February 9 2014 – Very few things are as exciting as finding something new you love. Much like archaeologists that dig to find hidden treasures, we here at T-Mak World really enjoy trying to find new bands that we love. Once we find such bands, we approach our favorites to request interviews for our Emerging Artist Spotlight series where we have featured over 100 artists so far. Today we set our focus on a band from Toronto named Wildheart. All bands we talked to are asked similar questions to each other so we can get to know them better.
The description on Wildheart’s website reads:
Nomadic, gypsy rockers with riffs that surprise & lyrics without lies.
Here is what they had to say to us:
Hey Wildheart, thanks for taking the time out to talk to us. Let’s start off with the obligatory introductions. Who’s in the band and what instrument does everyone rock?
Wildheart:
CODY: Well we have Mr. Scotty B. Goode and Lewis Piquet on twin guitar duty. Renee Parr on Bass and Mike Parr slappin’ the skins and making one hell of a racket that keeps us all in line. Myself up front dancin like an asshole and singing my heart out.
How about the history of the band, when did you get started and how did it happen?
Wildheart:
CODY: Hell I don’t know planets aligned, oceans parted, mountains crumbled and out of the smoke walked a seven foot tall cowboy with a lespaul…he said he knew a guy that could rip like Jimmy Page. These other two are from my home town so I begged them to come jam and it all clicked.
LEWIS: Many late nights of Rock and Roll cosmically colliding in depths of Toronto’s after hours scene. B.Goode and I seemed to have gravitated towards each other through the will of rock its self.
SCOTTY: Lew and I started jamming after I heard him play at a bar I worked at, and a chance encounter at an after-hours booze can. We were looking for a singer, when an ex-girlfriend of mine called one night saying she’d met one, and thought he’d be great. She brought him by and it seemed to be a good fit. 60’s meets 70’s, meets 80’s. We gadded-about with a few members for a while before Cody brought Renee in. Mike joined a little while later.
MIKE: Yeah I heard through Renee who had already joined a few months before that the original drummer for the band had decided to go his separate way and was it suggested to me that I go and try out for the band and see how it goes, it went well.
RENEE: I had just moved to the city. Cody had been looking for a bass player for a while, eager to get things started. The first time he asked me I said no. I just couldn’t bite off another project, being I had a lot of my plate as it was. He asked me maybe a month later again, almost begging. I said “Look, the best I can do is learn your songs, play locally, maybe do short tours but I just can’t fully commit to this longterm. You’re gonna have to find someone to fill this spot permanently eventually”. As time passed, I grew fond of these boys and they became family. I have so much fun rocking’ out and now, I don’t plan on going anywhere.
Who are some of your musical influences?
Wildheart:
CODY: That is such a loaded question these days, isn’t it? A band like us would usually toss you a handful of pretentiously obscure retro rock acts, try to sell you on our “vintage sound” and end up painting ourselves into a corner as a bunch of old soul rockers your mom and pop might like…Well it really is not that cut and dry. While it is true that, as group, we do tend to draw influence from older rock acts (like Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, C.C.R. , Hendrix, Zeppelin) we each have very different, eclectic and surprisingly diverse record collections spanning everything from early folk and blues to 70’s psych-rock, funk, jazz, 80’s metal and 90’s pop. And this mosaic of sound is out pallet we collectively paint our own songs with.I guess it is safe to say that “Good Music” influences us. And honestly I am sure that each one of us would have a very different definition of what “Good Music” is.
SCOTTY: Metallica, mostly. For me, anyways… And a lot of Chuck Berry.
MIKE: If you looked at my musical influences you might go on to ask me how it is that I found myself to be in a rock band of this nature, getting a lot of my roots as a drummer from bands such as, Tool, Rush, the Red hot chilli peppers, Rage against the machine and Incubus, but the truth is that I was raised on good old rock n roll. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of my dad and I rocking out to loud ass tunes to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Supertramp, AC/DC and Van Halen, the list goes on and on.
RENEE: I can never seem to answer this question! I have no idea what influences me! Just everything. All music. I get creative, I piece things together. If it sounds good, F**k it, it sounds good. I play a lot of music, a lot of genres with a lot of people. I listen to all music, mostly on random. New music seems to inspire me the most. Right now, I can’t get enough of Grizzly Bear, The Wooden sky, and Radiohead’s album The Bends.
LEWIS: An artist that express the true “pain” we all feel within is an influence on me. from Bach’s Suite NO.3 to the final moments of Mozart’s 40th strangely held the doors open for devil himself Mr Robert Johnson, who in turn influenced the greatest of all generations of Rockers. The music of the late 1960’s and early to mid 1970’s owns the that tittle and owns the tittle of being my most influential era of music. Musicians such as Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin , David Gilmour from Pink Floyd, to bands like Buffalo Springfield and The Beatles have changed my life in so many ways, but overall beside Zeppelin and Floyd the most influential artist’s in my life have been The Grateful Dead. Long Live Jerry Garcia!
So based on the above how would you describe your music to someone that has never heard it?
Wildheart:
CODY: If I had to use only a few words I would say… five people acting as one creating raw, writhing, seething emotion barely contained by the constraints of traditional rock and roll…Well that’s how it feels from the inside anyways.
SCOTTY: I usually respond be simply saying “rock n roll”. Then, when people ask what i mean, I say “you know all the great old stuff you play at parties, and sing along to in the car?” They nod and say “ya”. I say “that”.
RENEE: Yeah… just Good ol’ feel good rock ‘n roll. Something you would drink beers to and flail your body around like a crazy person.
LEWIS: A Case of beer and forty of Canadian Whiskey haha…that is what we sound like.
Why do you believe that a music fan should come and see your show instead of all the other choices available to them on any given night?
Wildheart:
SCOTTY: A: The music is really good, and feels familiar. B: Our fans are fantastic. The people already out at our shows are coming out in great numbers, are all very enthusiastic, and are really good-looking.
CODY: First of all there are a lot of great bands in this city. I would never want sideline our peers. Truth be told you can walk into any bar on any night of the week and 4 out of 5 times be blown away by the undiscovered, the underappreciated, the unsigned and the generally unknown vying for the attention of the uninterested. I just hope our showmanship, songwriting and musicianship hold your attention long enough for you to see the honesty, effort and sincerity that we put into our performances.
MIKE: We offer a nice full sound with punch, a real rock show that is purely entertaining and loud, you just need to ask yourself if you want to be blown away by the band that you are going see, if the answer is yes, then come to our show we will not disappoint you!
RENEE: There is so much music to be shared and appreciated. Of course I would love to see everyone come out to every single one of our shows, but we can’t be everywhere at once.
LEWIS: Well I believe in live music and I set forth daily to be a part of what live music really is. I take pride in playing a a different solo every night or have a song extend where it never has before! Its the golden yolk of us musicians, some have over cooked their Yolk to a hard chalky substance that never changes, others still haven’t even brought the heat, but we try to keep our yolk warm and lucid around our fans, ready to take the groove anywhere.
What is your favorite single line of lyrics the band has written and why?
Wildheart:
CODY: I dig the line “Lower the sun, longer the reach, colder and darker comes the night” from one of the verses in “Gone”. It just really rolls off the tongue
SCOTTY: “Time, got time, honey don’t waste my time, don’t you know that I’m a business man?” from Fiery Sweet Thing. Cuz its fucking hilarious in context.
RENEE: “Girl I’m just a white crow, flying with a black dove. Scared to let my guard down, afraid to get my hopes up.” I love all of the lyrics to White Crow because they are powerful, especially when Cody sings it.
MIKE: I can say that I also enjoy a lot the lyrics to the song “white crow” as a whole we all seem to get into the words of that song while we play it.
LEWS: I Can’t hear the lyrics over my guitar.
CODY: Me either some times haha you are friggin loud brother.
What does 2014 hold for you ideally as musicians?
Wildheart:
MIKE: Ideally its going to be a busy year for us, but also one to take good steps towards growing in all areas.
CODY: Well we have another EP we are working on and hope to have out in the fall. Other than that I just want to play as many outdoor festivals as possible and put some real miles on the old Wild-Wagon
SCOTTY: Another album, and festivals, ideally. Generally expanding our audience. Getting in to another top notch studio for a while would be great too.
LEWIS: A hot blonde, hopefully a few red heads, and maybe an Oriental beauty; it is my year, the year of the horse.
RENEE: Play festivals and tour is all I want.
Imagine that you were asked to be the opener for any band’s world tour (both current and historical). Which band and tour would be your dream opening gig?
Wildheart:
CODY: Aerosmith…Hands down no question.
SCOTTY: What Cody said. Can you guys make that happen?
MIKE: Well if I can dip into the fantasy pool then I think we would be a great opening act for Led Zeppelin!
LEWIS: Yeah man Zeppelin! I just want to see them play, plus right down Jimmy Page’s tone settings
RENEE: Fleetwood Mac. I would CRY.
What is the future of the music industry? With the concept of the album and physical CD’s facing extinction, how will we be consuming music in 10 years? Are the economics feasible for emerging artists?
Wildheart:
CODY: Sadly I think we will see the digital distribution slowly become the only format. I still have hopes that this minor resurgence in vinyl pressing and distribution might just be the start of a major come back. But I think it will remain an audiophile’s indulgence and inevitably disappear. We can only hope that the quality and method of delivery of these digital formats improve and create some sort of sustainable industry that allows for bands like us to exist.
SCOTTY: The lovers will always buy vinyl. For everyone else, there’ll probably be a technology soon where you can scan something, and suck an album right up to your iTunes folder on your phone. At live shows too.
RENEE: I agree with Scott.
LEWIS: Well its a strange thing because in my circle of friends people are going ham for analog recordings. I know many bands that release exclusively on tape to people just in their scene. Even we want to release a pressed vinyl of our music when we can. So there is a taste out there for hard copy’s, but that’s not the real issue here; The real issue behind all of this is people have bad speakers! A band can spend a year recording at Abbey Road studios and then continue on to have their music professionally mastered but it ends up being played through laptop speakers or even scarier cell phone speakers. No one has pride in their home stereo anymore, no wonder they don’t buy Cd’s. Downloading a single and listening to it on over priced and badly made headphones is the trend!
MIKE: The future of the music industry is fine in my opinion, yeah physical CDs on the other hand most likely will ultimately stop being manufactured, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for artists, the digital distribution of music has its advantages such as easy accessibility for the consumer through itunes and other similar applications. I feel confident that there will always be a large demand for good music for years to come.
Where can people purchase or listen to your music?
Wildheart:
CODY: You can stream the whole EP over on soundcloud and purchase both the digital and physical album on bandcamp. The easiest way to find it would just be to go to www.wildheartrocks.com
At the end of 2013 we published our picks for top 10 albums of 2013. Lists like those are always a reflection of personal tastes so take a look at our picks and tell us if you were making the list what are some albums you would you have had on it?
Wildheart:
CODY: Our hard-working friends in bands like The Mohrs, Ladies Of The Canyon, hell us next year maybe. All we really see is what is all around us and we are constantly finding ourselves playing with or watching amazing unsigned Canadian acts…Rock and roll is alive and we are just glad rags like this are still bothering to publish top 10 lists…The radio sure aint helping us find these bands and albums
Any closing remarks for our readers?
Wildheart:
MIKE: Thanks so much !
SCOTTY: Please send money.
CODY: I just ask that you all support real, live, honest performance based music. Don’t be a passive listener. Be critical of what you put in your ears and don’t drink the Kool-Aid…
and yeah send money haha.
Thanks so much to Wildheart. We hope that you can see them live. They are playing with Stone River on Friday February 28th at The Hideout.
The band’s website is www.wildheartrocks.com and as you would expect they are on Twitter and Facebook. In the meantime check out an older live video below from YouTube.
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