Windwaker (band)

Windwaker, named after the Legend of Zelda game, was formed in late-2014 in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. The group originally formed as with Will King on vocals, Chris Lalic on drums, Indey Salvestro on bass, with Mark Mcghie and Will Eggleton as first guitarists.[3] In April 2015,[5] Windwaker moved to Melbourne, Victoria[4] together where they began performing and recording new material. Their debut single, 'The Charade' featuring Zach Britt of Dream On, Dreamer, was released on 15 September 2015.[10] Windwaker's next single "Castaway" was released on 2 November 2016, it was later included on their debut EP.[11] The band soon began performing with Liam Guinane, who unofficially acted as both a live and studio member upon the departure of guitarist Mcghie, and later Chris Moohan upon the departure of guitarist Eggleton. Windwaker's debut EP Fade, was later released on 31 May 2017. The EP was produced, mixed and mastered by Sonny Truelove at STL Studios in Sydney, Australia.[12]

On 15 January 2018, Windwaker introduced Jesse Crofts as a full-time guitarist.[13] Two days later, Guinane was officially introduced as the fifth and final member of the band.[14] On 2 April, the band released their single "New Infinite", the first track to feature Guinane and Crofts.[15] The band made their first festival appearance at BIGSOUND Festival in Brisbane, Queensland in September.[16]

In early-2019, the hashtag #TheSitch frequently began to appear across social media forums in Australia.[17] On 1 February 2019, Windwaker released single "The Sitch" alongside an accompanying music video, announcing pre-orders for sophomore EP, Empire.[18] The EP, self-produced by Windwaker was mixed, mastered, and engineered by drummer Chris Lalic with additional engineering by guitarist Liam Guinane and Declan White.[19] Vocalist Will King stated: "Coming out of our last record, a record deeply rooted in post-adolescent feelings of pain and loneliness, as a band, it’s safe to say that we all had this strong desire to redeem ourselves of those sole qualities. I think we have always feared trapping ourselves in a box, kept in by 1-dimensional expectations, and we are very conscious of not allowing that influence to hinder our creativity. We are absolutely not a band who is going to sit around all day writing the same songs over and over again."[20]

Windwaker released the second single of the release, entitled "My Empire", on 5 March with an accompanying music video released alongside it.[21]

11 days before the release of Empire EP, Windwaker played their first large scale festival at Download Festival Melbourne, result of winning a competition held by national radio station triple j Unearthed.[22] Empire was then later released on 22 March, with a limited physical release following in June. All of the shows for their headline Empire tour got sold out. The band signed onto New World Artists for bookings, sometime later.[23] In July, Windwaker later joined Beartooth on their Disease Tour as support, alongside Thornhill.[24] Guitarist Liam Guinane will be unable to attend the tour due to personal obligations, Weighbridge guitarist Sean Ross will fill in. The band also announced they plan of covering Silverstein's track "Freak" during the tour.[25] On 9 September, Liam announced he would be departing the band to focus more his side project band Reside. However stated that he would stay with the band until December where the band are set to play at Good Things, before definitively leaving.[26]

The band then played at Unify festival in January 2020 before bidding farewell to Liam for good.[27]