Wild Child (band)

Wild Child is an American indie pop band from Austin, Texas, United States. The band consists of Kelsey Wilson (lead vocals and violin), Alexander Beggins (lead vocals and baritone ukulele), Sadie Wolfe (cello), Matt Bradshaw (keyboard and trumpet), and Tom Myers (drums).^[1] They are managed by Pat Cassidy.^[2]

History

Wilson and Beggins met while touring as back-up musicians for a Danish indie act called The Migrant. They began writing songs together in the backseat of the tour van and found they worked very well as a songwriting team. Both had just been through the end of relationships, which provided both common ground and writing material. Beggins had brought a ukulele from his father's instrument collection simply because it was small enough to comfortably pass around in a van (Beggins played accordion with The Migrant). By the end of the tour the two had written several songs and began recording their first album upon their return to Austin. To complete the sound they were seeking, they called in other local musicians and friends to help record, which eventually became the full Wild Child band.^[3]

Critical Reception

Behind their second album, The Runaround, the premiere release on Ben Kweller's Noise Company label, the Austin six piece earned NPR's Top Ten Songs of 2013 honors for the song "Living Tree," and saw five additional songs hit number 1 on Hype Machine's Popular chart. Their Spotify, Soundcloud, and YouTube streams have eclipsed ten million listens, and they have appeared on NPR's World Cafe and an airing of eTown Radio. The lead single from The Runaround, "Crazy Bird," debuted on Specialty Radio at number one fueled by an performance on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.

The band has been hailed as one of the top acts in music-rich Austin since the release of debut album Pillow Talk; their mix of folk, pop, and gypsy melodies gives them a unique sound. Kelsey Wilson has "the voice of a Jazz Age Broadway baby.... all coos and hiccups and shivers." writes NPR . Among unanimously illustrious praise from the likes of Paste Magazine, Relix Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Indie Shuffle, The Austin Chronicle, and American Songwriter, the Austin American-Statesman has anointed Wild Child as "Austin's next national breakout act".

Pillow Talk

Their self-recorded first album, the 15-track Pillow Talk,^[4] was released on October 25, 2011 ^[5] (with help from San Francisco producers Evan Magers and Alex Peterson, and mastered by Erik Wofford).^[6] The album was received positively on many blogs and yielded a number one single on the music promotion site The Hype Machine.^[3]

The Runaround

Their second album, The Runaround, was released on October 8, 2013 via The Noise Company and produced by Ben Kweller. Kweller liked the band's debut album and sought out the band seeking to produce their sophomore effort.^[2] The album was funded in part through a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised over $40,000. It was recorded in January 2013.^[7]

The first single from the album, Crazy Bird, was received extremely positively, reaching number one on the music promotion site The Hype Machine,^[8] debuting number one the FMBQ SubModern/Specialty charts,^[9] and being featured on World Cafe.^[10] Reviews for the album have been extremely positive, for example receiving a rating of 8/10 from PopMatters,^[11] and being touted as "Austin's next national breakout act" by the Austin American-Statesman The song Living Tree was named in the 'Top Ten Songs of 2013' by NPR ^[12]

Fools

In 2014 the band traveled through Savannah, Georgia for the Savannah Stop Over Music Festival. The morning after their performance at the festival the band loaded into Dollhouse Studios to record a session for "Off The Ave", a video recording session series. It was there they met producers Peter Mavrogeorgis, and David Plakon. Inspired by the surroundings of Savannah and the way that Mavrogeorgis and Plakon worked together they decided that this is where they would record their third LP. The band began recording in the fall of 2014, spending the month of September in Savannah doing most of the initial tracking before they left for a two month European tour. The remainder of the tracking was finished in late December 2014. When the band returned to Austin they enlisted Atlantic Recording Artist Max Frost to produce the track "Break Bones", and local producer Chris "Frenchie" Smith to mix the album.^[13] The band signed with Dualtone Records in April 2015 after A&R Will McDonald caught the bands set at SXSW the month before.^[14] Fools was releases October 2, 2015 worldwide via Dualtone Records, and via Dine Alone Records in Canada.^[15] The album was met with strong critical reception, praised my most critics as a "step out" for the band as they continued to grow their sound and toy with more pop arrangements.^[16] The band was featured on multiple syndicated NPR shows including World Cafe, Acoustic Cafe, eTown Radio, and Mountain Stage. Wild Child appeared on Last Call With Carson Daly on December 10, 2015^[17] The song "Meadows" was prominently featured in an episode of Jane The Virgin entitled "Chapter 28."^[18]

Track listing

Awards and performances

The band was named by the Austin Chronicle as the Best Indie Band and Best Folk Band in Austin at the 2013 South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival.^[19] In 2014, the band was again named Best Indie Band.^[20] In August 2013, the band performed as the opening act for the John Butler Trio. Additionally, the band has performed on Last Call with Carson Daly, AXS Live, PBS, CBS This Morning and have soundtracked a Purina Cat Food commercial.^[21] In 2014, Wild Child toured the United States with Robert Ellis.^[22]

In May 2014, Wild Child appeared on the The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.^[23] During the summer of 2014 the band had a breakout performance at Bonnaroo Music Festival attracting an unprecedented crowd of over 5,000 to the sonic stage drawing comparisons to Lucius (band).^[24] The band also performed at Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival and Firefly Music Festival drawing critical acclaim from The Philadelphia Inquirer.^[25] In 2014, they also performed at the Osheaga Music and Arts Festival a multi-day indie music festival in Montreal, Quebec.

In the summer of 2016 Wild Child performed at major music festivals including Lollapalooza, Forecastle, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Ottawa Blues Festival, Austin City Limits Music Festival, and a break out performance at Newport Folk Festival that was streamed world wide by NPR.^[26]

Wild Child headlined KGRS's Blues On The Green music series in their hometown of Austin, Texas on June 22, 2016 drawing one of the largest crowds in the event's history, estimated at 25,000 people.^[27]

References