WICCA PHASE SPRINGS ETERNAL & The Mystery Mountain Band + fanclubwallet

TICKETS
- Doors 7 / Music 8

It’s impossible to talk about Wicca Phase Springs Eternal without talking about transformation. For over a decade the singer, songwriter and producer Adam Andrzejewski has used the moniker as a wide creative umbrella, under which he’s made a vast body of work that’s as consistently compelling as it is constantly changing. This deft ability to blend sounds and styles has become his calling card, but no matter the genre signifiers—from rap beats, to new wave synths, to goth atmospherics—the beating heart of WPSE is Andrzejewski’s singular voice and esoteric-yet-emotional lyricism.

On his latest full-length, Mossy Oak Shadow, Andrzejewski sheds thumping 808s and intricate production in favor of a no-frills band and sparse live recording. The album is a stirring collection of hazy folk-rock songs that lean into acoustic and slide guitar while keeping the project’s mystical songwriting framework. "I always kind of thought that as long as I have the Wicca Phase Springs Eternal name that I can do whatever I want," Andrzejewski explains. "The name provides a framework for the lyrics and aesthetics of the project–my songwriting with a mystical overlay to it–and as long as I can make something work within that, then the genre doesn’t totally matter."

Andrzejewski’s creative mentality steered him from his early work as a co-founder of the GothBoiClique collective to projects like Thraxxhouse, Misery Club, and his punk side project Pay For Pain. Mossy Oak Shadow finds him fully committed to guitar-oriented songwriting he’s long carried in his musical DNA. "I’ve loved Bob Dylan since I was ten years old," he says. "That spirit, that freedom, was very influential to me with writing this record. I felt like I didn't have to think about too many specifics outside of writing lyrics and chords and whatever comes out comes out, genre be damned."

Andrzejewski teamed with producer/engineer Ben Greenberg and brought the songs to the studio loosely formed, leaving space for a live band to flesh them out. The band was McIlwee on vocals and guitar, Greenberg on bass, and session players Ryan Jewell and David Moore on drums and keys. Andrzejewski recalls not even realizing they were recording live at first: "I didn’t know we were going to be recording live until I got there... I had no idea and it was probably best that I didn't."

The result is an album that lives and breathes, with unvarnished performances full of feeling. Opener "Rough Roads" is just Andrzejewski’s voice and guitar, followed by "Horseback" and "Enchantment," songs that conjure smoky Western-saloon imagery. Tracks like "Magic Moment," the Ethel Cain duet "Meet Me Anywhere," "Settler’s Bend," "I Get It," and closing track "I Was A Runner Once" move between lush and spare, blending human longing with gothic-country atmosphere. "That song kind of wrote itself," he says of the closer. "It ends the album on an ominous note but it means I can do anything I want next."

Fanclubwallet is the indie rock project of cartoonist-turned-musician Hannah Judge, a longtime champion of Ottawa’s local music scene. She began recording demos in 2020, launching fanclubwallet during the pandemic. What started as lo-fi bedroom pop gained traction, with her breakout track "Car Crash In G Major" accumulating over 14 million streams.