Wilderun: Wandering Minds Uncover Pastures New
The world of music has become so dense with such vast arrays of talent that it can be quite an unenviable task to maintain a grasp on it all. One band in particular who have flew under the radar for many a year but have emerged as a driving force in progressive metal is Massachusetts based outfit WILDERUN. Their most recent effort and third album Veil Of Imagination has captured considerable adoration from its initial independent release at the back end of 2019 which has led to their recent acquisition by Century Media Records. “We had interest from a lot of labels and one of the main reasons we signed with Century Media was that they expressed a genuine interest in the music and they had really listened to it,” discusses vocalist/guitarist Evan Berry. “It was clear that they have invested some time in the record and that was really important to us.”
WILDERUN wanted to provide something special to coincide with the re-release and this will be the addition of a bonus track. “We are going to be adding a bonus track which is a cover of IRON MAIDEN‘s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son which we’ve actually been sitting on for a few years now and just never got round to utilising,” states Evan. “Luckily this was the perfect time to complete it. Thankfully we had the drums previously recorded so we have been able to complete this all remotely from our home studio setups. We kind of gave it the WILDERUN treatment by adding some orchestration and some folk instruments and a lot more dynamics. I always like the sound of when a band makes a cover that sounds like it could have been their own song. It’s like a fun challenge so that’s kind of how we treated this cover.”
With the album having already been released prior to them being signed it has allowed the quintet the opportunity to evaluate the reception to the release, the feedback seems to be particularly positive. “I think that this is the best response we’ve gotten so far,” explains Evan. “It was the most exposure we’ve gotten so far. I think a lot of it is due to a fact we hired a PR company when we did the self-release so I think that really helped us. People have been really receptive to the music, it was a little bit different to the previous records so we’re happy to see that people are still coming along with us. The first record was much more folky and a little bit more straightforward in certain ways. It’s been cool to see fans sticking with us and for the most part the new fans we have gained since the release.”
Veil Of Imagination has witnessed WILDERUN broaden their horizons and step away from their initial predominantly folk metal influenced vision. A decision which has undoubtedly benefited their output. “Each record has been a little bit of a new experiment that wasn’t necessarily planned. The first record was very much a folk metal record as we wanted to see if we could put an American spin on the folk metal genre in a way so we’re happy with how that record turned out but once it was done we kind of realised that we didn’t want to make an entire career out of that,” admits Evan. “We would kind of be limiting the lifespan of the band. With the second record we started experimenting a lot more and progressing in certain ways. With this one we just started letting go of a lot of expectations and stopped being worried about what genre we would fit into and just be a little more free overall. We just kind of let our minds wander and let whatever happened happen and I think that resulted in something really cool. As a band we get bored easily so with each record we’ve tried to experiment and see what kind of new elements we can add to our music. We felt like there was a little bit more of a place for the orchestral elements this time round so that kind of set the tone for the record.”
The songwriting process for WILDERUN is something that Evan and company take very seriously, with every fine detail being scrutinised and examined to ensure the finished result is the best possible iteration before making its way onto a release. “I’ll write the basic foundation for the song structures which is usually some kind of combination of guitar and piano for me. I just like to write songs so at times I’ll work on them on my own and just kind of start piecing things together and then demo them out with some basic drum ideas or simple melodies and then send that demo to Wayne [Orchestration] and Dan [Bass] who are the orchestrators of the band and have a lot more production ability than I do. Once the core structures are finished us three will talk about orchestration, arrangement ideas and what instruments to use and what mood we want to achieve. It’s pretty much a multiple month spanning process of arranging and revisions so that we can get them ready for the studio and that’s when we’ll get Jon [Drums] and Joe [Guitar] in the picture and they start to contribute on top of that. It’s a really long kind of multi layered process and that’s the way we’ve always worked really and it’s a way of us getting really detailed about the type of sounds and atmosphere we’re trying to create and make sure that everyone’s individual contributions are considered. It takes a while and a lot of patience but it’s worth it.”
Veil Of Imagination is out now via Century Media Records.
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