It’s that collision of beauty and imperfection, of hope and human frailty that defines Wilderado’s gorgeous new EP, ‘Favors.’ Recorded with production mastermind Phil Ek (Father John Misty, Fleet Foxes), the collection ushers in a new era for the Tulsa rockers as their already-epic sound pushes into more nuanced and mature territory than ever before. An arresting confluence of soaring melodies, lush harmonies, and driving indie rock, ‘Favors’ is the band’s most collaborative work yet, bearing the distinctive writing influence and unique sonic sensibilities of all four members (lead singer/guitarist Max Rainer, bassist/vocalist Colton Dearing, guitarist/vocalist Tyler Wimpee, and drummer Justin Kila).
In this interview spotlight, I chat with Wilderado about the latest project, challenges, motivations and more.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
Two of us are from Oklahoma and two from Texas. we play an eclectic sort of alternative rock.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
Eventually you start accidentally being good at something, or good enough to like whatever it is you may have done, and you either dig in to that thing hard or you keep searching for something you’re also good at that actually pays you money. Somewhere within that spectrum is the four of us continuing to hammer out songs and hoping our families don’t leave us while we try. A lot like drugs, writing songs can give you a rush like you’ve never known, but you might not have the perfect age, health or lack of responsibilities conducive to maintaining that sort of thing. However, we’re trying our hand at it and find it powerfully motivating that if we slow down or think too much we just might have to stop.
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
This release was our next thing and we really wanted it to sound that way. We’ve never wanted to stop sounding a certain way or move on from anything, but we wanted Favors to show we had been working and writing and growing as a band. being lucky enough to have support slots in some very large rooms, we discovered how much we loved our guitars being loud and our drums being loud and our voices being loud. our songs have started lending themselves to that universe and we are proud of the way we were able to capture what we were chasing.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
(Max Rainer) I think the biggest challenge is to not chase what others are having success at. There is so much music to compare yours to and so many careers to compare yours to. The deceivingly disastrous route is to believe your success, or possible success, will come about from anything other than continuing to be yourself. There’s so much pressure to always be exponentially growing your sound and all these people that can help you do that. Just because playing music for a living is such a remarkable and blessed thing doesn’t mean that it won’t be a miserable life doing it in a way that doesn’t feel true to yourself. I’m always hoping I have the couth to choose not getting to do this any longer over doing it in a way that no longer feels like us. not unlike the rest of life, I guess.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
We are easy to find using the code “wilderado” on the internet.
