Wise, Young & King – Emerging Artist Spotlight

WY&K: Thank you for having us. The band is comprised of the following line up: Alan Charlton – Vocals, Myles Bell – Guitars, Alex Scott – Drums, Colin Wolfson – Bass.

WY&K: Opening for Saga was a great experience for us and was our biggest stage to date. We had all hear of Saga, but none of us were familiar with their stuff. So we must admit that we had to go online to check them out. We thought they put on a good show; those guys have been doing it for so long, they are pros. For us that night was very memorable – we were mostly excited to play in front of classic rock fans and we also got to meet a bunch of new people and share our music with the crowd that seemed to really like our sound.

WY&K: Rock and roll is an attitude, not just a genre. It’s about forging your own path. There will always be hormonally unbalanced teenagers, uptight parents and blaringly loud electric guitars. In recent years kids have resorted to dance music or rap music as there source of rebellion (because their parents listen to ‘rock and roll’). However, if we continue to look into the future, the parents will be fans of dance and the kids will rebel on rock again. It is a cycle. See the 1980’s and the resulting grunge-rock explosion of the early 90’s. So rock and roll is almost due to take over once again. Plus Neil Young said so.

WY&K: 2012 will be our best year yet because we are always growing, both as people and as a band. If 2012 isn’t as good as 2011, well then we’ve messed up. We are going to play as many shows as we can, continue to record and try to build our fan base as much as we possibly can. We’ve just finished recording 5 tracks that will eventually make up our second full album to be released later this year. About 90% of the songs on our next release have been recorded as of right now. In terms of tour/gig dates; we are in the process of booking our shows and hope to have a better idea in the next month or so. Our next show in Toronto is March 30 at Rancho Relaxo, while our next Ottawa date is March 3rd at Ritual. Barring any unforeseen tragedies 2012 should logically be our best year ever. (Oh ya, and the world is ending so we have to make it count.)

Myles and Alan from Wise, Young & King

WY&K: Let me just say, for all of us, certainly not Nickleback. This is a question that every member of the band is going to have a wildly different answer, but it won’t be Nickleback.

Myles: “That’s a really tough question. I want to be a part of all of them. I’ve always admired The Band and The Beatles. For one, their amazing song writing and two, the shared nature of the music. Paul sings this and John wrote that. Levon does the lead and Danko’s got those haunting harmonies. I’ve always liked the comradery of bands like those. I would play whatever instrument they would let me play.”

Alan:  “I’ve always liked the really powerful sounding bands of the past such as: Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and The Allman Brothers. However, I like a lot of different bands, so I’d sing for any number of them. As for new bands; Rival Sons are really good and I saw the Sheepdogs play recently and they kicked ass.”

WY&K: I wish we knew the future of music. If we did we’d be controlling the means of production. With music so easily accessible these days it is difficult to get your band noticed on music alone. Sure it’s available for millions of people to hear but with such a saturation of music, how do you stand out? That’s where a slick image and a clever marketing strategy come in. We’ve never really seen this as something we’d like to do. We’re not marketing gurus nor do we aspire to be. We are musicians first and foremost; we want to be making music.

Over the next 10 years there will likely be a new system in place and hopefully it will provide a better avenue for bands trying to make a career out of it. Online has overtaken the CD and it’s not going to change, but at least vinyl sales are on the rise. Free downloading is going to happen regardless if you want it to or not, so bands are making all of their money on touring and selling merchandise at shows. So I’m not sure if it’s even feasible right now for smaller bands out there, but maybe we’ll find a way to fix things down the line.

WY&K: Why it’s a mystery! Alright, well not quite, but it’s always kept us motivated and confident. To us the name is what we hope to be. Oh and no it’s not our last names.

Wise, Young & King

WY&K: Oh we’re selling stuff. You want some? Our first full length album (entitled Wise, Young & King) can be found on iTunes, cdbaby and in Ottawa at CD Warehouse. On our website we have embedded our MySpace player which is usually previewing some of our newer material which is as of yet unavailable for sale. But you can listen for free.

WY&K: The Black Keys ‘El Camino’ is probably our favourite off of your list from 2011 – that and the Foo Fighters album. It’s hard to say since we probably spend more time discovering ‘new’ albums from the past than we do keeping up with new releases. Rival Sons ‘Pressure and Time’ is one that we’d recommend.

WY&K: Thanks for reading and if you like our music, we hope you spread the word. WY&K.

So there you have it, a bunch of great guys making great music. We strongly recommend buying their album, or even better go see them live! They are playing Toronto’s Rancho Relaxo on Friday March 30th and Ottawa on March 3rd at Ritual Nightclub and April 13th at The Rainbow! The band’s website is here and as you would expect they are on Twitter and Facebook. I really hope these guys make it – they are very talented, they get good music, and let’s be honest – rock needs new champions to fill in those stadiums and keep the hammer of the gods alive. In the meantime check out the YouTube video I took of them opening up for Saga.