Today New Zealand’s Wax Chattels announce their cathartic sophomore album, Clot, out September 25.

Along with the announcement the band shares the first single “No Ties”. Amanda Cheng (bass/vocals), who is Hoklo Taiwanese, expresses in the melodic single the experience of being a first generation immigrant and not having a personal relationship with extended family. The song touches on cultural differences and the parental sacrifice of careers and support systems to provide a “better” future for their children.

Amanda Cheng on “No Ties”: “Being a first generation immigrant, I’ve never had a personal connection with my extended family. There’s an incomparable loneliness rooted in this — I think the weight of parental sacrifice and cultural estrangement is difficult for other Kiwis to understand. ‘No Ties’ comes from these frustrations, and the helpless desperation of watching the present-day political confrontations in my other, would-have-been, home.”