The Wyld - interview (2012)

NZ Musician Aug/Sept 2012 (Vol:17, No:2) By Max Oldfield

The Wyld - This Is A Revolution

Who releases an album these days before even local music nerds have heard their name? Auckland three-piece hip hop/pop/rock act The Wyld have, and they’ve called it ‘Preface’, an extremely impressive introduction to the potential of their musical scope. The Wyld have enjoyed a whirlwind climb over the past six months. From humble beginnings at open mic nights on Ponsonby Rd, to a partnership with up and coming record label Dryden Street Records, a top 10 spot in the NZ album charts, and a flurry of online posts garnering them attention worldwide. One might think that The Wyld have it all figured out, but, as Max Oldfield finds out, navigating the music industry is still a considerable challenge.

Revolution was the first single that spread their name across the online world and it’s still a cornerstone of The Wyld’s now signature fusion of opposing genres. The track earned praise from MTV Iggy in the US and was subsequently synched to US TV show 90210. Proving that there’s more to this band than a bit of blog hype.

“The Wyld started as us just kind of jamming around really. We all had kind of different tastes in music initially, around two years ago, and it really just began as bedroom producing kind’a stuff, where it was just messing around, jamming on tracks we liked, covering stuff, and doing open mic nights,” says Brandon Nigri, American import and singer/multi-instrumentalist of The Wyld.

It was to be the beginning of a sound that encompasses elements of hip hop, classic rock, and contemporary pop music that has found a home in the new, musical platform that spurs our artists from strength to strength on the international stage; the internet. While Nigri, guitarist Joe Pascoe, and rapper Mo Kheir have already released an album, they strongly feel the need to stay in touch with their “true fans”, those in the blogosphere.

“It ended up being quite blog-centric. So it was like, ‘Oh hey, let’s send this track that we just finished off to our favourite blog, Pigeons and Planes, which Mo really did as a joke. And then they featured it, and suddenly our inbox was filled with all these emails like, ‘Hey, who the hell are you, blah blah blah’, and we were like, ‘What the fuck?’…so it was quite cool”, muses Brandon.

“I think it has made an impact on the way we market ourselves, definitely,” chimes in Kheir. “Releasing an album is one solid collection of who you are as a band, but the idea of releasing stuff online and keeping a constant conversation and dialogue going with the online blogosphere is vital”

Their online focus ultimately led to a name change from the more conventional The Wild, in an effort to increase online search-ability. It was also a circumvention of the classic, or to use a less glowing term, typical model of Auckland EP culture, which in certain cases has buried groups branded as EP bands, stuck in and endless cycle of minimal releases. However, Nigri doesn’t feel they’ve completely skirted the process.

“It’s almost like our EP was online. Instead of doing an EP or series of EPs in the lead up to an album, our ‘EP’ was a constant stream of tracks being released online. So we kind of missed out on the traditional sense of the EP, but we were still dropping tracks. So it’s the same concept, but with constant communication with the audience.”

It would seem that The Wyld’s sound is developed for the online market; a mish-mash of genres culminating in a sound that is difficult to define, but employs staccato rhymes, lo-fi drums, minimalist guitar and keys, and drawn out, ruminating vocal melodies. While easily put down to the three members’ differing influences and musical backgrounds, this is a theory that they themselves reject.

“Stylistically it’s funny because a lot of people say Brandon’s the pop and Joe’s the rock and I’m the hip hop and together we make The Wyld… but it’s not really like that at all, because we all like all musical genres, you know?” posits Kheir.

However, Nigri believes that this is something that has taken time, gelling as the group has evolved.

“I think it’s grown towards that. I think initially we had really different tastes in music, but we had common ground, and that’s what we kind of connected on. But now, the more we’ve worked together, the more we’ve become kind of central in our taste.”

When I ask about influences, it’s apparent that a nerve has been touched, if jovially so.

“We listen to a lot of Linkin Park,” offers Nigri, followed by uproarious laughter from both Kheir and Pascoe. Clearly, the question strikes an in-joke amongst the group, a run-off from countless observers trying in vain to summarise the rap/rock connection.

On a more serious note, however, the common influences are those that one might expect when listening to Preface; The XX, The White Stripes, The Black Keys, Kanye West. Individually though, Pascoe displays a stronger affection for classic rock staples like Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Hendrix, and The Who, while Nigri drifts toward pop sensibilities with the likes of Coldplay, the Temper Trap and Bon Iver. Kheir, on the other hand, seems more influenced by the behavior and conviction of certain groups, playing a large part in his fan-ship.

“I used to like The Black Keys but recently I’ve seen a couple of interviews with them and I found out that they’re total dicks…It’s like Adele doing this big thing trying to lose weight. Adele is Adele…and I think that’s something that’s really important about music; being yourselves, and if we are dicks that’s what we are, but at least we’re not faking it.”

“I’d prefer if we weren’t dicks,” adds Pascoe quickly, but evidently in agreement with the overall sentiment.

It’s a sentiment that naturally comes across in their music, with the group agreeing that the subject matter of ‘Preface’ is centred around a strive to remain oneself in a business that can be more disappointing than prosperous.

“It’s all about us finding out how the music industry actually works, realising that a lot of the clichés are true,” Pascoe proposes.

“It’s like our song Uphill,” adds Nigri. “It has the lyrics, ‘Say what you will, we’re going uphill’, which is about trying to keep moving up and past all of the things that would usually knock a person out.”

And with a debut album already released and going from strength to strength, stylish music videos making rotation on the TV and forthcoming collaborations with label-mate Louie the Zu waiting in the wings, it seems that The Wyld have no intention of being knocked out of the industry anytime soon.