Exploring the Musical Terrain of THE WILD LIFE

The Wild Life is a fresh alt/indie rock band formed from the foundation of Michigan’s Great Lakes Bay region writing songs about awareness without escape. Fueled by fuzzed-out guitar hooks and vulnerable lyrics, they mix irony with sincerity while keeping things honest, even it gets messy.

Comprised of Frankenmuth residents and veteran musicians Phil Horny, Chad Moore of Reinventing Yesterday, tattoo artist & custom laser engraver Tim Brueck (of Origins Tattoos & Piercings, M&L Workshop), and award-winning musician Andy Dalton, who received three pivotal honors at the 2020 REVIEW Music Awards  for his 97-minute opus The Fireside Wake, which him the nod as Best Album Release, Best Rock Instrumentalist, and Most Innovative Artist, The Wild Life is a group balancing chaos and adulthood – writing songs they wish they had growing up and for people who feel too much too late but still show up. They are currently working on their debut full length album, which is being tracked at Reed Recording Company in Bay City.

A featured group at this year’s 40^th REVIEW Music Awards celebration, recently I sat down with Phil and Andy to discuss how the group’s paths converged and what their collective chemistry is bringing to the mix of both their music & message, allowing their voices to rise above the collective static that crowds the airwaves of popular music all too often.

REVIEW: Let’s start with how your paths converged to bring both clarity and purpose to this emerging musical collective known as ‘The Wild Life’

Phil Horny:  I've been making solo music for a while playing in the streets of Frankenmuth and it was about time I started reaching out to people. Chad saw me playing and then I ran into him again. He was my son's 1st grade teacher and didn’t realize I played, so we connected, which is rare for adults. We decided we should get together sometime, which usually never happens, but then it did.

Andy Dalton: Chad and Phil connected that way. For me, I was out on a walk and Chad was out on a walk, walking his dog. We just kind of ran into each other because we both live in the same neighborhood and he recognized me because his old band used to play with my old band at gigs, so it was kind of kismet. We also did the, ‘Hey, you want to get together sometime?’ thing, and it never happened.

Then a year later it did happen, and we played a few shows without a bass player doing backing tracks with my looper pedal for bass, only it was too much technical stuff to have fun with, so we decided to get a bass player before moving forward.

I asked my friend Tim, and he was totally down. He's a guitar player and said he didn’t have a bass but was willing to learn. He bought some gear and really did his homework and showed up prepared to practice and with the first song it was like he’d been playing with us for months, so it was very cool. When I joined the band they already had three songs recorded and were already working on other songs, so I was playing catch-up at the same time.

Once we got Tim up to speed and started playing some shows, then we started getting these offers to do Weezer tribute sets, so we did one in Bay City, another in Pontiac, and another in Frankenmuth. That brought us through to January of this year, and it was then we realized we could finally start writing original music for the first time as a band.

REVIEW: How would you guys thematically describe what you’re striving to achieve with your music?

Phil: There are two different perspectives, and one involves our sound and the other our message. Our sound is like ‘90s & 2000’s rock type stuff and a shared love of groups like Weezer, and we’ve done a couple Weezer Tribute shows. With our original music we’ve got five songs recorded, which is what we’re pushing through and have 4 or 5 more to add to the list. At this point we don’t know if it will be a full-length album or an EP because it’s tough when you’re doing Tribute shows.

Andy: Instead of Phil woodshedding everything and bringing it to the table, now we take his ideas, learn the idea, and start putting our individual thumbprints on each song. I’d say Phil is the primary songwriter, but it’s a collaborative process between everybody in the band. Phil brings us the blueprint of his brain and then we do our best to follow along, because he’s an interesting songwriter. He doesn’t repeat the same 4 chords over repeatedly and switches it up, so it’s neat to get inside that and try to write something that's appropriate for what he's trying to accomplish, because I'm not trying to steal his dream. I'm trying to find the message and the idea and look at how I can complement the song and keep my ego out of the way and it's a lot of fun. It's a great challenge.

REVIEW: Tell me Phil, how did you develop and cultivate your songwriting talents?

Phil: I’ve been playing guitar since the age of 14, learning every Beatles song I could and then Elliott Smith for a while, Brendan Benson, and people like that. I was into a lot of Power Pop. I've always been trying to write songs but didn’t feel I was very good at it until my 30’s. I’d been studying music and what songs are good and what people are doing nowadays, and there’s some interesting bands out there that aren’t regurgitating stuff that I’m really digging into. I think one of the more clever songs we worked on so far is St. Lucia because it was a little more pop oriented and Andy started hearing this weird chord change that make it more mellow and dramatic.  

Andy:  I’m going to riff on this one and say we don’t have any egos. We’re not doing this for money. We're a bunch of dudes in our 40s that don't have a lot of free time, so to be able to get four people's adult schedules, who have kids and lives to meet up once a week to practice is awesome. And then when we play shows, we're genuinely excited to be there to just make music and share it with whoever is interested.

We've been told time and time again that we're a really fun band to watch because we're energetic and because we all look like we're having a good time and like smiling at each other. I feel like a lot of artists these days are kind of missing that vibe. It's like everyone's looking at their own guitar and their feet in their own little lane, but they're not a group. They don’t have that synergy or glue.  

REVIEW: Apart from your performance at the Music Awards on May 3^rd, do you have any shows coming up you would like to mention?

Andy: On Saturday, July 18^th we’re playing The House of Greta 4^th Annual Parking Lot Party, which is held in Heritage Park in Frankenmuth.  I’m putting together with Karen Kitska, who is three of the members of Greta Van Fleet’s mom. Karen and I are good friends and last year I started planning with them and it's been a lot of fun and we're excited. It’s going to raise a lot of money for the arts and mental health causes. Papa Kitska and The Vortex Blues Band are also headlining.

REVIEW: Anything else you guys would like to comment or mention I didn’t touch upon?

Andy: There are always a thousand things to say because these are a bunch of talented dudes. Chad’s the best drummer I’ve ever met and knows 7 hours of music, Tim is fantastic because in addition to being an excellent musician he has a laser engraving machine and an ironing machine for patches and makes a bunch of our merchandise on his own, so we have coasters, keychains, and all this unique DIY merchandise.

I’d also like to kind of speak to Phil here. I know this band is really important to him because he’s got a lot of things to say about all these experiences and things that he's been working through as a parent and about mental health and life itself that he’s never really had an outlet to speak freely about, so for me it’s really cool to see his lyrics and see him working through these different things.  It’s fun to help him build on that and I imagine it’s as therapeutic for him as it is for me to write very personal lyrics and finally get it out there.

To experience more of The Wild Life be sure to check out their social media and also their music on Spotify by clicking this link.