‘Where’s Walden’ steps on the scene

“All kids don’t deserve trophies, especially if they make shitty music,” asserts Jack O’Brien, lead singer of UMass freshman collective Where’s Walden.

Where’s Walden is a four man post punk & power pop band that has been stirring up the Amherst music scene since its formation in the fall.

We sat down to chat on Sunday night in Wheeler Hall, home of drummer Corey Camara, during #SB50. The guys opted out of watching the big game on the grounds that “professional sports are a way to make kids commit themselves to conformity, and play sports society tells them they need to play to be cool or admired in life.”

Further condemning the NFL, Jack noted that “kids commit themselves to corporations, play through college, become Curt Schilling, take roids, and get sued for making a video game that sucks.”

Put that in your superbowl and smoke it.

The real origins of the band remain a little cloudy. Rumor has it that some members met originally in the comments section of an eel video on Pornhub. Don’t get it twisted though – Jack cleared the air on Where’s Walden’s porn of choice: “Softcore, but no ambient music in the background. It just distracts you from the art of the porno.”

Where’s Walden in at Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery in Cambridge in January

We know for sure that Corey and guitarist Sam Lheron, who couldn’t be there for the interview, hail from the same high school in the North Shore. After meeting Jack at a battle of the bands, the three formed a power trio. Where’s Walden’s strength grew fourfold when Matt Twaddle, a highly versatile musician, joined the gang on bass. The rest is history.

“Music is just a way that I connect with other people,” says Jack, who is behind the band’s lyrics. “Putting it out there, letting people feel that emotion, that gives me something. It’s therapeutic for me.”

Where’s Walden has played at a few local spaces, including a classroom in UMass’s Herter Hall. They don’t mind playing in small spaces. In fact, you may have seen Where’s Walden’s advertisements in the UMass Class of 2019 Facebook group: “Where’s Walden will play a show in your dorm room in exchange for a bag of Doritos,” says Corey.

Cover art for their new album

Or maybe you haven’t seen their ads in the group, because shortly after posting about the band, Corey was banned from the UMass Class of 2019 facebook page.

The same devious forces that took Corey out somehow got Jack banned as well. What is a band without its enemies? With two members kicked out, the final two are currently laying low lest they face further persecution, prompting the #FreeWalden movement. “It’s like Free Willy,” Matt points out.

You can hear Division St. on Spotify if you love yourself.

The guys of Where’s Walden love coitus just as much as the next band, but much of their musical information derives from the numbness they feel after intercourse. Describing some of their songs as “post-coital,” they imagine that it fits well in the moments directly after sex, “when you sit there just not feeling anything about it, smoking like, five cigarettes.”

The band’s name occurred to Jack while he was driving around with his mom.

“I thought of Where’s Waldo, and then I was like ‘Walden,’ and then I thought of that octopus named Oswald, and I was like, ‘Os…Wald…’ and then…”

His mom is very proud of him, and so are we.

Needless to say, there are some freaky creative minds among this band. They’re not normal, and they’re fucking awesome. The boys blew the roof off of Herter Hall in January, and they’re coming back for more this Tuesday, February 9th. This time throwing an 80’s slant on the event.

Jack’s guitar adorned with adorable kittens, before he spilled his actual blood all over it two weeks ago.

Keep these cool cats on your radar, and don’t forget to check them out on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Facebook.

If you want to find them around campus, sprinkle some Dorito crumbs in your palm and read some Henry David Thoreau out loud – they will come.