold out three nights at Olympic Hall in under a minute. Their 2023 song "bad" reached No. 1 on Spotify's Global Viral 50, and 2020's "seasons" has passed 500 million streams. The band now has more than 7 million monthly listeners.
Formed in 2019, the group has moved from the EPs wave 0.01 and summer flows 0.02 (both 2020) to play with earth! 0.03 (2024) and the full-length debut 0.1 flaws and all (2023), released through independent label WAVY. Single "heaven and hell" was the first new music since 2024's EP. The new album is currently playing on a stage near you.
"The pieces tour," promoted by Live Nation, began September 4 in Vancouver and covers 21 North American cities, including stops in major cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Houston. Songs from bad pieces, like "cherry flavoured love inside your heart," are already taking off on social media, with live performance clips reaching audiences far beyond the band's core fans. It's a show worth seeing in person, so catch wave to earth when they come to a city near you.
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