An adaptive sense of ‘post-punk’ may be the most ‘way’ to file Chicago’s Axis: Sova, the trio of Brett Sova, Jeremy Freeze, and Josh Johannpeter. That's if post-punks understood as an organ, living roots and branches in the wilds of all music. Rock is rich krovvy that froths in Axis: Sova’s veins, and they enjoy progressive tactics when spilling it.
Ever since Blinded by Oblivion (prod. Ty Segall) knocked listeners out back in ‘23, the band have spent their meantime on Chi’s Northwest side looking for fresh shocks and patterns in sound, absorbing, taping and generally writing on the reg. These drafting sessions yielded an exciting new openness, in no small part due to the extensive touring they'd done together all across the U.S.A. and Europe. Fittingly, in August of ‘25, fresh off an East Coast run featuring new songs in the set, they went into Electrical Audio with Cooper Crain to begin laying things down.
Working the songs live before recording them was a fresh approach, and the results find the group at the zenith of engagement. Brett and Jeremy's guitar/bass dialogue is righteously organized and dynamic. They complement each other’s space in the company of Josh, whose percussive passions align perfectly with the electric rhythms that have historically provided the Axis: undercurrent. Shifting the focus away from the metronome and towards rhythmic flexibility allowed them to play with increased freedom of choice, making for a visceral pull and elegant bloom in the songs and sounds they created. After mixing at Crain's Sweat Lodge studio in January 2026, the Flowerage bouquet was fully dialled in—energetic and IN COLOR.
Flowerage finds Axis: Sova discovering anew that their blood-threaded rock spawn can help reverse-engineer a grounded and intentional existence—one that processes and perseveres amidst the chaos of the world. Refracting the internal/external experience and aligning the 'within' with the 'without,' it makes NOISE to overpower 'the noise'. Urgent and weird, Flowerage is soul music: the mental and the physical, growth and change, a tradition and a calling. What else are bands for?