As London Calling is coming up end of the month, we're bringing you a London Calling feature introducing fresh new sounds as a warm up for the festival. Wild Child is a six piece band from Austin Texas, mainly led by folk duo Alexander Beggins and Kelsey Wilson. Influenced by the musical spell of Austin Texas and its whiskey, Alexander shared more about these influences and how these wild children came together to form a band.
Genre: Soul-pop
Skype Location: Alexander's living room in Austin, Texas
Last record you've listened to: Benji Hughes - A love extreme
Wild Child started off with you & Kelsey. Now you're a six piece band, how did you guys came together?
My cousin Evan Magers plays keyboard, he's been part of the project since the start. When we traveled to California, we stopped at his place to write our first song together. He moved to Texas to be part of our first album recording. Along the way we knew we wanted a cello player, so through friends we came across our youngest member Sadie Wolfe who plays cello for us now. Our drummer Drew Bernetty has been in the Austin music scene for a while and we've always been a fan of his work. It was fantastic when he said he could join us. Chris D'Annnuzio is our bass player and Kelsey Wilson plays the violin and is our female vocalist.
Can you tell me the story about your folk-influenced instrumentation?
We were once part of a band named “The Migrain” from Copenhagen. I played accordion at the time, Kelsey the violin and that's how we met. I brought an ukulele with me on a tour - I find it's an essential to have one in the bus: it's so small and portable to pass around. We started writing a collection of songs on this ukulele which quickly multiplied. When we recorded the album, we wanted to explore uncommon instruments to accommodate it. We did percussion with banging pots to make something unique on a sound scape level, that determined what our sounds was like in the end.
Does living in Austin, Texas influence your sound?
Not so much because of any geographical reason, but there's just so much talent that makes you step your game up. They always say it's “The Live Music Capital of the World” which may or not be true. When we make new records or music videos you always want to stay current. It's like a playful competition to get to the next level. The musician Shakey Graves started at the same time like us. We like touring and playing on each other's records. It's a big collective here in Austin, it feels like you're part of something cool.
Other then Kelsey, with who would you like to sing a duet with?
Steve Martin, he's a fantastic banjo player. I'd seen him play a couple times. I love the way he harmonizes and I think he's a great guy and actor. It would be a dream come true, maybe I should approach him.
Describe an average day of your fan.
Typically we find a lot of young girls relate to our music. Our shows are really playful and we never try to look too cool on stage. We like to be like a fun environment, to be carefree and a little bit wild. Go and have a good time, typically like my teenage years.
Your latest album is named “Pillow Talks”. What was the best or worst conversation you've had lying on your pillow?
I'd say it was less of a conversation, but I had some pillow fights. Screaming matches with ex- and current girlfriends: I'm not so much of a morning person. The fights under pillows in the morning is getting up and starting our day.
If you could have written an existing great song, which one would that be?
There's a song by Death Cab For Cutie named “A Lack of Color” which I can relate to. I just love the lyrics and the vibe, everything about it. He's very subtle in all of his lyrics, finding different ways to say things. I think the song overall has this feel to it that you can't really put on paper, it's a feeling. Only a few songs can make me feel a certain way without anything else besides just listening to it and that's definitely one of them.
Anything special you're going to bring to the London Calling show?
We're bringing our Texas spirit. We like to have a good time, doing some dancing and stamping around. We're gonna bring a bottle of Jack Daniels, it's one of the finest Texas whiskeys.
Showtime: Wild Child at London Calling Festival, Paradiso Amsterdam, 31st October.