Living This Wild Life

Living This Wild Life https://thiswildlifeband.tumblr.com/post/173134265765/listen-to-hold-you-here-at

Kevin Jordan and Anthony Del Grosso are This Wild Life – a band which has moved from pop punk, playing dates on the Vans Warped tour, to a softer more acoustic sound. Stories about transition are always interesting. Kevin and Anthony are working collaboratively across the internet to create new music while at the same time they’ve left Epitaph where they had been signed for 5 years in order to control their band’s destiny. Kevin and I spoke at length about the band and its new trajectory.

If you’re not familiar with This Wild Life, a good place to begin is with their experiment in self making a video for the song You Changed Everything. Here, the band tips its hat to elevator music with a small space performance allowing them to be extremely accessible to fans. This musical journey, complete with tuxedos and sparking cider literally brought fans up and then back down as they became immersed in the song. I think this video showcases the band’s sound and their gentle nature which belies their tattooed exteriors.

During the conversation I had with Kevin he explained how much flexibility This Wild Life gained by forgoing renewal of their record deal and taking full ownership of their future. He and Anthony decided to cover someone else’s song which they found on TikTok and put it out. They recorded it on a Monday night and by Thursday it had been released online with access from a variety of streaming services. It’s that speed that differentiates being in control of your own destiny and that of answering to the needs or requirements of record deal oversight. No one had to approve the song or be involved in either the technical functions of building the track or how it was released. Within four days the song was started, finished and available to hear. Now, their goal is to release 20 tracks this year. The 2020/2021 goal is output.

As I continue to write stories about how acts adapt to the Covid-19 restrictions, I find so many variations of how to persevere. Kevin Jordan is in Phoenix and Anthony Del Grosso is in Salt Lake City. They still write music together, but now their collaboration takes place over video and internet links. The ways in which file sharing, video communications and other online co-working software has moved to the forefront over the past three quarters now facilitates the ability to create across state lines as efficiently as being together in a recording studio or rehearsal hall.