Wilder.: Take Me To Church

When we’re young, our parents dare us to dream. They say there’s life to be lived, and lessons to be learnt. Everything will be okay in the end, and if it’s not okay, it’s not the end. Growing up is simply part and parcel of being alive. Sometimes things go our way, and other times they don’t. Bands get together, and bands break up. It’s natural. When Nick Sturz and Stephen Ramos put the last ten years of their life as half of Christian rock band HEARTS LIKE LIONS to bed, they had already moved on mentally to their indie-pop daydream WILDER.. They just didn’t know how to make it a reality. 

As Nick and Stephen searched for a way out of their creative rut, they found themselves looking to their faith for guidance. They prayed for a sign that they were on the right path, and soon they were presented with an opportunity that seemed almost too good to be true. Nick had been chosen over Convene forum, a gathering of Christian leaders and influencers, to share his story and speak about his experiences in the music industry. This was the push they needed to pursue their dream of creating indie-pop music and leave their Christian rock past behind.

“We had already grown out of the Christian rock scene, and we were ready to do other types of music,” Nick admits, reflecting in his car as the early morning Californian sun seeps in. “If you’re not all in on that, and you want to get out of it, it’s hard because bands get really pigeonholed into that sound. We knew what we wanted to do, we didn’t know how we wanted to do it – we were stuck.”

With the other half of HEARTS LIKE LIONS – Luke Schoepf and Michael Grassechi – opting to bow out of the band for “bigger and better things,” Tooth & Nail Records gave Stephen and Nick the option to walk, and they took it. With the opportunity they spent their days in hospitality and retail dreaming about finally in their hands, they were overwhelmed with emotion.

“Nick and I were super stoked, but also very nervous about it too, because we were so used to something we’d had for 10 years and it would’ve been so easy to stay in that normalcy and ride along,” Stephen admits, as open as his bandmate and best friend about the duality of their situation. “In the end, we knew we had to start over from scratch, and we were worried about how other people would take hearing this new project. It was about overcoming those extra thoughts that we’ve never had to take into account because this is brand new for us, and we’ve just got to be like ‘fuck it, let’s just roll with it.’”

And roll with it is what they’ve done. Rising from the ashes like phoenixes, WILDER. is the sound of Stephen and Nick at their most creative. Their newfound creative freedom manifested itself into their debut EP – Bad Bad Luck – alongside their signing with prestigious pop punk and post-hardcore label Rude Records. 

Their sound switches from indie-pop to pop-punk and back again faster than you can say pizza. It’s a sound that’s been built by their unique influences, from hardcore punk to indie rock, as Nick adds. “I was super involved with hardcore punk, and Stephen was heavy on YOUNG THE GIANT and FROM INDIAN LAKES, so like when a kid who’s into indie rock mixes with a kid into hardcore punk, you end up with this aggressive alternative sound.”

Bad Bad Luck might be the sound of two friends finally finding happiness in their music, however it’s five tracks are by no means an easy listen. Lyrically, they dive in deep on their experiences growing up in and out of the Church, and the intolerance that some inherit from that. “It’s meant to dig into Nick and I’s background, the people we’ve dealt with in the church and religion in general,” Stephen admits, adopting a sterner tone as the conversation shifts to more serious matters. “A lot of it is making fun of what people think of us because we say the word ‘fuck’ now.”

Whilst it’s easy to laugh at the simplicity of it all, it hits deeper than that for WILDER.. Bad Bad Luck is them finally having their say on years of scrutiny for absolutely no reason at all. “In the end, Nick and I had a lot of experiences where we were known as the bad people, for decisions we would make in life where people were always so nosy,” Stephen remarks, still shocked at this fact. It’s something that helped open their eyes to a darker side of the world they’d been raised in. “We see the world a lot differently too, we don’t want to be a part of any set of people that are harmful and oppressing to any race or even just your preferences to who you’re going to be marrying, whether it’s a man or a woman or someone who’s non-binary. Anybody that discriminates against those people, we’re not for and we don’t want to be a part of that.”

In many ways, it’s their disillusionment with the world they were in that led them to dreaming up the band we now know as WILDER.. Every day, they found themselves opening their eyes more and more, and wanting to do the same for others. “During a lot of our experiences in church, we’ve seen a lot of people have so much hate towards people trying to spread so much love. We’ve realised as we’ve grown into adults and had our own view rather than following somebody else’s, a lot of the shitty things people you thought were ‘good people’ end up not being that good.”

For WILDER., it’s not about rejecting their past. It’s about making it a better place for the future generation. They want to call out the behaviour they’ve experienced, and educate others. Even if there’s an air of hesitation in taking on religion, they know it’s the right thing to do with the platform they’re building.

“I just want to clarify, we don’t think Christians are bad people by any means, I just think it’s really calling out that behaviour which is really normal now in the church setting,” Nick states adamantly, adding “you won’t find me at Church on Sunday for a while, but at the same time we need to educate people who use their influence and belief to put other people down and hold them down, and shame them and make them feel bad for being different, like that has got to go.”

If their inner battles with their beliefs wasn’t enough, they found themselves battling through a global pandemic that threatened to derail WILDER. before it had even got moving. With families to feed, full-time jobs in retail, and lives to live, they had to face adversity head on. “Nick and I weren’t gifted with the funds to be able to spend 40 hours a week just on music, like him and I both have families, and we have to work full time to support what we want to do,” Stephen shares, sounding strained from the difficulties they’ve dealt with. It’s a stance Nick shares, once again highlighting the solidarity the two share. “You get some grit when you have to provide for yourself, and on top of that building something that requires an insane amount of work. We just had to make a decision and see what happens because you can’t control it, and we can’t control people’s reactions to things, but what we can do is like the music and release it no matter what.”

It’s their undying love and passion for playing music that make these two friends utterly charming. It’s the same reason WILDER. will continue to make magical indie-pop with an alt-rock kick that mixes big topics with big choruses. They’re a band daring to dream in a time where so many people can’t – and that’s something to applaud. 

Bad Bad Luck is out now via Rude Records.

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