Watashi Wa - "10 Years and Separating States" (2006)

Watashi Wa was an indie band from California fronted by Seth Roberts. Their name is Japanese for “I Am,” as in the name God uses to refer to Himself in the Bible. They released a couple albums before signing with Tooth & Nail Records in 2003 and releasing their most notable album The Love of Life. The band announced they were breaking up in the summer of 2004, but Roberts’ new project Eager Seas, would be putting out an album on Tooth & Nail. Eager Seas was supposed to decidedly different from Watashi Wa, with a more organic and acoustic sound. The album was to be titled People Like People and had a few set release dates but kept getting postponed. At one point there was even an ad in Alternative Press magazine with the album artwork and a release date, but it never happened. Apparently Tooth & Nail figured that Watashi Wa owed them another album and they decided to release the album with the title being Eager Seas and the artist being Watashi Wa. I’m sure there were lots of legal issues involved that I’m not aware of and don’t understand, but I think this just proves that even indie labels can sometimes be difficult. In any event, Eager Seas was finally released in January of 2006, without much of a marketing push from the label. The songs on the album are some of the best Roberts has written and they incorporate a lot of acoustic guitar and piano not found on previous Watashi Wa records. My favorite is probably today’s song, which is also the album opener. Since the name and title fiasco, Roberts has amicably parted ways with Tooth & Nail and has formed a new band called Lakes. This was reportedly to distance himself from any name confusion that might occur. Lakes has released an EP entitled Photographs via The Militia Group. You can hear songs from it on their Myspace page.


Watashi Wa - "10 Years and Separating States"