Baths

The innovative electronic pop project of Los Angeles-area producer Will Wiesenfeld, Baths immerses listeners in atmospheric songs where fantasy and real life meet. The glitchy pop of 2010's Cerulean introduced Wiesenfeld's soothing-yet-challenging approach, which turned darker and more cathartic on 2013's Obsidian. With 2017's Romaplasm, Baths' music reached newly emotional heights, a trend that Wiesenfeld continued on 2020's frequently confessional Pop Music/False B-Sides II. On 2025's GUT, he paired this soul-baring with sounds that were equally experimental and sensual.

A classically trained musician, Wiesenfeld began making music at an early age while growing up in Los Angeles. He studied piano from age four until age 12, then became fascinated with electronic music ranging from Euro-pop to trance to IDM as a teen. Wiesenfeld found his true inspiration after discovering Björk's music, and while attending Hamilton High School's music academy, taught himself guitar, contrabass, and viola. He also developed a distinctively layered production style, mixing sounds like clicking pens and running water with electronics and live instruments.

Wiesenfeld's first project was [Post-Foetus], which released The 1st Will Wiesenfeld EP in 2007. The following year, he began crafting ambient compositions under the name Geotic. Soon, he added the Baths moniker -- a tribute to his love of relaxing in the tub -- to the fold. Invited by the like-minded producer Daedelus to play at the L.A. venue Low End Theory, he became a regular performer at the club and signed to Anticon Records in 2009. In 2010, Wiesenfeld had a busy release schedule: Along with remixes for Fol Chen, Shlomo, and Rafter, that year [Post-Foetus]' album The Fabric and Geotic's Mend arrived. It was also the year that Baths' debut album, Cerulean -- which Wiesenfeld recorded in his bedroom over a couple of months -- appeared. Cerulean won acclaim for its immersive production and delicate melodies, and in 2011, Wiesenfeld built on this praise with Pop Music/False B-Sides, a collection of outtakes and previously unreleased music. Around this time, he remixed Gold Panda, Son Lux, and Lali Puna (one of his favorite acts) and collaborated with Daedelus and Dntel among others.

In 2012, an extended illness left Wiesenfeld bed-ridden for months. The experience -- along with his research about the Dark Ages and his desire to perform with a full band -- informed his second album, 2013's Obsidian, a cathartic set of songs that was darker and more direct than his earlier music. The record reached number 15 on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums. That year, Wiesenfeld also worked with Ryan Hemsworth and Flying Lotus and began scoring the animated TV show Bee & Puppycat. In 2014, Baths issued a remix of Grizzly Bear's "Will Calls" and the Ocean Death EP, which continued Obsidian's fascination with love and death.

For a few years, Wiesenfeld concentrated on Geotic releases, culminating with the release of the project's official debut album, Abysma, on Ghostly in March 2017. He returned as Baths later that year, first in July with the theme song for the video game Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator and again in November with the full-length Romaplasm, an album inspired by the escapism and romance of comics, anime, and games. Along with releasing Geotic's second album, Traversa, in October 2018, Wiesenfeld's work as Baths during this time included remixes for WHY?, Tomas Barfod, Let's Eat Grandma, and Imogen Heap. In May 2020, he issued Baths' Pop Music/False B-Sides II. A set of tracks recorded during the years between Obsidian and Romaplasm that featured newly written lyrics, it arrived on Wiesenfeld's own Basement's Basement label along with a remastered reissue of Pop Music/False B-Sides. That year, Wiesenfeld also issued the Geotic album Oxperls and teamed up with Lala Lala on the single "€ € € €^^%%!!!!!heaven!!!!!!”

Over the next few years, Wiesenfeld pursued a wide array of projects as Geotic and Baths. He released 2022's To Not Now, Nor to Ever, Despair, 2023's Oversight, and 2024's The Anchorite under the former moniker, and a trio of singles ("Slut Hymn," "Projecting a Life," and "Do I Make the World Worse") as well as collaborations with Bambina and Hrishikesh Hirway under the latter name. Also in 2023, two volumes of the Bee & Puppycat soundtrack were released under his own name. Wiesenfeld delivered Baths' fourth proper album, GUT, in February 2025. A no-holds-barred exploration of his sexuality as a gay man, the album also dug into painfully honest feelings that were reflected in noisy textures inspired by Protomartyr and A Frames. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi