The Wildmans On Their Debut Album And More Music To Come
All images courtesy of @magnoliaellenburg on Instagram
From the mountains of Floyd, Virginia, The Wildmans are bringing the core of Appalachia to Boston roots music.
The brother and sister duo, Elisha and Aila Wildman have always played music together. Starting at the ages of 5 and 7, the duo took music lessons together, with Elisha learning guitar and mandolin and Aila the fiddle. They grew up in a town with a dense music scene — their uncle played guitar when they were younger, causing this Virginian music to have a large presence in their lives. Aila states, “In the town that we grew up in, there's a really strong, traditional music community, it's like an oral tradition between generations and you're exposed to a lot of that.” As their family band formed and they began playing more music together, the group transitioned to playing some larger venues. Elisha remembers, “We got to go to a lot of festivals growing up and that was also a place for Aila and I to play together.”
All images courtesy of @magnoliaellenburg on Instagram
Elisha further explains that, when they were children, “We got noticed by some musicians that went to Berkelee at the time [...] They invited us up to play with them and that was kind of our first big stage performance. I feel like that just got us hooked.” From there, The Wildmans blossomed. They continued to perform at smaller, local gigs, then began to pitch themselves to larger festivals where they garnered a broader recognition. Eventually, the duo found their way to Berklee College of Music, where they began pursuing their music education.
School did not pause the duo’s ability to play music, however. In 2021, the Wildmans won 1st place in the RockyGrass band contest in Lyons, Colorado and won 1st place again in the 2022 Freshgrass band contest in North Adams, Massachusetts. Aila remembers the feeling of winning the contests and expresses, “It was a lot of hard work for us that paid off. I don't know — seeing that hard work in a thing like [the contests] was really rewarding.” Elisha expands on the rush of feelings during the event and remembers, “—through that, we were able to have some of our favorite musicians play with us because they were out of gigs — because of the craziness of the pandemic and all. But, in a way, it brought us together to have a really, really solid band around us for those contests.”
In 2020, The Wildmans released their self-titled debut album, The Wildmans. The work contains 9 songs, a mix of originals and the occasional cover, all of which have roots in blues, folk, rock and Americana music.
When it comes to writing, collaborating to tell unique stories through their music is what drives them. Aila states, “A lot of [our collaborating] is having a baseline idea and then bringing it to each other, working together to kind of make it into the sound that we want.” While the instrumentals set the scene, the lyrics tell the story. According to Elisha, “We kind of, basically, build a little idea and turn it into something that is coherent to other people, but also, coherent in their own way. [The audience] kind of has their own meaning — it's a very broad meaning.” The duo also hopes their listeners will get some excitement out of the music they create. Elisha says, “If people can come to our shows and want to dance, that's one of the most rewarding, fun things about playing live music.”
They take a different approach when it comes to the covers on the album. The Wildmans chose to cover songs like “You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go” by Bob Dylan and “Midnight In Harlem'' by the Tedeschi Trucks Band. Aila finds that “some of the covers come about because [they’re] something that I really wanted to sing and to make work in a band situation.”
All images courtesy of @magnoliaellenburg on Instagram
The Wildmans are entering a new era of music. Some new tracks are on the horizon and Elisha says, in regard to that, “We're at a really transitional point, just finishing college and being able to focus our full time on this band,” and reveals, “we have a couple of people on the line — that are some incredible musicians — that are interested in being more full time [...] It's gonna be exciting to see what comes.” With this transitional point in their lives comes a transition in the style of their music as well. Aila explains, “We've definitely been exploring some new territory. At least, the instrumentation — we've introduced drums and electric guitars as well. So, we're kind of exploring having a little bit of a bigger sound versus the toned down, acoustic sound.”
In the coming years, The Wildmans will still be taking the music world by storm. They don’t have any wish to slow down any time soon. Aila hopes that they will be able to “do what we love to do and pursue that and make a living from it.”