Wonderful Wonderful: 'Taut'

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The Sunday Music Drop is a weekly radio series hosted by the KQED weekend news team. In each segment, we feature a song from a local musician or band with an upcoming show and hear about what inspires their music.

Luca McGrath, guitar player and vocalist for the band Wonderful Wonderful, describes the musical elements in the song "Taut" as "drum machine, post-punk with synths." McGrath works at a junk shop and brings home broken keyboards. "That beat came from an old Casio," he said.

McGrath says he has a hoard of old toys that are just "waiting to be utilized."

The band Wonderful Wonderful formed during the pandemic when McGrath left his old band Juice Bumps and started writing songs and playing music with Trent Caminos. They decided they wanted to form their own band, and brought on their roommate Crystal Dawana. They couldn't fit a drum kit in their practice space, so McGrath brought home lots of old drum machines. That decision is the reason keyboard presets are centered in their music.

According to McGrath, the song "Taut" is about "reenacting ways of being" and how, at times, people can find themselves not having full agency over who or how they are. That includes living out roles that aren't necessarily authentic to them.

McGrath grew up in the Bay Area and noticed how people from different musical scenes mixed.

"I feel like there was always intermingling between, like, rave people and DJs and punks and indie bands," he said. With the rest of the band Wonderful Wonderful, he says, they put "all their favorite stuff into one project."

"Being in a band rocks," McGrath said. "You get to make graphics for T-shirts, you get to make videos, you get to play shows … I love it. I think it's super important to all of us."

The band, in addition to McGrath, Caminos and Dawana, also includes Walker Doven. Wonderful Wonderful will be performing at Thee Stork Club in Oakland on May 23, 2023, at 8 p.m.