“I used to drive just to get out of the house and that first Queens of the Stone Age album was the soundtrack to those escapes. I always loved that album – Josh’s songwriting is very unique – and I got to thinking how it would be kinda cool to do a different take on “Mexicola” – for it to be like a response to the protagonist in Josh Homme’s song,” explains Wax on Water front-woman Maya Damaris.
With the art of producing a cover posing no easy feat for any artist, Wax on Water approaches the interpolation with their fiery flair — departing from the chest-pounding guitar strings of the original and taking to 80s-style synths pads and kaleidoscopic percussion to transport us to realms anew. Produced amidst a period of isolation and loneliness, “Mexicola” is charged with angst that speaks directly to human’s rawest emotions — uncovering painful realities from a bed of soul-shaking beats.
Unveiled beside an intimate visual, Maya Damaris is seen alone in a room with nothing but her voice and her instruments as she assures “you won’t live forever”. Speaking further on the visual effort, Maya explains, “The video was shot in a Director friend’s apartment in Soho since all the London studios were still closed at that time due to the pandemic. We shot 3 videos in an evening (of all the cover songs I had done in the first lockdown), so it was pretty off the cuff. When I watch that video back it seems so weird to think that at that time, the streets outside were completely deserted and there was no one around, when Soho is usually so raucous and full of life.”
To stream the track and music video now, head below…