Introducing: J.J. Wilde (Interview in Post!)

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Introducing: J.J. Wilde (Interview in Post!)

Tuesday night I headed out in the early stages of that classic New England snowstorm with a rowdy night of gritty rock & roll awaiting me and the girl opening it all up? The power punch that is J.J Wilde who I spoke to just a few hours before her first performance of her debut tour opening up for fellow Canadians The Glorious Sons. While the crowd wasn’t filled out yet when Wilde and her band took the stage, those that were there quickly were dancing and screaming to every note. The band puts on a performance that screams veteran rockers but the band just came together once the debut record was written. Everything from their chemistry to their musicianship to Wilde’s interaction with the crowd, it was truly a treat.

While “Wired” is the only song available right now, and it only came out about two weeks ago, the band treated the crowd to the full EP that is on the horizon and served as the perfect start to the night. Find our chat below where we talk everything from the debut EP to how music wasn’t a choice, it was the reality for Wilde!

So it’s the first date of tour, is it your first US tour?
Yeah it is!
Then obviously you’re out with fellow Canadians The Glorious Sons.
Hell yeah!
Who have spent some time here. Maybe preparations you made, hopes for these sets, how you prepared for this tour?
So we had rehearsals and preparing for that was a lot. There was getting the band together. It all happened very quickly just like the record. It all happened at once, it was really great. But yeah we got the band together, got a van together and we’ve just been rehearsing like crazy. I mean that’s all the prep you can do really. It’s just kind of like you’re out on the road and you just have to see what happens right?

I mean the album I know it was so quick. You did it in eight days.
Yeah that was fun!
The minute you wrote these songs, you tracked the vocals so maybe how was that process going in? Is it something where you already had some songs prepped and you kind of started fresh when you were in the studio?
It was both. I’ve been writing songs as long as I can remember. So I had all of this stuff and all this material. So for some of it, we would take an idea that I had who knows how long ago. For a lot of it, just everything lead up to this moment where we would start writing and it would just kind of pour out. We wrote everything there so just once we started, it flowed and it was really cool.

That’s incredible. And in eight days, I know you probably don’t want to say how many songs are on the album of course. But was it something where you were just sitting down with that band, did the band come later in the process?
The band was later.
So was it just you in the recording studio writing these songs? Did you go in with ideas about the kind of songs you wanted to write?
Do you know what? How it happened was crazy. I was just jamming with Frederick Day who is the producer and the two of us did everything. We did guitars, drums, we wrote every piece of every song. There was no band at that point which was really cool because then we were able to organically build each part of the song and I felt very invested in everything. I think that’s why it all came out so quickly because it was just full control but Frederick was amazing to work with. He definitely played a big part!

Excellent, and then obviously you’re one out of three. You’re not going to be going up there for an hour but you’re going to play more then just “Wired” (the only released song on the Internet thus far).
Yeah for tonight, we’ll play the EP.

Perfect then “Wired” is the debut single but it hasn’t been out for long at all.
Two weeks maybe, not even. I don’t know if it’s even been two weeks. Maybe a week and a half? So then maybe why did “Wired” speak to you as the debut single? Was it the first track you wrote? Why was this the one you wanted out first? Maybe the story behind it?
For me, there was this sort of urgency about that song. It really explained a lot about some of the things I was going through to create this EP. So to me that was just the first story I wanted to tell honestly, that’s really it!
Introduction to what was to come?
Yeah I felt like that was the one I wanted to tell first because it’s very real, it’s very raw, it’s just my life.

And then for people that are coming out to these shows that haven’t seen you before, maybe what do you think they’re going to take away from the set or what do you hope they take away?
I hope they have a good time, I hope they like the songs. I find the songs that we wrote on this EP are just a raw, unfiltered, unapologetic point of view. Experiencing it and everything that has come up to this point I just say ‘here you go, take what you want and think what you want’. So yeah I just hope people enjoy the songs and they can relate to them. I find that the shit that I’ve gone through more than one person has gone through and that kind of thing.

Then you’re pretty young for doing this, it’s still so new. You said you’ve written songs before but when did you realize you wanted to do music? Like when did this love for music start? Was it a certain moment for you, was it something where your family is musical?
There’s a lot of music in the family. For me, I started writing when I was fifteen. Well I started writing with guitar when I was fifteen. I was writing songs before that but for me it’s just always been a love. It was like I don’t have a choice, I have to do it. Which at times was shitty because I wasn’t making any money doing it but it’s kind of a you got to live and breathe it thing.

Perfect and is this the first tour in general or had you been touring before?
Yeah this is the first tour for this project.

Incredible, so you’re obviously keeping busy. This is the first day of this tour, you have stuff under wraps, You have the album. Maybe some hopes or goals for this year, we’re still so early in 2019.
Honestly I just want to have a good time. I want to live it, I want to breathe it, I want to be very present in the moment. Not get so caught up on the little details. Just play music, that’s all I want to do, is just really take it in. I’ve been wanting to do this my whole life and now that it’s here, I’m just going to live and breathe it!

About Author

Colleen

Colleen has been writing about music since 2009. Interviewing bands since the glory days of Warped and has continued to do so for now over fourteen years. As well as doing freelance for other publications, the love for everything rock continues today.