INTERVIEW: Green Man Rising Stage Interviews Part 1 – Wyldest

Formerly known as Wildest Dreams – until realising that DJ Harvey had just released a new project under that name – the newly christened Wyldest are Zoe Mead on vocals, samples and synths and Holly Mullineaux on guitar. Having won the competition to open the Mountain Stage on the Friday of the festival, after only starting to play music together in May this year, their trajectory so far pretty much redefines the notion of a Rising act. Their latest track, “Wanders”, also recently got a spin from BBC Radio 1 Introducing. Needless to say they had a lot to talk about, and were excited to the point of finishing each other’s sentences.

Wyldest

Congratulations on winning the Green Man Rising competition. How did it feel when you found out?

Holly: Thanks! It was great. When we actually won, it was crazy – we weren’t really expecting it. Zoe: We screamed, and we’re not really screamers. The standard of the other bands was amazing. So yeah, we were amazed. We drank lots of champagne, and various booze.

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And how did you find actually playing on the main stage?

Z: The word we’d use is surreal, it was so weird. We were really nervous backstage, but it was…

H: …Incredible, such a great experience.

Z: It sounds very clichéd, we’d like to say something more, but it was just fantastic.

H: It was definitely something we’d never done before, not on that scale. It was massive. We were worried that our guitar leads wouldn’t stretch all the way across the stage and stuff.

Z: We haven’t actually done that many gigs as we’ve only been together since May. We first jammed on May the 8th.

So it’s been quite a hectic few months?

H: Yeah, we’ve had to work hard, because we got the set pretty perfect for the competition, which was 20 minutes, and then it was, “Right, OK, we’ve won! Now… 45 minutes”. We had ideas, but we had to really put the work in to get it ready to be here.

Z: It made us think, “This is such a good opportunity so let’s not waste it, let’s get the 45 minutes together, make it amazing and go forward from there”.

How did you first meet and form the band?

Z: We had mutual friends but didn’t really know each other. We were both in different bands. I guess it was fate, because we got talking about guitar pedals one day on social media, and it turned out we both really like guitar pedals and are into the same kinds of music, so it was: “Cool – do you want to jam?”.

H: Zoe’s band had split up, my band had split up, and we were a bit bored and looking around. And it might sound silly but I’ve always wanted to do a female band. It is just something I’ve wanted to do. I’ve worked with guys before and I feel like women are just a bit more driven, just a bit more keen to get things done. And I’d been looking for someone for so long who wasn’t just a singer-songwriter, someone who wanted to do a bit more. And that was Zoe.

Z: Yeah, make something loud; just because we’re girls doesn’t mean we can’t be loud.

You said you have similar taste in music, but do you have any really different influences as well, which come into the band?

H: It was weird because we were in really quite different bands before. We knew each other but never thought to put two and two together. I was in a really noisy, grungy, shoegaze band…

Z: …And the band I was in was kind of indie rock, soundscapes, ambience, trying to be a bit Sigur Ros – which is fine, because Sigur Ros are amazing – but not really quite getting there. It was quite self indulgent, quite prog rock with long, drawn out riffs and things, so yeah it was different.

H: But then it was the best of both worlds, because I wanted to be in something a bit more poppy, a bit more melodic, and Zoe wanted to be a bit more dreamy.

Z: Because I fit the girl stereotype of playing an acoustic guitar, the guys in my other band were like “No, play on acoustic!”, but I always wanted to play electric. So this is my chance.

It seems like you have found yourselves pigeonholed quite a bit, as female musicians – does it happen a lot?

H: Yeah, definitely, you can get it. And that’s exactly what we don’t want to do anymore. I was actually playing bass in my old band, which I’d never played before – because I play guitar, I always have – but for that band I was kind of “the girl on bass”, so yeah, we’re actually doing our own thing now.

Do you produce all your own tunes as well?

Z: Yes, at the moment. I’ve got a miniature studio setup in my bedroom, and normally it starts with me writing something like a synth and drumbeats, and I’ll send it over, Holly will write some guitar riffs, and then we’ll just put it all together. We’ve done some little bedroom demos, but we’ve started to work with a friend of ours in London, as well as Holly’s boyfriend Max who happens to be a great producer [plug alert] – Park Studios! So, we’ve got some friends on our side and we’ve been able to do it for little or no budget, but it’d be nice in the future to really work with a producer and…

H: …Really go to town!

Z: Yeah, something really big. But at the moment it’s just about writing as much as we can, and laying them down, demo after demo.

H: It’s about developing our sound, and making it work for us.

What would you say is your most pop/mainstream influence, and your most obscure?

H: Hmm… we did a jam the other day that sounded like Cyndi Lauper…

Z …Cyndi Lauper, yes! Just that really jumpy bass and obviously 80s snare, that kind of snare hit that just cuts off, we really love that sort of sound; we’re trying to incorporate that as well as shoegaze, as well as new dream pop, so it’s kind of a merging of all that together.

H: And for the more obscure, in terms of guitar sound, someone I admire is Connan Mockasin. His really chorus-y sound on his guitar, it’s bordering on weird.

Z: I’m really into Ducktails. I don’t know how obscure they are, but they’re one of my favourite bands at the moment, I can’t stop listening to them. They’ve got some really cool R&B vibes as well as the shoegaze and dream pop at the same time, and really cool bass.

Do you want to carry on doing your own DIY thing for a bit, or are you looking for a label ultimately?

Z: It’d be nice, eventually. At the moment we’re really happy with what we’re doing. We really enjoy the process at the moment of writing, of jamming, of coming up with new stuff. And then obviously it’d get more serious if a label does get involved, and then a bit more money may be put into the production and stuff, which is great, but, at the moment we’re really happy to see where it goes.

H: Because we’re just so new. We’re sort of finding ourselves; I mean, I know where I want to be as a musician, but more in terms of working together and writing songs: newer songs and better songs.

Z: Developing the sound more and more.

What has been the highlight of your year – I guess probably winning this competition and playing here, since it’s a pretty great achievement?

Z: Well, I hate to be predictable, but… yeah!

H: It hasn’t been a long year for us. So yes, this was great. We’ve had some nice things said as well.

Z: We’ve had some really nice support from blogs recently, and it’s really helpful to get them on your side and for them to be saying stuff about us is amazing. And the Green Man Rising competition really helped, because it got us a bit of exposure, and some of the big blogs helped to judge it, and it helped get the word out.

What are your plans for the near future?

H: We’re looking to release an EP towards the end of the year or January.

Z: In about November, hopefully, we’re going to really find the right producer for us, and then we’ll record an EP and try and get it sounding really epic.

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– Wyldest play on 6th September at the Old Blue Last, London; plus more dates in London, Southsea and Bristol.

Find out more: https://www.facebook.com/WildestDreamsBand

Check out their cover of “Cloudbusting”, in honour of Kate Bush’s tour