Into The Wild!

BC band find their way to Regina

Once again The Wild! have rolled through Regina on a Canada-wide tour and I was fortunate enough to discuss rock n’ roll music with their lead singer, Dylan Villain.

For those unaware, The Wild! are a band that come from British Columbia and have found some great success. Their EP, GxDxWxB, made some real waves upon release, garnering the hit single, “What About You”, some significant airtime on The Wolf, Regina’s local rock station.

Now, The Wild! are back with a new tune, “Playing with Fire”, which also found its way into the ears of fans as people will most likely notice from its use in the NHL (if you haven’t heard it live).

Here’s Dylan Villain of The Wild!:

So The Wild! recently had a new single that’s been making a lot of waves, “Playing with Fire,” I know the Toronto Maple Leafs have been using it, how do you guys feel about that?

Ah, it’s good man; I mean, it’s always nice to see that with every single release that you put out, that people are still really into your music over the years. We’ve had a lot of success over the years, be it at radio, be it overseas, be it album sales, be it in the NHL. No matter what way people keep finding our music, or people keep sticking along with us throughout the ride of out career over the years, it’s just great to see people still digging it, you know. And the NHL has been really good to us on the last record, but it’s nice to still be working with them on this new stuff.

And because of the single’s success, is there an upcoming album fans can expect?

Right now, we’re just focusing on the two singles that we have out. The first singles that we put out in two years, and they’ve been received really well. They were both our highest numbers upon release for streaming and digital platforms, so people are digging it. That’s really where our focus is right now, is just those two songs.

Now, you guys are just kind of getting into your Canadian “Playing with Fire” tour right now – how’s that been going for the band?

Well, we’ve played four shows, tonight’s [at the time of writing] is the fifth, there’s two more and six out of those seven are already sold out, so things are going really good on this tour.

That must be a pretty positive experience, to have shows sell out for the band.

Ah, it’s awesome. We love it man, you know. We haven’t been able to tour Canada in the last couple of years as extensively as we normally do because we’ve been spending most of our time in Europe and America. So, to come home and do this tour, sort of our first one back in a while, and have all these dates sell out is a great look man, we’re really stoked. We wouldn’t be able to keep doing things like tour Europe for the last few years and America for the last few years if we didn’t have our fan base here in Canada. So we’re super thankful, super appreciative for everybody that has been coming out to the shows and going crazy with us.

Talking about the singles again, what was the thought process behind putting out new music?

Oh, it was really time, I mean the last record came out 2017, that in itself is a testament to how much time we spent on the road and that’s why [being] in Europe and America for so long [created the wait] because that record may have [been] not so new in Canada, but it’s brand new in other parts of the world. So it creates an opportunity to go spread that music, and that message, and that vibe with your whole band to other parts of the world where they haven’t heard you and that’s just what we did. So, after wrapping several tours in Europe and America, it was just time that we had some new music, so we just went and cut some new singles. And it’s cool because, nowadays, people are so hungry for content that, if you release an album, they’re generally asking for a new one in a couple of months, right?

And I know you guys are focused on the Canadian tour right now, but afterwards are you thinking of heading back to Europe or is that too far in the future to think about?

Oh no, we’re definitely going back. We have our dates solidified for 2020 and we’ll be announcing some of them real soon.

So, last question: with The Wild! heading back with these new singles, what’s the crowd reaction like for the band coming back?

Yeah, it’s been really cool man. Like . . . I think really what it is is people, our fan base here in Canada, really watched us explode overseas in Europe, especially this last summer. We’ve played some of the biggest shows we’ve ever played, you know, festivals of 75, 000 people, 150, 000 people, our own crowds of 17,000. That feeling in itself is amazing, but it’s the people here at home that have been really with us since the start seven years ago. When we first started we were playing to 100 a night, 200 people a night or whatever. Those people watching us get our success overseas has really been cool ’cause they stick with us through it all. Then when we come back and get to play for them here, having gone through all those experiences and watching the band grow as performers and the show getting bigger and the show getting better and all of that stuff, it’s really exciting for fans. It’s really exciting for us too, ’cause we love what we do man, we love playing rock n’ roll music.