Blending punk with the blues
Band members have diverse influences, but share common ground
This was unexpected. Instead of the beer-drinkin’ hellraiser from Kelowna, there was a singer, Dylan Villain, who wanted to talk about the blues in earnest.
It was unexpected because blues isn’t the first thing that’s thought of when The Wild! is mentioned.
There is the story of how the band’s future A&R man (the guy who helps the band with its recorded material, and scouts talent) took the group out for dinner, got a whopping bar bill, was booze-damaged and had a broken arm the next day.
A video has the four-piece swilling beer with some women and blowing up old furniture with its guns.
Its inaugural EP, GxDxWxB, mixes metal, punk and good ol’ hard rock. There’s blues in there, too, but it isn’t obvious.
It’s there sort of like Malcolm Young claims AC/DC has an inimitable swing. It’s why there are a lot of AC/ DC wannabes but why they don’t sound like AC/DC ultimately. There is a bit of AC/DC in the Wild!, too.
“It’s quite eclectic, but there is a common ground,” Villain said.
“Like, Pete is into punk rock. I’m a huge delta blues guy. It kinda goes back and forth between punk and blues.”
So the conversation revolves around delta blues for a while.
This is the Mississippi Delta that bred Charlie Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson and the pre-Chicago Muddy Waters.
The Wild! is Villain, Pistol Pete, Boozus and Reese Lightning. They come from a Kelowna, that was like an incubator for the band. With few distractions, ideas flowed into the band to be used as needed and a beer-drinkin’, hell-raisin’ personality (apologies to ZZ Top) emerged. In Vancouver, the EP was produced by Mike Fraser, whose biggest coup as a producer was — ta da! — AC/DC.
“To me, it’s not about creating,” Villain stressed. “It’s about being somebody. “Mike Fraser understood the band intuitively. I can’t say enough about him. I’m a big fan of almost everything in his catalogue. He’s a realdeal guy. Our EP was going to be a full LP, but, working with Mike, we whittled it down to the seven songs. You really should make sure it’s what you want.
“We all have one idea ... it’s to write a really good song. I think it’s really important to write something as a unit.”
Thus Pete got in his punk rock, and Villain his blues.
“Punk rockers and real blues guys don’t give a s---,” Villain says. “But they mean every word. These guys don’t try to do, they just do it.
“So, with us, it all comes down to real rock and roll. It’s definitely a cohesive effort.”