LA shoegazers Drauve take us track-by-track through ‘Timeline,’ an immersive and all-consuming EP that wrestles with time, memory, and emotional aftermath through a haze of gauzy distortion and achingly reflective songwriting.

Stream: “Blood” – Drauve

Time has a way of revealing what you’ve been carrying – anger delayed, trust misplaced, versions of yourself you’ve outgrown but never fully left behind.

It sharpens perspective while complicating memory, forcing a reckoning not just with what happened, but with how it changed you. On their new EP Timeline, LA shoegazers Drauve give that process an outlet – channeling intimate reflection and self-interrogation through distortion, restraint, and release. Their songs sit inside that raw space, tracing how emotion hardens, softens, and resurfaces as life keeps moving forward. A cathartic and charged reckoning, Timeline is Drauve at their most intense, unfiltered, and alive – mapping the slow, painful, and ultimately empowering work of becoming yourself across time.

And it feels like the world
that lives inside me waits for you
And every bit of air I breathe
connects to something true
Oh every little memory’s
a missing piece I build
until I feel complete
I do, I do…

I don’t wanna live forever
I just wanna live like this
‘Til we feel the rapture
Or we find eternal bliss

– “Blood,” Drauve

Independently released October 29, Timeline finds Drauve, – the Pittsburgh-born, LA-based duo of vocalist Victoria Draovitch and guitarist Stephen Grzenda – honing the sound they’ve been steadily carving out since forming in 2019. Originally emerging as a dream-pop project before leaning harder into distortion and grit, the band’s music is rooted in the emo and alternative rock of their Pennsylvania upbringing, shaped in dive bars, basements, and VFW halls long before their move to Los Angeles.

Following their 2024 debut No Hope for Anything, the six-track Timeline arrives not as a departure, but as a refinement – a more focused and cohesive extension of their dreamy emo-shoegaze identity that balances hushed introspection with bursts of aggression. Written quickly during a creatively charged stretch in Fall 2024, the EP captures Drauve in motion, translating a period of rapid emotional change into songs that feel both intimate and unflinchingly loud. As catchy as it is cathartic, Timeline reads as the moment Drauve’s emotional intensity, melodic instinct, and shoegaze weight fully coalesce into a singular, confident vision.

In many ways, Timeline took shape almost immediately after Drauve’s debut album, born from a need to keep moving rather than look back.

“In 2024, we released our debut album No Hope for Anything. Right after its release, I still felt very creatively charged, so I started writing with no specific purpose other than emotional release,” Victoria Draovitch tells Atwood Magazine. “The first song I wrote was ‘Sink In,’ since I was dealing with an extremely toxic life situation and needed to get my anger out. The bulk of the songs were written in Fall 2024, so this project actually came together quite quickly. I was just in a very reflective space, having experienced a lot of ups and downs in a short period of time.”

That immediacy shaped not only the emotional core of the EP, but its sonic direction as well. “Our vision for this project was ‘consistency.’ While our music has always been in the dreamy alternative realm, we’ve jumped around quite a bit sonically and wanted to move away from that. We wanted this project to be consistent with our debut album No Hope for Anything, with some refinements. After demoing throughout Fall 2024, we selected the songs that fit best together and worked to mold their production and mixing so the record had a solid, cohesive sound. We listened to a lot of Hotline TNT, Momma, Title Fight, and From Indian Lakes for inspiration while making this project.”

Taken together, Timeline serves as a defining statement of who Drauve are right now. “Timeline introduces us as a dreamy emo shoegaze band who balances quiet moments with bursts of aggression,” the band explains. “It captures our passion for creating ethereal worlds that hold deeply vulnerable stories.” That balance between atmosphere and intensity runs through every corner of the EP, where hushed passages give way to distortion-heavy release, and emotional restraint is met with moments of rupture rather than resolution.

Asked to distill the record down to its essence, the band offers three words: vulnerable, reflective, energetic.

It’s a simple summation, but an accurate one – Timeline is unafraid to sit with discomfort, to examine how feelings evolve over time, and to translate that introspection into something physical and forceful. Even at its most delicate, the EP carries momentum, propelled by the urgency of emotions that refuse to stay buried.

That sense of forward motion is embedded directly in the title itself. “These songs all reflect on the passing of time,” Draovitch explains. “How challenges shape you over time, how you view situations differently over time, how relationships change over time, and how time makes some memories grow fonder.” Rather than treating time as a linear arc or neat narrative, Timeline traces its uneven impact – the way growth can feel disorienting in the moment, and clarifying only in retrospect.

At its core, Timeline is a record about pressure and release – about what happens when feeling builds quietly over time until it finally demands sound, shape, and volume. Across its six tracks, Drauve balance softness with force, letting gauzy textures blur into distortion while emotion oscillates between restraint and confrontation. The result is an EP that feels immersive without being passive, intimate without ever losing its bite, as each song traces a different point along the same emotional continuum.

That tension comes into clear focus on “Wool,” a song that captures the slow burn of betrayal and the agony of knowing you’ve been wronged without feeling able to say it out loud. Swells of reverb-drenched guitar give way to sharper edges as Draovitch’s vocals push through frustration and disbelief, culminating in a chorus that crystallizes the song’s emotional core: “When you take the wool off of my eyes, please know you really hurt me and I was seeing clearly / But it’s like the kind of dream where you just wanna scream and nothing comes out.” “I love this because it just so perfectly captures the feeling of not being able to stand up for yourself,” Draovitch says. “You know someone is doing you wrong, but everyone loves them…you feel your screams of ‘this person is a liar’ will go unheard.” The song’s power lies not just in its confrontation, but in its restraint – the way anger simmers beneath beauty until it can no longer stay buried.

That reckoning deepens on “Sink In” and the title track “Timeline,” two songs that wrestle directly with self-doubt, comparison, and the corrosive effects of internalizing harm. “Sink In” opens with a line that lands like a challenge and a confession all at once: “I don’t wanna be soft / I don’t wanna be delicate.” It’s a declaration born of exhaustion, a refusal to keep shrinking or smoothing over justified anger. “Timeline,” by contrast, turns inward, tracing the ache of watching life unfold elsewhere as you’re left questioning your own pace. Lines like “Watching you live on another timeline / And I could have sworn it was supposed to be mine” capture the quiet devastation of comparison, where longing and resentment coexist without easy resolution. Together, the songs form a crucial emotional hinge on the EP – one fueled by confrontation, the other by reflection, both bound by the same uneasy awareness of time passing.

Dramatic and dreamy, “Blood” arrives like a release valve, a gauzy, shiver-inducing rush of radiant shoegaze heat that feels expansive and deeply personal all at once. Built on shimmering textures and a sense of forward motion, the song carries the warmth of memory without slipping into nostalgia, anchored by a line that feels almost devotional in its simplicity: “I just wanna live like this / Till we feel the rapture / Or we find eternal bliss.” It’s a moment of openness that feels earned after the EP’s earlier tension – a breath taken with both eyes open. Unsurprisingly, the band point to it as a personal highlight. “Our favorite is ‘Blood,’” they share. “Both having grown up in Pennsylvania, it feels like a tribute to our family and friends we don’t get to see often, now that we live in California. We also love the production on that track, especially the intro. It’s what it feels like to embark on an adventure, like starting a road trip with your friends.”

Taken as a whole, Timeline resonates because of its honesty and intention – not just in what it says, but in how carefully it says it. Drauve resist the urge to over-explain or dramatize, instead trusting sound, texture, and specificity to carry the weight of their experiences. It’s a record that understands how growth often feels messy and nonlinear in the moment, and how clarity arrives only when you’re willing to listen closely to what time has been trying to show you all along. In doing so, Timeline becomes more than a snapshot of a particular chapter – it’s a companion for anyone navigating the long, uneven process of becoming themselves.

For all its volume and texture, Timeline ultimately circles back to connection – to the quiet hope that honesty, when rendered clearly enough, might make someone else feel less alone.

Draovitch speaks about the record not as a finished product, but as an offering, shaped by specificity and self-scrutiny rather than performance or projection. It’s a mindset rooted in the way music once served them, and in the belief that songs can still function as mirrors when you need them most.

“I really hope someone out there hears one of the songs from Timeline and thinks, ‘oh my god, it’s like this song was written for my exact situation,’” she shares. “Growing up, I felt super misunderstood, but I always found understanding through music. I want our music to serve that purpose for people.”

“Now that Timeline is out, I’ve honestly been listening to it a lot, and this is the first time I’ve been able to do that. Like, actually listen to my own music and feel something. I was extremely honest with myself throughout the making of this project, honest not only in the lyrics but also in making sure I was 110% happy with every aspect of the writing, production, mixing. We were painfully specific at times, and it could even be a bit discouraging. But, I can definitely say it paid off. If this were the last music I ever released (it won’t be), I’d be okay with that.”

That level of care is audible in every corner of the EP – in the way nothing feels rushed or padded, in how emotion is allowed to arrive fully formed rather than dressed up for impact. Timeline doesn’t chase universality by sanding down its edges; it earns it by staying precise, trusting that the more truthful the expression, the more likely it is to find its way into someone else’s life at exactly the right moment.

This is music for those moments when time forces clarity – when reflection turns unavoidable – and it couldn’t have come at a better time of year. Experience the full record via our below stream, and peek inside Drauve’s Timeline EP with Atwood Magazine as the duo take us track-by-track through the music and lyrics of their latest release!

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:: stream/purchase Timeline here ::

:: connect with Drauve here ::

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Stream: ‘Timeline’ – Drauve

:: Inside Timeline ::

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Wool

This song is about a loved one betraying you and thinking they’re getting away with it, meanwhile you can see exactly what they’re doing. It was inspired by a situation where I was being deceived, but for a multitude of reasons, I wasn’t able to call the person out on their actions. The anger and resentment that built from that ordeal resulted in this song.

Sink In

When I was younger I was pretty bold, but as life went on I became more meek. I wanted to appease, I wanted to be successful, and most importantly I wanted others to see me as successful. This resulted in watering myself down, and struggling with constant self-doubt. When someone wronged me, I wouldn’t stand up for myself because I thought, maybe I deserved it. Well, this song is about allowing yourself to feel anger. When I wrote Sink In, I had been living in Los Angeles for 3.5 years, and I ended up in a situation where someone repeatedly lied to me in a way that even jeopardized my safety. It snapped me out of years of self-doubt, and I finally stood my ground. After that, anger flooded me; I started replaying past situations and realizing my anger WAS justified (Wool also was born from this realization). I wrote this song as an anthem to remember that I deserve to be treated with respect, and I should never apologize for demanding that.

Timeline

This song is about watching someone else achieve your dreams, while you feel like you’re falling behind. It’s directly inspired by the saying that everyone is on their own timeline, which is true, but that doesn’t change the reality that some days it really hurts when you aren’t where you want to be. I’m very proud of this song lyrically, because while it’s simple and perhaps a bit cryptic, I think it really demonstrates the internal monologue of someone struggling with comparison.

Blood

“Blood” is a love song to my home state of Pennsylvania. I grew up in a small town outside of Pittsburgh, and started a band at twelve. There were a lot of opportunities for young people to perform in the area, so I made a lot of friends and gained a lot of valuable life experience through music. I didn’t fully appreciate it until I moved to Los Angeles, and could really connect the dots on how these experiences shaped the person and musician I am today. I wrote this song after visiting Pennsylvania in Fall 2024. Drauve played a show, we saw a ton of our best friends, I admired the beautiful fall landscape as we drove from Pittsburgh to Philly…and I randomly got my first ever nosebleed on Halloween! This song is a vignette of that trip, which was a really beautiful and inspiring time for me.

Window

I have struggled with mental illness – specifically OCD – my whole life, especially since college. When it flares up badly, it can leave me completely unable to function, but thankfully that hasn’t happened in years. However, I wrote this while feeling I had plateaued with my mental health improvement. I was functioning, but just feeling bad about myself constantly. Replaying tapes of regret in my head, over and over, all day long. It led me to question if maybe there were ways I wasn’t trying to get better. If I could see myself from the outside, would I be proud? While I can’t blame myself for my mental illness, am I using it as a shield? I realized there were ways I needed to show up for myself more, and I wrote this song about holding myself accountable for that.

Glimpse

I actually wrote this song in Las Vegas, which is funny because you think of Vegas as a party city and this is the most downtempo track on the project. I think I went to see Zedd DJ at a club the day I wrote this, which is kind of hilarious. Glimpse is about not recognizing someone anymore; it can even be interpreted as speaking to a past version of yourself you don’t recognize anymore. A lot of this project was about reflecting on betrayal, and how you grow from that. When you experience a friendship breakup, or someone deceiving you, it changes how you move through the world. For me, it’s led to a sad but positive change. I’m sad that maybe I’m a bit more guarded now, a bit less trusting of others. But, on the other hand, I am happy that at least I trust myself now. Glimpse being the final track on this project represents saying a final goodbye to those who don’t deserve space in your life anymore.

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:: stream/purchase Timeline here ::

:: connect with Drauve here ::

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 © Matt Palichat

Timeline

an EP by Drauve