Electro rock punkers Wyldling, from Derry, are a pretty exciting prospect.
The band, fronted by dynamo Jilly St John and completed by Glenn Rosborough, David Kirby and Phil Curran, play hard rock with big riffs, catchy tunes and almost dance style beats.
They are garnering rave reviews for their energetic live shows so we thought it was about time we caught up with Jilly to tell us all about Wyldling.
Please introduce yourself? Â My name is Jilly St John and I’m the front woman for Wyldling!
Where did the bands name come from? Â Well a band name is a very strange thing, it has to sit well in the members heads. We had a list of about a dozen names, which we were unsure about initially. Then one day scrolling through Instagram someone had quoted a line from Game Of Thrones, it just jumped out at me! When I looked up an online dictionary definition of the original spelling ‘wildling’ it meant ‘cosmic being’, ‘shapeshifting’, I just loved that idea, I felt it was true to our vision! The guys agreed!
How did you get started? Â All the guys have always been involved in music from a young age. Glenn (guitar) & Phil (drums) were previously signed to Warner as Kharama45; David (bass) being younger is still in college and quite the musician. I’ve been involved in various areas of music from a young age, but never saw it as a real option for a career until about 3/4 years ago when through friends I was introduced to my previous band No Mean City, we managed to tour all the major rock festivals in the UK amongst many other things, it was then I realised I could really do this. When NMC split I knew I had to keep going with my dream, we formed about 1 year later and since then we seem to be moving from strength to strength!
What have you got going on at the moment? Â We’re always busy, even when it doesn’t look it, there’s plenty going on behind the scenes. Currently we’re working on new material, a new music video is on the cards, gigging with the goal of affording a UK tour in the next year! We’re also currently chatting with a major… So who knows where that will lead. Either way we’re here to stay, and we’ve every intention of making sure everyone knows our name! lol
Favourite music and why? Â Gawd, that’s such a huge question, all good music makes it too difficult lol, so I’ll say what I’m loving now. Current “on repeat” at the minute is probably those glam rock gals ‘Deap Valley’, frickin’ LOVE that song Lies. Superb!
Favourite book? Â Memoirs Of A Geisha.
Favourite film? Â I have loadsss, though I still REALLY love Little Miss Sunshine. Great story, script, actors. Everything about it. Awesome.
Best experience in the business so far? Â It definitely has to be my festival experiences in 2010 with No Mean City. We played Download, Sonisphere, T In The Park and a few others.
Met some amazing people, many of whom I’m still in touch with, and had just an amazing time! BUT that’s only to date, I have a feeling we have many more to come as Wyldling, bring them on! 🙂
Why should Soundscape readers care? Â There’s nothing to say they should really, although we very much intend for our name to be around a lot in the near future, so maybe they can say “Old news. We so cool, we knew them already”. *laughing*
Tell our readers an interesting fact about the band? Â We’re 75% horse meat…
What’s the best and worst things about touring? Â One of the best things, being on stage every night of the week! It’s my favourite thing, not to mention all the crazy ass people we meet. You can never have too many crazy’s! One of the worst is probably the “wet wipe shower” in the back of the van! Not my most glamourous moment! Haha.
Most embarrassing thing to happen to you while in the band? Â I probably can’t share that story.
What’s your writing and recording process like? Â Well our band studio is currently a set up in Glenn’s bedroom, so Glenn and I would hang out whilst he batters away on guitar usually.
We’ll do that until something jumps out at us, I tend to take it away then to develop lyrics. Then it goes to the practice room, where we jam it till it sounds naturally, making tweaks along the way. We all bring something very individual to our roles, at least we try to. Always feeding off each others thoughts on what we’re doing until we’re happy we’ve done all that we can with it.
We like to take inspiration from music we like, for example I’m always looking for sounds within tunes I like, sometimes these sounds we recreate with our own stamp are so strong that they can be the foundation for a tune to be built around, our process can very from time to time depending on the nature of the tune and where the strengths lie within it.
What inspires you? Â I can’t speak for the boys, but for me it’s life usually. I guess that comes with the territory of writing lyrics. Though I do try to keep them interesting with metaphors and visual thoughts and on occasion leaving the song open for the listeners own interpretation. Other music inspires me too obviously! I listen to a pretty broad selection of genres, from metal to soul, blues to dance, hip hop to classical and everything in between! Well everything with the exception of 1D… Sorry… lol
Who are your role models or idols? Â I have quite a few for different reasons, I guess being a woman I naturally gravitate towards other women as role models or inspiration. Women like Patti Smith, Cyndi Lauper, Kate Bush. I love the persona of a strong woman who isn’t afraid to really let go! To think outside the box, I think it’s fascinating and beautiful to watch a woman be completely natural in movement, responsive to what they’re singing about or performing and really enjoying a moment of complete freedom. That’s what music is for me, I get lost in it and feel completely free. Life should be full of “free” moments. Men who exude these qualities such as Iggy Pop, Freddie Mercury I admire equally as much, when they perform they just fill a room with energy!!
In your opinion whats the hardest thing about the current business? Â I think you need to be extremely independent in the current industry, which can be pretty tough. Particularly where motivation is concerned.
When you’re independent and serious about what you’re doing it’s essentially a full time job. With no one to make you work it really is down to how far you wanna take it. And a hell of alot to learn, it’s in my opinion you never stop learning about this industry. You need a thick skin and a shed load of drive, there’s rejection, critique. Having said that the highs are ABSOLUTELY worth it. We love what we do and thrive on the challenge.
What are your future plans? Â Well for the immediate future, we’d like to release another single or EP and we’re currently gathering funds for a UK & Ireland tour which we hope to be able to do later this year.
Finally, one question we ask everyone, who is your favourite Batman actor? Â I love the Batman movies but being a chick I’m probably going to upset a whole lotta guys and pick the hot one, BUT it is in my personal opinion that he was actually great at the part in spite of his obvious “talent” lol Christian Bale.
