Interview: The Wild!
Photo: Brandon Hart
Make rock wild again.
That’s a mission that Kelowna’s The Wild! have been embarking on, and one that has caught on in their home country of Canada, as well as in Europe. We spoke with lead singer Dylan Villian [pictured above, center right] about their latest songs, touring in Canada, and if rock and roll really is dead (spoiler alert - it’s not - bands like The Wild! are out there keeping it alive).
I know you guys were super busy this year and were touring throughout Europe. I was just wondering what was that experience like for you guys and of course, welcome back to Canada.
We've been spending most of our time in Europe over the last few years, actually. We first went in 2017 and it was great for our first run over there. We were lucky enough to actually earlier in the years, kind of how it started. We were out on the road with Airborne across the U.S. and Canada and just became really close with those guys, really hit it off, and became really good friends. We went over to Europe and did some dates and right after that tour ended, we kind of stayed in America for another couple of months and then came home towards Canada. Right at the end of the Canadian tour, they said, "Hey, we've got another European run we're going to do, do you guys want to come do it with us?" And we, of course, said yeah, for sure. Even better to add to the whole thing, it was a cherry on top that Phil Campbell from Motorhead was on that tour as well. It was just a great tour and for our first time being in Europe - what a way to get introduced to the market. Every year since then, we've been going three, four times, every year. And it's just been fantastic. It's a wonderful place for bands that have the attitude and don't confuse themselves with this bullshit fluff that you hear on the radio calling itself rock. Nowadays, it's a place that really rocks and supports rock and roll and isn't afraid to be real and authentic and the things that. The things that they're saying and the way that they're living, you know, that's perfect for bands like The Wild!
What are you looking forward to about touring in your home country, Canada again?
Oh man, it's kinda cool. You kind of mentioned it earlier, we did a really big year on the road this year, especially in Europe. It was our biggest tour in Europe and our biggest world tour to date actually, between Canada, America, Europe and all of that stuff. Everybody I think really assumed that because of the last few years we've spent in Europe, playing some of the shows that we've had. We've done all this stuff, I think everybody sort of expected us to come home and do you know, the big tour or play the rooms that we normally would play, in terms of venue size, all of that stuff. It's just this thing that you get on stage and in some of these crowds, like we played the 17,000 in Europe, in Germany this summer, and then several other cases of 10,000 plus, and it was just a feeling like none other. But I'll tell you truthfully when you're subjected to that feeling and that energy and people after the show, it gets you thinking about what it took to get to that point and what you all endured as a band to get to that.
I couldn't help but think of all the early days of us starting out and playing 200 seat clubs in our home country that, cause that's really what that tried and true method that we've had since the start just getting out on the road and really doing it. That's really what put us in this position now. I thought, what better way than to, in true The Wild! fashion, pull a fast one on everybody and saying, "you know, fuck the bigger venues, let's go out and punk rock it and do 200 seat clubs only." I think a lot of people are surprised that we were doing it, but at the same time, we couldn't be happier. We couldn't be more excited to do it because we've never really changed and we know how to do that small bar show and we'll always have that in us and we're really looking forward to doing that again, man.
I know your second album came out back in 2017 you've released a couple of singles (“Playing With Fire” and “Helluva Ride”) so far this year. What has the response to those new songs been?
It's been great, man, it's interesting. You don't put out music for two years and then you put something out and it's kinda like, "Oh man, do people still like us or are they gonna get it? Are we still cool? What's everybody gonna feel about it?" You can only write what you know, so you do what you can to put out what your band sounds like or whatever. We always do that with our songs, so we threw them out and they're our two biggest streaming numbers song start to biggest songs in we've had as far as the release goes. So that was interesting to see from a worldwide perspective because now we have a worldwide audience instead of just Canada. But it's been great to see everybody really loving them and feel really good about that. They're really fun songs. We wanted to write songs that are fun to play live and it's been fun. It's been really cool to see everybody digging them.
Do you guys have plans for a follow-up album?
Right now, we're just focusing on these singles and to knock out this tour, but I'm always writing and we're always working in the studio on things. Right now it's just all about these singles and this tour, we'll see what happens in the future.
What's your kind of writing and recording process like then? I know you just mentioned you're always writing always in the studio. Do you write on the road, do you write at home or is it just like super random?
Typically it can come at any time, but it always starts with a riff with me. Being our principal songwriter, I can just tell you that that's my method - I'm a riff guy. I always got a shit load of riffs, I'm always doing riffs, and that's where it starts. Generally, what I do, is I put a riff down and then I just have it on my phone and I'll just listen. That riff could either be a very loose skeleton of a song, or it'll just be the riff itself. And then either when I'm driving, you know, if I'm driving just at home and doing stuff around town or when we're on the road and I'm just laying there, sitting there, I'll just listen to it on repeat asleep to it often as well. And then melodies come to me and then words sort of form or whatever from that. Then from there, I'll make it into a song. A lot of the songs in between, writing at home, a lot of it's at home, but sometimes it happens on the road. I remember back in 2014, actually going back a while, one of our biggest songs, our first big single, "Slow Burn," we were driving somewhere on tour. wrote basically the whole thing just by humming out the guitar parts and the drum parts and the vocal melody on a drive. It's actually interesting that you're called Under The Rockies, but we were driving through the Rockies when that had happened. I just hummed this whole thing out. Then I remember when we got to the hotel, I sorta like banged out a really quick version of that song was written in about 20 minutes. Sometimes it happens like that and I'll tell you, the other times it is the exact opposite. Sometimes I'm stewing over ideas and melodies and words for months, but you can never really, for me anyway, I'm not the kind of writer that can say my process is exactly the same way every time. Or that it comes to me quickly all the time. Sometimes it does not, but either way, you just hang on and you don't give up and you just see the process through no matter what it is.
Yeah, fair enough. Most of the people I talk to, musicians, it's the same thing. It's not like, you know, I drink my coffee, I write a song in 20 minutes. Next. You know, it's always the same, but kind of different answers.
You know what, judging by a lot of the rock songs I hear nowadays, I'd be surprised that people don't write their music like that because we're living in a state of this genre where it's just gotten so safe and I'm just not into it then.
Are there any other artists in rock now - I know you said you became close with Airborne - are there any other bands you kind of look to for inspiration, or do you kind of go back to the roots of rock and roll?
You know, it's interesting, but because of what I was just saying, for our band as far as inspiration goes, we tend to draw from things from the past. However, especially with these new songs we've been doing, we're thinking of realizing ourselves and realizing the influences that we've had and trying to look them with the sort of a new light in a new way, but without trying to like over bastardize the modern sound that a lot of people do nowadays. I mean, you'll never hear us sound like a computer, or that buzz saw guitar thing that you hear all the time. I'm not into any of that shit, but you know what? You end up touring with a lot of bands that you grew up listening to and stuff, so there's always that. But on the flip side of that, people talk all the time like, "Oh, rock's dead, rocks this, this guy died, that guy died." Well, I don't know what planet you've been living on for the past 20, 30 years, but people get old and they fucking die. The notion of rock being dead and dying with the greats that are dying currently - I mean it's kind of fucking stupid because let's be honest: if you don't want rock to die and you're saying it in a way that you're sad that rock music is dying… Well, there's a whole whack full of good newer bands that are literally here for you to champion and love and support and tell your friends about and listened to and requests on the radio. Not making a dig here but sorry, I don't need to hear "Hotel California" on the radio again. I don't need to hear those songs that everybody they're just catering to. And an audience that, I mean, let's face it, if you were a radio station or whatever, you were just the industry in general, why would you be perpetuating this whole rock is dead thing by playing songs that are just so overplayed when there are all these younger bands out there that are still really trying to keep it alive.
How about instead of playing that song that everybody's heard a thousand times this week, you throw a bone to one of these younger bands that are trying to keep this thing alive. Going back to the question, there's a lot of old bands of course that we are influenced by in our sound and our vibe and all of that. We're trying to do it on the new, and we're trying to keep this thing going. We're trying to be part of that movement that's still making this thing matter. People probably realize this already, but we're really close with the band, The Lazy - great band out of Toronto originally from Australia. And it's sort of like, us and them - we've toured together, we've just been so close and we're both sort of doing the same thing with the same attitude and message and grit behind our sound - that for us - it's just all about, keeping this thing going. So that's one of the newer bands or current bands that we’re definitely influenced from the back and forth because we're both similar. We're both very much trying to keep this thing going.
What does the rest of the year and 2020 hold for The Wild?
Just more of the same old thing that we know works for us. We've always been that band that gets it done on the road. So that's what we'll be doing, man. We'll finish this tour in November. Likely be back home, working in the studio or sort of down on the coast. We're in the studio and then back to Europe. We write songs, we like, we just keep kicking ass on the road and doing it that way - ‘cause that's what we do.
The Wild! play Broken City tonight @ 9 pm. Click here to get your tickets!
