B-Side Guys

A Queensland honeymoon becomes meditation on mortality in “A Wave,” where Seth Quinn transforms witnessed tragedy into exploration of how art grapples with death. Through careful accumulation of artistic reference and oceanic imagery, the 24-year-old teacher creates something both deeply personal and universally resonant.

The production demonstrates Quinn’s philosophy about finding beauty in “ugly sounds and ugly notes.” When he describes the shoreline as “brittle in its beauty / brutal in its grace,” the arrangement supports this duality through careful balance of harsh and harmonious elements.

Quinn creates dialogue between artistic perspectives on suffering, directly challenging Walt Whitman’s “O joy of suffering” with the blunt assessment “Well I think he was a fraud.” This tension between romantic and realistic views of tragedy finds perfect expression through production that refuses easy resolution.

The lyrics craft careful progression from observation to processing. References to Monet’s impressionism – “pressed against my eyelids / impressionistic patterns” – suggest attempt to make sense of senseless death through artistic framework, while noting he “would call it something dumb / like still life with a view / or bubbles on her blue.”

Particularly effective is how the track handles its central metaphor of water’s indifference. The chorus’s observation that “the water takes much more than just the shape it surrounds” gains power through repetition, each iteration deepening understanding of both specific tragedy and universal loss.

Through its exploration of being “shapeless where I’m standing / firmly on the ground,” the track captures the peculiar dissociation that follows traumatic experience. The arrangement supports this instability through careful manipulation of sonic elements that emphasize both groundedness and drift.

The production maintains perfect balance between emotional impact and artistic distance. When Quinn describes “trawling through piles of what ifs” with “scalpel and my best sieve,” the music creates space for both raw feeling and analytical remove.

“A Wave” succeeds in transforming specific tragedy into universal exploration of how we process loss. Through careful attention to both artistic reference and emotional authenticity, Seth Quinn proves that sometimes the most effective way to handle trauma is through unflinching examination of art’s limitations.