‘Trying to make soup with the ingredients’: Winnetka Bowling League make Spokane stop on tour with first record

Hailing from Southern California and named after a bowling league in a Los Angeles neighborhood, Winnetka Bowling League is fresh off its debut album and the group is heading to Spokane for the first time.

The band fronted by Matthew Koma released its first full-length record – “Sha La La” – in May.

Sonically, it is easy to say the LP continued Winnetka Bowling League’s exploration of the indie and alt-pop genres that have defined their numerous prior singles and EPs.

Beyond the surface level, “Sha La La” represents a band that has honed its sound to a point that the experimentation and diversity found within the record simply meshes into each track. From various synths to dynamic strings, the precise volume of the percussion throughout, and the saxophone highlights on “No One’s Ever Kissed You” to the slight yet extremely effective touches of piano and acoustic guitar – each song is a new ride found within a well-themed amusement park.

The end result is an overall simultaneous feel of modern and electronic, yet nostalgic and refreshingly full of genuine musicianship.

This experimental accuracy behind the record came from a few different places, one of which being the group’s long-time influences and not being afraid to fully wear their genre on their sleeve.

“Like most things, you’re pulling from your influences and trying to make soup with the ingredients that you’ve had forever,” Koma said, citing Elvis Costello, Squeeze and Superdrag as just a few of their many inspirations. “And with this particular record, it felt like we weren’t ashamed of wearing the power-pop influences … Hopefully, it’s not something that you’re overthinking and you’re following what suits the song while putting yourself in a place where you’re open to songs being delivered.”

Complementing the stimulating nostalgia found within the almost 1980s-esque aspects of “Sha La La” are lyrics and general themes of the same vein.

Koma found himself recollecting over the past decade or so; the defining moments of his 20s and 30s.

Koma found himself making “more sense” of his experiences in the form of lyricism since becoming more “removed” from the situations where he has carried out his own personal journeys of love, loss, friendships and internal growth.

“This was a look at the last 10 years and there’s a lot of good that goes with that, as well as a lot of frustration that goes with that, but you’re able to see it for what it is,” Koma said. “I don’t want to call it rose-colored glasses because you’re not shying away from the ugly of it, but you’re just able to talk about the experience with a little less emotional attachment, and I’m somebody who’s always trying to make sense of things.”

Another aspect of the album’s precision may be the most on the nose – Winnetka Bowling League simply decided it was going to go all in and record a full-length LP.

Since 2018, the band almost annually released EP’s and various singles each year.

Koma will be the first to say he enjoyed the sense of freedom and “noncommitment” that came with this consistent style of release, but as a group not only finding its footing within the indie scene but as a communion of musicians as well, it was time to pause and create a truly collective body of work.

“So many of the EPs were, ‘OK, cool we’re off tour for a minute and I wrote these songs’ … it just became whatever there was we would put out, and when you’re trying to discover the DNA and heartbeat of a band it takes time, so some of it sticks and others, ‘Oh, I wish we never put that out and I never want to play that song again,’ but it’s still an important part of the process,” Koma said of the group’s prior releases.

As for the album, he said, “This felt a little bit more like, ‘Let’s just stretch out this process and uncover all the rocks and figure out where this was supposed to live’ … there was more of a North Star and really knowing what we were going for.”

And at least on Koma’s end, the processes of “Sha La La” (although longer than Winnetka Bowling League are used to) have been completely worth it – as proven by its current headlining tour.

“It feels different touring on a record,” Koma said. “It feels nice to connect to our fans in that way when they’re singing along to all the songs and it’s not just about a single or something; it feels like the work has really paid off.”

The tour supporting their debut album will bring Winnetka Bowling League on Thursday, Sept. 12, to Spokane and the Knitting Factory, a stop Koma is dually looking forward to as the home of one of his favorite authors, Jess Walter. The band is traveling multiple cities with band Mother Mother.

Although it is still a little too soon for the band to have many specifics in mind for what Winnetka Bowling League will do next, the next project is already in the back of Koma’s mind.

“It’s funny because songs are obviously the basis and foundation of it all, but it’s almost like, ‘Of course the songs are going to come,’ so it’s more about how I’m arming myself to go into that headspace, what I want to accomplish, and how to navigate those ideas when they come,” Koma said.

“I’m in that mode of thinking a lot about what the next thing should feel like, what I would want to hear from the band as a fan and what I want to create in it as a member.”