The Young Wild, a band based in Southern California, will open for ZZ Ward at the New Orleans House of Blues Tuesday.
Bryan William, the band’s frontman, spoke to The Daily Reveille about the band and their upcoming performance.
The Daily Reveille: Are you guys excited about performing at the House of Blues?
Bryan B. William: It’s a chain of concert venues that we’ve had some really good experiences at in the past. Either it’s just people attending concerts or playing.
It’s kind of a household name as far as performance venues go, so obviously we’re very excited to play.
So far, so good with the House of Blues. We’ve had really good experiences there.
TDR: Do you prefer a small venue or a larger venue?
BW: I think our sound and where we’re heading, it does translate to the bigger rooms, bigger sound systems.
I think one thing that you lose some times … is that intimacy. But when you play the club circuit and you play 225 capacity rooms, you’re really right there with everyone who’s there to see you on purpose or by accident, or whatever it may be.
So you really have to create that intimacy, and the way they create they connect with the crowd in the bigger venues is a little more challenging. It’s fun, because sonically it’s a totally different experience.
TDR: When did you guys start?
BW: We actually started in San Diego. We’re all currently living there, and kind of working there … commuting between there and L.A. and doing a lot of worth back and forth between those two cities.
And The Young Wild, a little over a year ago, started this project, and all of us in one form or the other have collaborated in the past, with other bands, or helping each other out in other projects and we kind of just came to a point as friends and collaborators where we wanted to start something new and recommit ourselves to just playing, and [we] started writing a lot and started getting excited about the sounds we were incorporating and the vibes.
We’ve all been friends for seven or eight years now. We’ve known each other for a long time, but the band is kind of a new thing for us.
TDR: How is working on the record going?
BW: It’s going well. We’re just kind of right in the middle of it and we’re bringing a lot of the new songs on this tour, opening for ZZ Ward and we’re going to be playing them for a lot of new people and getting a new chance to break them in, I guess.
We’re getting a chance to go out on the road, test [the songs] out, expose a lot of people to them for the first time and see what they think of them. It’s been going really well.
We’ve spent the better part of the last two months just working every day and every night on all of the tunes. We’re really excited on where the sound is going, and it’s starting to kind of feel cohesive. Each song, the body of work, has kind of a feel to it.
TDR: How, exactly, would you describe the genre of your music?
BW: In terms of the production, we’re definitely referencing a very wide range of music styles, whether it be hip-hop or old ‘80s synth-y, stuff, just more modern pop music.
I’d say it’s a little bit of everything. It depends how deep you want to go. On the surface, some people might hear a pop rock song. But if you dive a little deeper, hopefully you’re hearing some of our influences — everything from soul and Motown music, to more kind of piano driven-stuff.
The middle ground is sort of anthemic rock. We really like heavy back-beat type grooves that just gets everybody bobbing their heads.
TDR: What artists inspire you guys?
BW: It’s a pretty wide range. In the studio sometimes, when we come in, we’ll just listen to music before we get started, because in some ways we’re still learning.
And each new song, we’re like, “Okay, how can we communicate this flavor, or this part of the song first?” We’ve been listening to Dr. Dre’s record that came out the other week, just because the production is just so layered and multi-faceted.
Although we are not a rap group by any means, we have a lot of respect for that production treatment and that style of working in the studio. We’re listening to that, we’re listening to some HAIM recently because they were opening for Taylor Swift in the Staples Center for however many nights in a row.
TDR: How did you get together with ZZ Ward?
BW: We work with our booking agent throughout the year to find good fits. We’re still so entry-level in that we have a lot of groundwork to lay.
When we travel and play shows, most of the time we’re playing for audiences for the first time, and we really have that opportunity to make that good first impression and meet new people.
TDR: What advice [would] you give to anyone who wants to start a band?
BW: Before I started doing this full time, I was a guitar teacher and I had about like 20 or 25 students when I was teaching, and I guess the ideal, or the thing that I would come back to a lot, is if you’re young and want to start a band, really spend your youth playing a lot and really honing in on your craft. Because I think at the core of it, you should be a really good player and play the parts you record and have them translate live.