Wild Child: lighthearted ‘Fools’
Indie-pop group Wild Child in concert Jan. 14 at the Rex Theatre in Pittsburgh and Jan. 17 at the WVU’s Lyell B. Clay Concert Center in Morgantown as part of West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage concert lineup.Wild Child is Alexander Beggins, Sadie Wolfe, Kelsey Wilson, Evan Magers, Chris D’Annunzio, Drew Brunetti and Matt Bradshaw.
Indie-pop group Wild Child in concert Jan. 14 at the Rex Theatre in Pittsburgh and Jan. 17 at the WVU’s Lyell B. Clay Concert Center in Morgantown as part of West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage concert lineup.
Submitted Photo
Indie-pop group Wild Child performing Jan. 14 at the Rex Theatre in Pittsburgh and Jan. 17 at the WVU’s Lyell B. Clay Concert Center in Morgantown as part of West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage concert lineup.
In each song they sing, in every town they perform, the members of the Indie-pop group Wild Child wear their hearts on their sleeves.
Openly admitting the rush of strangers knowing your secrets, and singing those secrets back to you, is a rush.
“It’s not necessarily the performing that’s addictive, but being able to connect with that many people at once,” remarks Kelsey Wilson, who shares lead vocal and songwriting responsibilities for the Austin-based seven-piece band with Alexander Beggins. “You feel like you’re together in something – like you experience the whole thing together. It’s family therapy with a lot of dancing.”
The group will be in concert twice in the coming weeks — Jan. 14 at the Rex Theatre in Pittsburgh and Jan. 17 at the WVU’s Lyell B. Clay Concert Center in Morgantown as part of West Virginia Public Radio’s Mountain Stage concert lineup.
Wild Child’s third album from Dualtone Records, “Fools,” is a self proclaimed collection of lush pop that takes sad stories and transforms them into a lighthearted love letter about the power of music and the art of living with yourself.
Made up of Wilson on violin and vocals, Beggins on ukulele and vocals, Evan Magers on keyboards, Sadie Wolfe on cello, Chris D’Annunzio on bass, Drew Brunetti on drums, and Matt Bradshaw on trumpet, Wild Child has built a wide grassroots following on the strength of high-spirited live shows.
Their 2011 effort “Pillow Talk” earned four number 1 singles on indie pulse monitor Hype Machine, with music bloggers falling early and hard for the quirky group.
“The Runaround,” their second album in 2013, garnered glowing reviews from NPR, Paste and Pop Matters to name a few.
Then Wild Child hit TV, performing on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and serving as the featured artists on CBS Saturday Morning, which not only increased their visibility but their fan base as well.
Since forming five years ago after Wilson and Beggins met, Wild Child has gone from playing shows for nine people to selling out venues across North America and Europe. And it all started when two Texas kids too scared to sing for crowds discovered they wrote hauntingly good songs together.
Wild Child recorded “Fools” at Doll House Studios in Savannah, Georgia. While writing for the album, Wilson split from her fiancé of five years.
“It was the first time that I’d ever had writer’s block,” she recalled. “Within a week, all of the lyrics just came out.”
Beggins continued “She used this album as a platform to say a lot of things she wanted to say,” Alexander says. “It’s a story that’s not exactly linear, but you hear someone going through something.”
Kelsey and Alexander co-wrote all of the record’s songs where the act of consciously playing the fool shows up repeatedly throughout the record.
Vocally, Beggins strolls, steady and wry, as Wilson skips, runs and hops, all whirly energy and instinctive phrasing.
“I think my voice just sits nice underneath hers,” Beggins explained.
“The two of us never really intended to be singers and still don’t really consider ourselves singers,” Kelsey continued. “I don’t think of myself as a singer. I think of it just like talking. We’re just having a conversation.”
In their musical repartee, Wild Child doesn’t pull punches. Their songs sting and groove, with cutting lyrics, cooing vocals and even a bouncy ukulele.
“The instruments may belong in a granola commercial, but what we’re saying is often dark and angry and bitter,” joked Wilson. “It wasn’t until Alexander and I started writing music together that we were like, ‘Damn. Are we sad?'”
“Fools” is an unashamed breakup album, but it’s more than last rites for lovers. The record also bids farewell to the traditional lives Wilson and Beggins had planned.
“We’re about to live day-to-day for a long time, and our relationships are going to fall apart,” Wilson said. “Our home lives are going to fall apart. And there’s nothing we can do about it. So, the record is also about letting go of expectations, just playing the fool. ‘Fools’ is a release — a blind step out.”