I was on a first date. Nervous, excited and totally psyched as first dates tend to go. But this night was going to be quite a bit different than the rest. Not only was I taking this pretty girl out for the night, but I was also planning on sitting down and chatting with one of our favorite groups, Wildcat! Wildcat!. This wouldn’t be your typical dinner and a movie, that was evident from the get go.

The California troupe broke onto the scene in explosive fashion as blogs were quick to pick up their uber-catchy first single, “Mr. Quiche”. That was nearly 3 years ago and the group hasn’t showed any signs of slowing, recently releasing their debut album, No Moon At All, to the acclaim of fans everywhere. Following a massive 2014 which not only included the album release but also saw the group performing at Lollapalooza and a slew of sold out tour dates, Wildcat! Wildcat! is as humble as ever, grateful for their fans and the impeccable timing of their releases which seem to catch the public’s ear just as they need it the most.

As we made our way into the basement of Schuba’s, Jesse Taylor, Michael Wilson, and Jesse Carmichael were already sitting comfortably amid the worn-in couches and empty PBR cans. As we began to chat, it became very clear that these guys weren’t in it for the fame and money – as most tend to imagine all rock stars are. Instead, we began to have a very humble conversation about the growth of the group, the state of the music industry, and why it pays to make music for the love of making music. Check out our full interview below and make sure to catch some of their biggest hits along the way.

The Sights and Sounds: So what’s up guys? How’s it going?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: It’s good. Going good, man. We’re all kind of sick, but we’re happy to be here. It’s definitely ebola, we’ve already established that, haha.

The Sights and Sounds: How’s the tour going? You guys are on a kick through the Midwest.

Wildcat! Wildcat!: It’s cold as shit. It is cold.

The Sights and Sounds: How are you dealing with it?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: With coats and scarves. Awkwardly. I mean, we knew it was going to be cold so we definitely packed some layers. But not Arctic Invasion cold. We weren’t expecting this vortex shit.

The Sights and Sounds: Haha. So first off I just wanted to congratulate you guys on your first album, what an accomplishment. I first heard you guys via “Mr. Quiche” and I was very excited to hear where you guys were going to go from there, so again, congrats!

Wildcat! Wildcat!: Thank you!
 

The Sights and Sounds: It’s an interesting album for me because there are a lot of sounds on there and you can usually pinpoint where this band comes from, but with you guys have a mix of indie, rock, some electronic elements, I catch hints of M83, and even some R&B vibes. How do you guys bring all that in and make it work and jive between the group?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: It’s pretty natural and organic for us. It was never a forced thing of like, let’s combine this and this and some of this.

That’s the perfect combination!

Haha, yeah, like here’s the formula we’re going with. It was just kind of the way that things happened, you know. I think early on it was just a product of our circumstances. We didn’t have a place to set up and play live. Michael only had this shitty old practice keyboard, so he only had a certain amount of sounds that he could use. I couldn’t play drums, so I was doing stuff like programming in the box where you get this weird like electronic mixed with shakers. And then vocally it was like we didn’t have any crazy nice mics or pre-amps, so it was layering the vocals trying to get them to sound big and professional. So it was just working with what we had early on and that kind of created this certain sort of sound that we all liked and other people seemed to like. So we just kind of took that and, obviously with the help of Morgan who produced our record, we shaped it and went out on certain limbs but tried to keep it a cohesive sound.

“…when you hear about someone across the world… saying how much your music has meant to their life at a certain time, it just puts you in a different head space and you kind of do things differently.”

The Sights and Sounds: It’s interesting that you say that because building a sound from the equipment you have, you get a sort of sans-production feel in a certain sense, which also lends itself to your sound in a lot of ways. You don’t always have a perfect production studio, but you have the raw vocals, the raw takes and everything, which lends itself to a very unique type of sound in a lot of circumstances.

So you guys have been in and out of bands together for a long time, about 15 years, correct?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: Nick and I have been in bands together, I mean we’ve all been friends and grown up together, but we’ve never really done a whole lot of making music with Michael because he was always kind of doing his own thing. But Nick and I have been in bands together since high school.

The Sights and Sounds: Do you find that helps with the writing process?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: I mean for me, sure, yeah. As far as drums and bass, which is the rhythm section, it’s a pretty important part of any band. When you play with someone for that long you get to know someone else’s playing really, really well and you’re able to play together in a way that’s very unique to other bassists and drummers.

The Sights and Sounds: In your guys’ history together, was there ever point where you guys looked at each other and went, “Hey, we’re going to make this work no matter what.” Was it something that just clicked and you knew that you wanted to start a band together? How did that form where you guys just decided to start making music and writing together?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: It wasn’t really a decision or anything. We kind of just stumbled into it. Michael had been sending Nick and I songs that he had been working on. And we were just like, fuck, Michael is so talented, this is really good stuff. Eventually, he was coming up to work on day with Jesse on a song just for fun and I was in the same building. So I popped down just to say what’s up and we started working on a song, which was cool. We had had another friend who was playing a show and wanted us to play, and we were like, “Ok, sure.”

And that was it! We didn’t really… like, we wanted to put together a set and that was it, and just play one show and be like, “Cool, we did it.” Like, that was fun, yeah.

The Sights and Sounds: Do you remember that show specifically?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: Oh for sure, yeah. We had our 100th show there, too. But we were awful, haha. We were terrible.
 

The Sights and Sounds: Haha, but I’m sure everyone in the crowd loved it. Otherwise you wouldn’t have kept going.

Wildcat! Wildcat!: And that’s kind of how the band formed. It wasn’t like our decision, it was the response that we got. It was the fan’s decision for us to keep going.

The Sights and Sounds: You guys are lucky to have those fans so early on. A lot of bands play for years and don’t have those kind of fans.

Wildcat! Wildcat!: Especially in LA, there’s so much going on.

The Sights and Sounds: What do you think lends itself to having such die hard fans?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: In LA, it’s because we grew up there. You know, we have a lot of friends there and a lot of roots there. People that we all grew up with were like, “Oh my gosh, the three of you guys are making music together? That’s crazy.” Because we had never done that before. They knew us all separately versus a band from, wherever, East Coast or Midwest, who are like “Hey, let’s move to LA and be an LA band.” And they’re there for a year and start trying to play local shows and they’re like, “Man, I don’t know why anyone in LA isn’t coming out to our shows.” For us it started because we grew up there and it started with this vast community already.

We didn’t really know what our product was. It was kind of shaped by the people that kept coming out to shows. The way that we write within the three of us is specifically unique to only the three of us, so there isn’t someone out there who can replace the other person, as far as song writing or playing goes. Just because of the depth of our friendships and the way that that translated into our live show I think caught certain people’s attention and that’s the kind of fan base we have. A little more die hard in LA. In other cities, too, it’s been a huge surprise to see people that have caught “Mr. Quiche” two and a half years ago when we put it on Soundcloud and then they’re seeing us for the first time. They come up afterwards and they’re like, “I’ve been waiting so long to see you guys!”

It’s just such a great… humbling experience because it’s really been like from a pure intentions stand point. There’s no formula to it. There’s nothing more than just like realizing that people were getting something from it and that we needed to keep doing it because we were making people happy. It was something that was exciting for people and everyone was like I can’t believe this is true. And realistically, that’s some of the shit that just keeps us going, to be honest. Sure, getting spots on TV and radio and stuff are great, but when you hear about someone across the world, like literally on different continents, saying how much your music has meant to their life at a certain time, it just puts you in a different head space and you kind of do things differently.
 

The Sights and Sounds: That’s totally cool. Personally I’ve always felt that when you do something purely for the organic love that it creates freedom for the self. I do it because I love to do it, and I don’t really care what other people think. And I find that the people who are doing it that way, more often than not, people will follow them and love what they’re doing because they’re the groundbreakers. They’re the guys doing it because they’re curious to see what something sounds like if I tried this, or did this. And it sounds like that’s kind of the journey you guys are taking.

Wildcat! Wildcat!: Yeah, that’s always the kind of thing that’s going to take off, you know. Being in bands for years, we were in bands that were just like, alright we’re going to do this band and this is going to be this thing. And you hustle your ass off, and go “Why isn’t this working?” And it’s always that thing that you don’t really think of like that that kind of goes off, and that’s what this band kind of was. It was let’s just do this for the fun, we’re sick of doing the bullshit, sick of taking it so seriously, let’s just make stuff that we want to make and have fun. Because like you said, people gravitate toward that authentic nature, like this is something special, this is something different, this isn’t planned out.

“There’s nothing more than just like realizing that people were getting something from it and that we needed to keep doing it because we were making people happy.”

The Sights and Sounds: Since the time of “Mr. Quiche” a couple years ago, the music industry has inevitably changed, you know, it’s always changing. But just in the last couple months you’ve had Soundcloud, who announced they will become an advertising platform, and you have YouTube, who has just signed deals with Sony and Universal to create their own streaming network, among many other things. How do you think a) that has affected you guys as a band or will affect you guys as a band, and b) where do you think this is going to take music in general?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: I think for so long there’s been people, in any generation, that’s like Soundcloud or like YouTube, that starts cultivating artists in any platform of art to bring new stuff to light, basically. So, if Soundcloud and YouTube are going to be something different then there will be something else that will come up, too.

Obviously because of time, things are going to keep moving. There’s never going to be like a “Alright, we finally figured it out. We figured out the platform, we figured out the industry, we figured out how this is going to work best. There’s obviously been albums and CD’s, there’s been eras of those things where ok, this is the platform, this is what’s working. But it’s always going to keep changing, you know, and no one is going to be able to predict what’s next.

It’s funny though, because I feel like there’s the moment where like – back when we were growing up, like he said, when you were in high school you went through all these different phases like, I’m an emo kid or I’m a hardcore kid or I’m a jock, or whatever. Today, anyone can be anyone, and genres are mixing, and it’s funny because I almost feel that even though I really love that stage – like I really do love the whole everybody can be into everything, it’s super cool, you can dress this way and be into this, you can listen to this music and look this way – I almost feel like it’s going in the other direction. For instance, with that new Ello platform, it’s like the newest, coolest social media, but the only people on it are like fucking designers and illustrators and artists, and it’s like the most us and you thing, prove to us how cool you are, and within that it just feels like it’s going backwards. Even though I want it to go in the other way, sometimes I feel like people are literally just wanting to grab onto an identity and because everything is so free flowing you can be into anything at any given time with any click of the button, likes or dislikes, more so people are gravitating towards wanting to be a hardcore kid, or wanting to be like whatever, you know, instead of being like “I can be into anything!”

I think you have to look at it from a lot of ways. Things are going to keep changing and if you start making music because you love making music then you’re going to keep doing it regardless of what the platform is or what’s going on because I think people will drive themselves crazy trying to figure out the next move or marketing scheme or whatever. But I think there is also a turning point that people are going to start realizing where if they’re not willing to pay for music in some sort of fashion or support artists in some degree, people are not going to be able to make the music anymore. It is a balance. Or you have to figure out where else to get big. And then maybe, you know, the art suffers.

There are a lot of different aspects to the conversation, but I do think that people are going to come back to realizing like, “Oh, wait a minute…” Because it used to be that music, for me, was a very normal expense, it was part of my budget. I’d spend a certain amount of money and I was willing to do that. Same as I’m willing to buy food or buy whatever else I want. And then now, that’s sort of gotten thrown into the luxury item category, like, “No, I’m not gonna pay for that music.” And it shouldn’t be because you can steal it why pay for it.

Going back to what I was saying, if you start making music because you love making music, you’re going to keep doing it regardless of what the change in the platform is.
 

The Sights and Sounds: I think that’s what most of the artists out there are saying, because musicians are really happy when other people are listening to their music. That’s what it should be all about. It shouldn’t be about, “Well, oh, let’s keep Spotify out of it because we didn’t sign that contract, or whatever.”

Wildcat! Wildcat!: But it’s been about making money for so long, at least in the last 100 years, that you really have to change your view.

The Sights and Sounds: Well then let me ask you, if you could write yourself a letter today and have it delivered to yourself two years ago, what would you guys write? What would that letter say?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: Just a drawing of a thumbs up, haha. Keep going.

If I could write myself a letter and ship it to two years ago, I would like, explain Uber and say, “Invent this!” Or like here’s a great idea, trust me. But with the band thing I would say something like, guess what, in two years from now you would have just played Lollapalooza and played a sold out show in Chicago. And I would have been like, “Fuck that! No way, get outta here! Who wrote this?” Haha.
 

The Sights and Sounds: Let’s jump into the less serious side of the interview now, I know you guys need to get going. But first, what is your guys’ ideal first date?

Wildcat! Wildcat!: Man, I haven’t been on a date in a long time. I guess the ideal first date would be like a whimsical accident, maybe. Like, you kind of just bump into someone and say, “Oh, let’s just go and do this right now!” Maybe like the impromptu.

The Sights and Sounds: Looks like they’re calling you guys to stage, I know you only have about 5 minutes before you go on, so thank you so much for sitting down and taking the time to talk with us. It’s going to be an exciting show and I’m really looking forward to it!

Wildcat! Wildcat!: Thank you! We’ll rock it for you and your first date! We’ll make the sparks fly!

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