The whirlpool worlds of The Ways

Beneath the angelic banner of matrimony with Sally Way, Syeda Salmah as The Angel and Benjamin Way; video still courtesy of Dr Phillip Murray.

One of the most elevated echelons in the world of the pop arts lies in the pursuit of the always progressing performance. A dance that continuously moves, discovers new steps and rhythms while projecting personas, purpose and all around expressions of polychromatic light. Stages change, platforms evolve, the methods move like the collected volumes of vignettes of a page turning omnibus. Eras arrive, and ebb into new epochs that inform new aspects of identities, a new act, a new vision, a new sound, a new style — a new world. The creative is constantly world building, groundswells from the deep well of the self that spring forth a barrage of new possibilities that ride the waves and whims of the imagination’s core.

The most innovative artists beyond time immemorial express themselves from the central axis of infinite flux. London by way of NYC icon and multihyphenate Sally Way (née Horowitz, fka S the Supplicant, Luxe, Secret Lover, et al.) and Benjamin Way have embraced the alchemy that the stage and the pop craft of song afford. From finding each other through the contemporary circuits of underground theatre events, experimental endeavors that straddle the abstract, the absurd, the odd, to all out eccentrically entertaining — Sally & Ben present their creative duality of The Ways. Fusing the places where the theatrical avant-garde and pop song synergy meet in a marriage under the banner of DIY, The Ways present their inaugural offering of “No Heaven”.

From the heavenly heights and angelic entities to the to the bottom of Hades’ inflammatory hosts — The Ways wander into the strange notion of the afterlife like a gilded guitar ballad dressed up like Arsenic and Old Lace. Ben & Sally together take on the world like a Badlands band of art school derelicts, a Mickey & Mallory Knox rambling together on the winds of a manic romance with the most lush chords imaginable. The duo draw their powers from the independent singles and all but forgotten 45s from the past half a century of NME / Melody Maker cult heroes and immortal pop idols of indelible influence. Every string rings like a beloved obscure 70s album rocker, to the anorak undergrounds that dotted the maps of a global twee dream nation that jangled all through the gazes of textural time warps and Brit pop bravado.

The visual from Dr. Phillip Murray blends old world cinema to the Ways' style of the sentimental and strange. The tale of a fiery flame being closed to extinguished is played out with maniacal mischief from demonic spells, poisonings, hauntings, and everything in between the constructs of heaven and hell. And through their spats and general malfeasance, The Ways rediscover one another in a sweeping ballad that tugs at the heart strings and paints a portrait of hope and perhaps even a finding an idiosyncratic slice of happiness. Ben and Sally blend together their penchant for dramatist presentations with an opulent and fanciful musical flair that is punctuated by cartoonish antics and animated special effects.

Pop provocateurs on the run (from left), Sally & Benjamin of The Ways; press photo courtesy of the artists.

Sally and Ben provided the following insights on their creative collaboration and more:

The Ways was born out of our own wish to hear more guitar-based pop songs, with meaningful lyrics and catchy hooks. We gravitate towards art that focuses on one's inner life, and feel pop music is the best prism through which we can tell these stories.

Kitchen confessionals with Sally Ways; video still courtesy of Dr Phillip Murray.

Before The Ways, we each shifted mediums a lot — from music to theatre to writing — without feeling totally fulfilled or that we fitted into any of these worlds. As such, we started a project that would give a single outlet to our varied artistic urges.

“No Heaven” is out now everywhere.