Influences: WILDERADO

Sounds that matter, as picked by the artists formerly known as Bird Dog...

WILDERADO know their music.

After all, the band's initial moniker Bird Dog was half-inched from a song by the Everly Brothers.

New EP 'Latigo' is a graceful work, full of gently maturing sounds and a lyrical touch that is devastating in its under-stated nature.

Produced by James McAlister – a frequent Sufjan Stevens collaborator – the material has a gilded edge, a rich melodic-ism hewn to palpable emotion.

Heading back into the studio to work on fresh material, WILDERADO took time out to reveal a few of their Influences.

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The Beatles – 'Getting Better' (Sgt. Pepper’s) , 'She Said She Said' ('Revolver')

When we were making the first two EP’s ('Misty Shrub', 'Latigo'), 'Sgt. Pepper’s…' and 'Revolver' were all we listened to. There was no real motive to it, we just loved the songs and the tone they set in the house we were living in. We all fell in love with our songs through writing them together. Whether a tune was written alone or as a group, everyone took the time to understand where the song was coming from and how to engage it on a personal level. We are really quite novice at songwriting at this point, and especially were two years ago, so we put a lot of weight on the energy behind a song, using our collective excitement about how it made us feel as the only calibre for whether or not we are headed in the right direction.

All that to say, 'Revolver' and 'Sgt. Pepper’s…' put us in the mood — still does, to be fair.

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Cotton Jones — 'I’m The Changer'

We are all heavily into Cotton Jones right now. Michael Nau has a perfect way of making peculiarity familiar. I can’t help but relate to certain things that he says, even the ones I cant quite follow. It always feels like he is telling you the truth (I've always felt I can trust people most when they admit their natural dishonesty). He has a way of going from vagueness to blunt specificity that we find impactful. He is also doing an awesome job of bringing this psychedelic aspect to folk/country music that is very inspiring.

A lot of what we do is grounded in country music, given where we grew up and what we were around, however none of us really connect to the genre itself. Purely assumption, but it feels like Cotton Jones has a similar drug-induced lens on their roots. Maybe we just want to party with them. Anyone have a lead on that?

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Andy Shauf – 'Drink My Rivers', 'I'm Not Falling Asleep' (from 'The Bearer Of Bad News')

'The Bearer Of Bad News' is the most beautiful record I can think of. There is something soothing about songs that make you feel a sadness you don't often admit to. 'Drink My Rivers' introduces these woodwinds that appear through the whole record. They sound drone like and so heavy, it’s amazing! You somehow leave the track wanting oboes and flutes all over your music. Then, 'I’m Not Falling Asleep' starts and you're just like how in the hell is this even happening — I’m falling in love with woodwinds, but will never get them to sound the way he does.

It’s like seeing a beautiful person that you know will never be anything but someone else’s. But dammit, it’s so inspiring because it’s so specific and perfect for this record. Any time we are in the studio we aim to create something as perfect for that particular time and those particular songs as Andy did in 'The Bearer Of Bad News'.

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Sam Cohen – 'Let The Mountain Come To You'

Everything we’ve worked on so far has been with James McAlister, he's responsible for combining synths with our more straight forward guitar songwriting. Its something we initially knew very little about, but are now very much into. Sam Cohen has this classic rock n’ roll sound that these crazy synth textures explode out of. He does a really cool job of creating these changes and turn-arounds that fall into massive synth parts.

I recently read an article he was interviewed in where he gave a lot of insight into his recording techniques and revealed that a lot of his synth sounds are actually guitars. After learning that we have become very curious with de-constructing the guitar and getting it to sound like synthesizers. Needless to say, he is a strong inspiration on us. Plus, his 'Cool It' record as a whole is pretty genius.

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John Prine – 'Pretty Good'

There is not a whole lot of explanation for our love for John Prine. We simply just enjoy listening to him and his quirky, blunt songs. He is a good reminder that nothing will ever beat a well written song. No matter what gimmicks or crazy sounds you construct or stumble upon its all for nothing if the song is shit. There is also something to be said about how everything doesn’t always need to be so serious. “Pretty good, not bad, I can’t complain, but actually everything is about the same”.

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WILDERADO's new EP 'Latigo' is out now on National Anthem.

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