Biography
A disastrous excursion to SXSW in 2012 effectively dismantled the garage-punk trio Bare Wires, the group Matthew Melton had guided through four years and three albums. Once his former colleagues departed, he launched Warm Soda in May 2012, enlisting bassist Chase Oren, guitarist Rob Good, and drummer Ian McBrayer. The new quartet’s music echoed Bare Wires while sharpening its focus into tightly wound power-pop numbers that seemed to emanate from a small AM radio during the summer of 1976. In September 2012 the band issued its first single, “Reaction,” then partnered once more with Thee Oh Sees’ Jon Dwyer and his Castle Face imprint—the label behind Bare Wires’ final release—to unveil the debut album Someone for You in early spring 2013. Late that year, Warm Soda contributed the modern power-pop gem “Tell Me in a Whisper” to Sonny Smith’s I Need You Bad compilation, after which the group delivered its second Castle Face long-player, Young Reckless Hearts, in early 2014. Internal tensions prompted Melton to relocate to Austin, Texas, that same year; he constructed a new home studio and recruited guitarist Maxx Eaton, bassist Austin Shockley, and drummer Caleb Dawson. Remaining with Castle Face and buoyed by fresh energy, Warm Soda issued its third album, Symbolic Dream, in May 2015. The same lineup tracked the band’s fourth release, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, which appeared on Castle Face in early 2017 and marked the project’s conclusion. Melton subsequently turned toward more psychedelic sounds in Dream Machine, the group he formed with his wife, Doris.