Wild Child
Austin, Texas, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
"In the coming weeks, months, years, you're going to be hearing a lot more, beyond these pages, about a great young Austin, Texas-based indie band called Wild Child. Trust us." - Wildlife Art Journal
"Are you looking for 2011's breakthrough indie-folk band? If so, today happens to be your lucky day. Wild Child has just released their debut album, Pillow Talk, on Major Nation, and it's about as strong as you'll get for a debut album today." - This Bonus Track
"Though Wild Child is a brand new project, they’ve got all the chemistry needed to make their folk tunes more than just ‘pillow talk’ and bring them to a wider audience." - Paste Magazine
"The vocal pair of Kelsey Wilson and Alexander Beggins form the foundation of Wild Child, but the breadth of their band gives them a range that a normal folksy duo couldn’t pull off alone. This Austin, TX, indie-folk release came out yesterday, and it's spreading around the web like a wildfire. Deservedly so--for a debut it’s absolutely gorgeous." - Two Nine Music
"Wonderfully addictive indie pop. I love the sweetness of the ukelele in some of the songs, but the best parts are their voices and heartwarming harmonies." - New Music Collaborative
"Strikingly ear-grabbing and original." - Direct Current Music
"How lucky we are to have come across this Austin, Texas based band, Wild Child. They are without a doubt one of the emerging indie-folk bands of the next few years." - Tune Love
"By far one of the best albums to be released this year." - KUT Austin Music Minute
"I’ll confidently go out on a limb and say that Pillow Talk may very well be named one of 2011's “Best Of” albums. The vocals and harmonies are flawless and gorgeous, the strings are ridiculously catchy and dazzling, the keys add a brilliant substance, and the drums do a fine job at guiding each song (and your feet). This 15-track album is one of anthemic proportions; it's impossible to not sing along. After all is said and done, Wild Child's talent is undeniable." - Indie Shuffle
Discography
Pillow Talk (LP released on Major Nation Records October 2011)
Photos
Bio
Wild Child, indie folk seven-piece from Austin, Texas, started out as an acoustic duo without any particular ambition—just two new friends, Alexander Beggins and Kelsey Wilson, making up little ukulele love songs to pass the hours on the road. The two met for the first time just three days before taking off for a six-week stint as touring members of the Scandinavian band The Migrant, and instantly formed a bond over bottles of red wine, a scratched Little Joy CD, and life on tour. With northern U.S. parks and fields as their backdrop and a crowded van as their practice studio, Kelsey and Alexander wrote the seeds of their first ten songs in the first few weeks, effortlessly recounting the ups and downs of the failed romances they'd each just left behind.
In San Francisco, the band stayed with Alexander's cousin, producer and keyboardist Evan Magers, and one afternoon the three of them sat down together and finished the first full Wild Child song, a joyful doo-wop ditty they jokingly called "That's What She Say." After returning from the tour, Alexander and Kelsey continued writing at a fevered pace, recording lo-fi demos of more than 20 new songs on an 8-track recorder in Alexander's bedroom, and sending the demos to Evan, who signed on immediately to produce and play keys on the band's first album. With engineer Alex Peterson in tow, Evan traveled to Austin in March 2011, and the group set to work arranging and recording the album, enlisting drummer Carey McGraw, cellist Sadie Wolfe, bassist Chris D'Annunzio, and multi-instrumentalist Matthew Mares to help craft the band's unique orchestral folk sound. Following a month of rehearsing, recording, and making their debut at SXSW, Kelsey, Alexander, Evan and Alex returned to San Francisco to finish tracking at Laughing Tiger Studio, then spent the summer mixing the album at Major Nation Studio in Austin.
Mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Erik Wofford, Wild Child's swing-for-the-fences debut album, "Pillow Talk," features 15 tracks full of gorgeous harmonies, lush instrumentation, tempered rhythms, and conflicted lyrics about love and loss. Released by Major Nation Records on October 25, 2011, "Pillow Talk" quickly garnered a plethora of unanimously glowing reviews from critics and bloggers around the country, including Paste Magazine, Filter, Indie Shuffle, Music Connection, We Are Hunted, American Songwriter, and Spinner, with five of the album's songs making appearances on Hype Machine's Popular chart (and two of the songs reaching #1). From the dazed and dreamy "Silly Things" to the somber and sweet "Darling Divine," the woozy waltz of "I'll Figure You Out" to the rambunctiously infectious "Cocaine Hurricane," the songs tell a rich tale of inconvenient matters of the heart, with a wink and a smirk and a shot or two of whiskey for taste. The playful innocence on the surface is just a guise; peel away all the youthful charm, humor, and the palpable chemistry among the group—in particular between Kelsey and Alexander—and you find true songwriting grit: fiercely honest, emotionally complex, and wise beyond this band's young years.
Wild Child has fostered their growing reputation with their characteristically stunning, rowdy performances at venues and festivals throughout central Texas, including Stubb's, Antone's, Emo's, the Parish, Beauty Ballroom, the Texas Music Theater, Wild Frontier Fest, West By West Campus, and Art Disaster 13. They returned home to Austin in early March from their first tour, through the southeast and back, just in time to perform as an official showcase band at SXSW 2012. Plans for Wild Child's first national tour, in summer 2012, will be announced soon.
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