Los Angeles-based indie band Inner Wave isn’t scared of change. In fact, the Inglewood-raised quintet very much embrace it.
Since inception, it has gone through various stages of musical transformation so members feel quiet comfortable heading out on yet another adventure dubbed the Jukebox Tour. The outing which kicks off at The Observatory North Park in San Diego on Thursday, Feb. 16 and winds down with hometown gigs at The Novo in Los Angeles Friday, March 17 and The Fox Theater Pomona on Saturday, March 18.
“Last year, while on tour, we all had points where we realized so much has changed in just one year,” bassist Jean Pierre Narvaez said during a recent phone interview. “There’s places and people that we have met along the way that were never important to us before, but now they are, and I think that’s something we’ve all grown to learn from it all.”
Since hardships are typically part of the game while living through your 20s, it’s that acceptance of evolving — even through the rough stuff — that has allowed the band to truly flourish. With some sudden time to spare during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the group took time to center themselves. In doing so, it focused on the inner workings of its fourth record, “Apoptosis,” its first to be recorded in an actual studio setting and was released in 2021. The album title refers to the biological process of the death of cells as part of an organism’s normal growth process, which symbolically resonated with the band in its transitioning state.
Founding members, vocalist Pablo Sotelo, guitarist Elijah Trujillo and bassist Jean Pierre Narvaez, started the band while in middle school in 2006. The trio steadily laid the band’s foundation with daily after school practices in a garage as it experimented with sounds that would eventually lead to its current indie-psychedelic groove. Other members came and went, but the later additions of drummer Luis Portillo and keys player Jose Cruz were a “match made in heaven,” Narvaez said.
With a solid lineup, four records and a couple of EPs under its belt, the band hit the road hard in 2022 to support its latest effort, describing the tour schedule as a “crazy, beautiful long year journey” that propelled them to be more in tune with the music and as a unit. It also played shows in Europe supporting Boy Pablo, did both weekends of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, impressed at the Desert Daze Festival in Moreno Beach at Lake Perris and jumped on shows with groups like Chicano Batman, L’Impératrice and Foals.
“We had four legs (of the tour) with various openers, all based in different spots of the continent,” Sotelo explained. “Then, in the middle of that tour, we were offered to play with Boy Pablo on the other side of the world and all of Europe, which changed so much for us as a band and as individuals. We were basically in a different country every day. You’re in France one day, then the next, you’re in Italy or Hungary, and it just keeps going. We had to get used to that pace. And we definitely did, but we also learned to slow things down mentally. We’re happy to be home to wind down, but at the same time, we’re ready to make new music and memories.”
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Gearing up for its current Jukebox Tour, the band decided to do something a little different and let the fans pick the set lists for each show, much like they’re loading up a jukebox playlist at a bar. Fans in each city can vote on Inner Wave’s official website on which tracks they’d like to hear — whether its something like “American Spirits” or a deeper cut like “Change Your Mind” — during that particular tour stop. The band did something similar during a previous show at the Lodge Room in Highland Park and it went over well.
“It was the coolest thing,” Sotelo said. “After that, I knew we needed to try it out on a bigger scale because it’s not something you often see with artists. It’s a fresh take on touring. The best part is we get to see each city’s results in real time.”
The band has also teamed up with Our Music My Body, which strives to create a safe space for all music fans. More recently, it became clear to Inner Wave that after a significant amount of fans expressed concerns over abusive behavior at shows, specifically in the indie rock circuit and with the complete shutdown of Orange County-based Burger Records amid numerous sexual misconduct allegations in 2020, it was time for change. Last year, the band raised over $10,000 for Our Music My Body. This year, they plan to donating a dollar for every ticket sold to the organization.
“During the pandemic, we had a lot of time to rethink how we wanted to hold space for shows and it became pretty apparent that people should be more comfortable regardless of who they are and who the band is,” Narvaez said. “We wanted that sense of security for fans and Our Music My Body really brings that out. It also creates a sense of community, knowing that’s there and that’s the vibe of every show we have. Without all the tropes with classic rock and roll shows you go to, we just wanted to change that narrative.”
Inner Wave’s Jukebox Tour
When: 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16
Where: The Observatory North Park, 2891 University Ave., San Diego
Tickets: $26 at LiveNation.com
Also: 8 p.m. March 17 at The Novo, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. $24.50 at AXS.com; 8 p.m. March 18 at Fox Theater Pomona, 301 S. Garey Ave., Pomona. $22.50 at AXS.com.