After seven years in the shadows, Kwolek re-emerges with T > H > I > S, a sprawling, ten-track fever dream of grungewave guitars, warped synths, and deeply personal storytelling. The album, released on March 7, 2025, is a jagged, beautiful mess of sound—equal parts noisy and tender, chaotic yet deliberate, like flipping through a scrapbook of late-night confessions and hazy memories.
Each song unfolds from the perspective of a different misfit, painting sonic portraits of outcasts fumbling through love, lust, loss, and the occasional existential crisis. It’s an album of contradictions—melancholy but electrifying, messy but meticulously crafted. And while it’s easy to label T > H > I > S as alternative, grunge, or new wave, Kwolek’s musical DNA refuses to be pinned down.
A self-contained creative force, Kwolek writes, records, mixes, and masters everything himself, sculpting a sound that borrows from the past but feels undeniably fresh. Influences like Sonic Youth, New Order, Angel Olsen, and Roxy Music ripple through the album, but the end result is something distinctly his own. This time, he’s taken his DIY ethos on a journey across unexpected recording spaces—from a closet studio in Boulder, Colorado, to an earthship in Taos, a cathedral in Oslo, and a lakeside park in Chicago. Each location adds a ghostly imprint, a sense of place woven into the fabric of the album.
The album kicks off with Cemetery Days [Virginia + Danny 4ever], a track that instantly sets the tone—equal parts nostalgic and unsettling. Then there’s Ronnie Stole This Riff ///\\ Kim Is Desperate, a song that drowns in fuzzed-out guitars and fractured melodies, a sonic punch to the gut. Some Evenings [Tear Me Apart] follows, a slow-burning track that rides the line between vulnerability and catharsis, praised by Thoughts Words Action as “cleverly assembled and flawlessly performed rock music.”
Elsewhere on the album, Mademoiselle Calamity crashes through with glam swagger and just a hint of self-destruction, while Euphoria delivers exactly what the title promises—an intoxicating swirl of reverb-drenched guitars and soaring synths. Graham’s Confession [Cookie’s Up & Coming] is a lo-fi meditation on regret, stripped down to its rawest form, while Calliope Does The Hobgoblin Bop! is as weird and wild as its name suggests, a playful moment of controlled chaos.
The album’s two Release Variations tracks serve as sonic interludes, moments of breath before diving back into the madness. Release Variations I [Deep Breath] is hypnotic, almost meditative, while Release Variations II [Natalia & Sacha] feels like an underwater dream sequence. And then there’s Friends Under The Covers, the final track, a late-night love letter to fleeting moments and the people who drift in and out of our lives.
Kwolek has never chased fame or fortune—both have eluded him thus far—but his music has always felt necessary, a compulsion rather than a career move. He’s been making noise since his days in Lima Research Society, and with T > H > I > S, he continues to carve out a space for himself in the ever-evolving alt scene.
More than anything, T > H > I > S is a reminder that music doesn’t have to fit neatly into a box. It can be loud, messy, deeply personal, and unapologetically weird. And in Kwolek’s hands, it’s exactly that.
