When UNA decided to craft some songs for their next release, their first full length in three years, they were thinking about aiming for something more palatable to wider audience. Then they realized as DJEddie Barajas put it, “that’s just not us”.

Previously UNA was called Exotica, and Trip Hop was referenced, too. Responses from College Radioincluded “odd use of sound” and “kinda weird”, which the band took to heart. They considered settlingfor a more acceptable and mainstream sound, but after being compared to the likes of Agnes Obel andChet Faker (a couple of their faves), they opted to stay the course. “Sometimes people think we’reweird and we embrace that,” notes vocalist Jennifer Nice. Last summer, UNA released “Last Time I Saw You,” the lead single from the quartet’s forthcoming LP, Noise of the Wing. A wistful tale of lost love and personal drama for sure.

UNA has received praise from such influential outlets as CMJ, Spinner, MTV Hive, and others. “If youwant to know what James Bond would sound like in a musical notation sense, with some added flair,then take a listen,” wrote SoundCloud.

Keyboardist and producer Richard Larsen says “We love noise, we’ve always loved noise, almost morethan music”. He continues, “like other hard to find things, you have to get down to the essentials.”

Drummer-guitarist Scott Eric Olivier points out “We got with an acoustician, made custom cables, had alot of crazy things fabricated in the studio, and now we only put in our noise.” Richard adds, “There’s alovely ruckus on our tracks, noise we spent a lot of time and effort creating”.