Circa Waves: 2025

Circa Waves set the tone for this FUV Live session by opening with a song they hadn’t planned on doing. It was the first beautiful day of the year and, inspired by the short walk on the Rose Hill Campus, they blasted into “T-Shirt Weather” to usher in the spring of 2025.

That song, from the band’s debut album, Young Chaser, had been released ten years ago to the month. This visit came as Circa Waves tours behind their latest LP, their sixth, Death & Love, Pt. 1, the title of which references a near-death experience of singer and guitarist Kieran Shudall who suffered a cardiac emergency.

An appreciation for life, love, and music infuses the new album and Shudall and guitarist Joe Falconer, playing as an acoustic duo in Studio A, included two songs from it in this set: "Like You Did Before" and "Let's Leave Together."

Circa Waves are from Liverpool and, as they’re not coy about their love of the Beatles, they treated the FUV engineering and videography crew to Lennon and McCartney impersonations during mic checks. They’ve got a great affinity for a number of New York groups as well and in our conversation, Shudall and Falconer touched upon a few of them.

Shudall also offered some amazing recollections of writing songs in his hospital room after his emergency surgery to unblock a heart artery. Shudall and Falconer showed no signs of having never played the Death & Love Part 1 songs as an acoustic duo before, but it was a first for them — and a cool and intimate way to record their first FUV Live session.

As they told me, Death & Love, Pt. 2 will be coming soon — and I hope they return to the Bronx soon.

[Recorded: 4/22/25; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with James Higgins, Olivia Grant, and Sophia Derrig-Palumbo. Produced by Meghan Suma. Videographers: Stephanie Lane, Louisa Schramm, Lyla Toomey, Anna Fahy and Alena Godas.]