In the musical kaleidoscope of modern London, it’s easy to get lost – but Wendigo are not the kind of guys who blend into the background. The alternative trio from the British capital are masters of emotionally charged, live-driven rock. They describe their style as “di-gaze” – a cocktail of dense sound, sincerity, and that unmistakable “London drive” you just can’t fake.
Three singles, one loud concert, and an EP on the horizon – Wendigo are clearly in anything but a quiet period right now. We talked with the band about how a solo project turns into a trio, what lies behind the term “di-gaze,” and why Camden Assembly is only the beginning.
Hi guys! Glad that you found the time to talk with us – especially at such an intense moment: a new single, the biggest concert in your career. It seems Wendigo has a lot of interesting things – and to be honest, it’s the best reason for a conversation. But before we get to Camden Assembly and everything that awaits you ahead, I want to start from the very beginning. Wendigo started as a solo project – who is the person that can safely be called “the main culprit of the celebration”?
Theo: Thank you! I’m proud of what we’ve achieved in a short time. As someone who had been writing and playing music for as long as I can remember, something changed in the way I approached it when I’d been diagnosed with a chronic illness at 16, I still had to stay inside after the COVID lockdowns finished. All that time alone watching everyone else growing up without you and being left behind in many ways, led me to realise that I had something with meaning to say through my music, which is how Wendigo began. Toby’s been my closest friend since we were really young and has been a part of the journey, he’s had a massive influence on the direction of the band. And Rhys, who I met in university and a bandmate of mine ever since in tons and tons of other projects, was the missing piece of the puzzle really – so I’m glad I get to do this with my two best friends.
All members of the band are experienced musicians who played in different collectives – what lessons from previous bands came in handy in Wendigo?
Toby: Bass guitar.
Rhys: Pursuement of that next high and breaking down the walls of finality will always stand as the biggest motivators for me and live music in any scenario. As well as the scenario/nightmare of a life of zero music and playing posts. Being up there, with your best friends having every asset of your soul on show through this music will forever be the greatest feeling ever, especially when people enjoy your music and find a part of themselves in it. After playing in so many bands over the years on so many instruments, these feelings and motivations remain the same in any context. Music is the glue of our little groups we call our scenes, and scenes being our tribes in this often too fast, modern world, without it we’d be nowhere.
Theo: Two things. One, make something that’s authentic to you and that you believe in wholeheartedly. Two, no idea is a bad idea, try everything out first.
You came up with your own term for your sound – “di-gaze.” Let’s imagine someone (who hasn’t listened to you) asks, “and what kind of music do you have?” – do you say “di-gaze” and enjoy the pause, or is there still another explanation for those who look with polite bewilderment?
Theo: Wendigo’s music should feel like a Kubrick stare. That’s what di-gaze is all about. Taking our influences in grunge, alt-rock, and shoegaze, and pushing it further than it’s ever gone before sonically. I think what really solidified how we want to sound was discovering Jig Dubé, he’s created a sound that is just radically new, and we’re lucky enough to have worked with him for the singles and our upcoming EP to achieve what we want our music to sound like.
Rhys: I see di-gaze as the natural evolution of the genres that inspired us, mainly from Cleopatrick and their producers (ZIG PRODUCTION HOUSE) who themselves started a new revolution in their alt rock sound. It’s a far more stripped back, less roomy version of grunge that feels like a homage to the loudness wars of the 90s, with us pushing streaming services to the maximum volume. The wall of sound you’d find in old school shoegaze, paired with the sound of new wave alt rock portraying the emotion of early Seattle grunge would be the best singular sentence explanation.
Toby: Bass guitar. But seriously, it’s like shoegaze and grunge had a baby and that baby is a jet engine.
The early releases “Krakensbane” and “Cologne” gathered more than a thousand listens in the first week. Did you expect that, or were you a little confused by your own success?
Theo: I had no expectations to be honest. Success for me is knowing that somewhere there is someone who genuinely feels a connection to the music, so to get that and much more is a really amazing thing. Especially for songs I wrote a long time ago, I think the younger me would be really, really proud. It’s been a crazy ride from there to now.
Toby: We’ve worked for a long time to make these songs a reality, they’d been up in the air for years and years before we set out to record them, seeing it pay off with practically no audience was really exciting. It’s the same with a few from the EP.
Let’s talk about the new single “XXII” by Wendigo: it sounds noticeably tougher than your early releases and remains mysterious – is this Roman numeral for you an aesthetic image or something personal, and what moment became the first impulse for its writing?
Theo: This title came from a personal experience that then went on to influence the aesthetic. That experience was something that really shifted my perspective in a horrible way about how men often celebrate certain things that really should not be celebrated… It was a formative experience for me. I think sometimes to write something meaningful you have to go somewhere within yourself you don’t want to go, which was the case for this song. The aesthetic came later, while exploring and trying to find a visual style that matches the music, sort of bleak and hazy, which is a difficult but important part of the process.
Every new release is a bit like a birthday: exciting, joyful, and a little unpredictable. Do you feel that “XXII” is a step forward not only in sound but also in understanding who Wendigo is as a band?
Rhys: “XXII” is a step forward both sonically as we slow down, eager to see people’s reaction to that side of our sound. It is a song that shows a much more sophisticated side of Theo’s songwriting with often harsh lyrics covering hard to swallow themes, finding a way to safely explore these themes and sharing them with the rest of the band definitely brought us closer together as we learnt how important of an outlet Wendigo is to Theo, giving me and Toby a much bigger obligation to play these songs as best as we can.
Theo: We’re taking a leap together in what we’re making and how we’re presenting it to the world. Eerieness is something in our music that makes it Wendigo, it’s in the DNA of our music to not only explore uncomfortable themes lyrically, but also through the harshness and dynamics of the music. “XXII” is the eeriest so far, it’s an uncomfortable song to listen to and that’s really cool to us, going deep into creepy sparsity and exploding into jaggedness.
Toby: XXII plays a big part in how we’re approaching the EP as a whole, we’ve discovered a lot of fresh ideas from experimenting with visuals and finding what themes we want to explore. Every time we make something new we get a step closer to an aesthetic which we think is true to our vision.
Themes of anger, regret, and the collision of the digital and natural worlds are central in your work. Why, do you think, have they become so sharp right now – and is there a moment in your life where they all intersected?
Theo: I think we’re lost in a weird disconnection, zoochosis, between the artificial and natural. It’s easy to look at that on a big societal scale, but it’s more interesting to me to talk about how it affects us as people on a more intimate level. Anger, regret, and frustration are easier to feel than ever, and that spills over into the rest of our lives and how we view ourselves. I don’t feel like I can write from a maybe more conventional alt rock, melancholic, sensitive perspective, I feel like my voice as a songwriter comes more from frustration and bitterness, and that’s something that feels that more people are connecting with nowadays.
After the breakthrough concert at Off The Cuff in August 2025, you’re reaching a new level – on March 5 you’re already playing the biggest solo concert at Camden Assembly – with what mood are you approaching this show, and how are you preparing for such an important evening?
Toby: We’re going as hard as we possibly can.
Rhys: Preparation-wise, same as any other band serious about their art, we play and practice both together and alone until the songs become second nature to us. Learning our own parts is never the issue, ensuring we’re glued together as a band is as we don’t run any in ear monitors live. Mood-wise we’re nervous but using that as the best motivator as can be, we try to make everyone who comes to see us welcome and show our appreciation, whether we know them or it’s their first time seeing us. Like I said before, these scenes people attend are sanctuaries, and we want to welcome all new people with open arms in the hopes they’ll come again.
I know that your EP is being prepared for the summer. So I can’t help but ask: are you already on the home stretch, or is the work still in full swing?
Rhys: Whilst yes the majority of the recording is done, in today’s modern world of music that is only half the battle. We have to market it properly, sticking to a strict schedule to ensure maximum engagement and all that other social media BS. But, with the recording out the way we can now focus and plan our future gigs.
Theo: We wrapped up recording in January, it’s an exciting time making the finishing touches and preparing everything to release. Writing the music and recording it is probably the easiest part of the whole process!
They say trees don’t cause nervous breakdowns – unlike comments under posts. Jokes aside, I have this question: if you had spent the last year a little more in nature and a little less on your phone – what would you regret less today?
Theo: Being in the present moment is harder now, and we’re used to it. Not that the internet is an inherently bad thing – but I think if I’d spent more time away from it I would have definitely been able to slow down and maybe have some better clarity and peace of mind. Being in a band and trying to get yourself out there is intense, and unwinding without being constantly connected to the Internet is definitely the best way to rest, but that’s easier said than done now that everything’s online.
Toby: I regret not spending more time in the woods, I have a woodland just outside my house. I don’t think enough people take opportunities to immerse themselves in nature more. Filming the XXII music video was a nice run though.
Rhys: Like I said before, in today’s world of engagement, social media and music marketing, everything today uses screens, scheduling and online BS. So, if we were in nature more (apart from our numerous photoshoots and music videos all shot in nature) our mental health definitely would’ve been a lot better, but Wendigo wouldn’t be where it is today and where it’s heading. This band is extremely stressful and a money pit and probably will be for the rest of our lives, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Playing music live like this is a privilege and all of our dreams, so we’re not going to take it for granted even for a single second.
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