The Lonely Wild has hauntlingly beautiful vocals that will take your breathe away. Not to mention the lead up to thunderous tribal beats and explosive energy. The band is currently on tour in support of The Sun As It Comes. The Lonely Wild are on the rise fast and on their way I was lucky enough to get to talk with the band.

How did you meet your bandmates?

Andrew C., Andrew S, and Ryan are all LMU alum. Ryan and Andrew had a band in college called You, Me and Iowa. That band eventually parted ways, but Andrew had a stock of song ideas he wanted to take in a different direction than their former proect. He and Ryan joined forces again and began jamming and working some things out. Around the same time, Andrew Schneider was returning to LA from having taken residence in New York post college graduation. The guys quickly snatched him up to come in on lead guitar. The band had a few shows in LA as the Lonely Wild before bumping into Jessi Williams at a show at the venue, The Airliner. She was fronting her own band, Coyote, at the time. The guys caught the Coyote set. They were aware that their female vocalist at the time was soon leaving permanently for New York. Jessi was "poached" from her band shortly after this meeting. Dave Farina is the most recent member to be added. After parting ways with our original drummer, we found Dave through some fellow musician friends.

You sound is so raw, layered and intense. How would you describe your style?

It's so hard to pinpoint our sound into one "genre" or "style". We all pull from so many different influences.

Sometimes we play REALLY FREAKING LOUD because we love rock'n'roll. Other times we'll soften and focus in on our harmonies because we've been inspired by the folksies from the Laurel Canyon days. We're somewhere between rock and country and indie and americana and an old western movie.

Do you have day jobs or is music your full time gig?

We definitely have day jobs. They are put on hold while we tour. It's definitely a balancing act between trying to build a fan base out there so we can eventually make it our full time gig and still being able to pay our bills back home.

What's it like on the road? Paint a picture of a day in the life on the road…

The last few tours have had some long legs on them. Sometimes it feels like we're ALWAYS driving. Normally we wake up somewhere really early. We drive for 3-24 hours to get some place else. In the van there is often a vain attempt to sleep, a lot of movie watching, listening to music, occasional mad libs and conversation. We don't usually make many stops to see the sights as we're generally in a hurry to get to a load in or soundcheck. We'll get to the venue and get set up and then go grab dinner or a drink and have a stretch. No matter what sort of zombie we've become on the trip there, once we're on stage the adrenal kicks in and we're ready to go. We stick around for the other bands, then we're off to crash at a friends house or drive through the night to our next destination.

What's been you biggest moment so far? The time when you felt like this is why I do this? Addionally, how was it to tour with Damien Rice?

I think releasing our album definitely tops the list. We had an amazing album release show with two of our favorite local bands, The Janks and The Wild Reeds. The Satellite was packed and the crowd was lovely. There were a ton of familiar faces who have showed us love and been supporting us since the beginning. There were also a lot of unfamiliar faces which definitely added to our sense of accomplishment and reassurance that our music is circulating and getting out there to people. It was a long journey getting to that point. I think we all felt a sense of relief and also excitement for this new chapter opening in our lives. We didn't actually TOUR with Damien Rice, but we did play with him at Hotel Cafe. That was certainly an honor. Nic Harcourt is responsible for that set up. Having him as a supporter has also been an honor and we hope to remain friends with him throughout our career. I think one of the greatest things about that night is that it was such an intimate setting. The audience there was anticipating Damien's arrival. Normally under those circumstances a crowd can be apathetic to an opening act. They were FANTASTIC to us. Managing to make new fans in that situation certainly gave us a boost!

Any advice for a band just starting out?

Keep the music real, of course, but realize it IS a business and you have to be willing to put in the work. Research, promote, get out there and make friends, be good to your fans, never quit working at it and improving yourself etc etc. Get out there and DO IT! No one is going to just hand you a record contract.

The Lonely Wild
MOTR
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