Wild Story
Los Angeles-based duo Wild Story recently released their empowering new single “Different”. Self-written/produced, “Different” is an anthem for anyone who ever felt like they didn’t fit in. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, Katie (lead singer) is becoming a positive voice to this beautiful community. As the song talks about embracing our differences, the song also talks about mental health.
Released during Pride month, “Different” is uplifting, inspiring, powerful and timeless. It is one of the best pop records I’ve heard lately. It offers massive melodies and a big production (shout out Viv for killing it), but more importantly, the song offers a great message of hope. Being “different” is cool so let’s be ourselves :)
Thank you Wild Story for this wonderful song.
“Different” is now available worldwide :)
Photo credit: Chris Trull
Introduce the duo - what's your story?
Wild Story is a duo originating from Los Angeles, California. This anthemic band combines Viv Parker’s cinematic, immersive production with the adventurous, dynamic and vulnerable melodies of Katie Hargrove. From their first writing session together, Katie and Viv knew they had something special. Building on their solo careers, the pair decided to plunge headfirst into the LA music scene together with Lyric House’s support along the way. Staying true to themselves and each other, they have found success creating music that reverberates with fans and listeners alike.
How would you define Wild Story?
Wild Story is about embracing who you are, creating your own narrative and owning it wholeheartedly. We want our music to be an environment where everyone feels seen and welcome. Sonically, we strive to push the boundaries of genre and blend sounds to craft a mix of indie pop and alternative rock like you’ve never heard it before.
"Different" is your new single - what's the inspiration behind this song?
“Different” is honestly such a beautiful mix of both of us - sonically and lyrically. (Quote from Katie) Being a member of the LGBTQ community, I’ve often struggled with feeling like I didn’t fit in or fit the mold of what the world thought I should be. I was always the “tomboy” of the group and kids didn’t understand me so that equated to getting picked on throughout my adolescence. It wasn’t really until I found music that I realized my uniqueness was a gift. I’d always wanted to write about this in my music, but always felt it seemed a bit cliche or a bit too preachy and for me that seemed to weaken the message. Viv and I are best friends and I’ve always felt so comfortable sharing everything with him without judgement. When we started talking about feeling “different” and the ways in which that had kind of impacted both of our lives the song just came together.
Could you describe the songwriting/production process for this song? Who helped you create it?
We wrote this one by ourselves over the course of two sessions. Our songs start in different ways every time, but this one kind of all happened at once. We were sending voice memos back and forth about a chorus and then Viv came up with this stellar track that just worked perfectly. Viv handles all of the production for our band. (Katie) Vocally, I comp and arrange all my vocals before I send them to Viv and then he puts his magic on them. After that, we had Kyle Mangels mix and master this one for us and he worked on our last single as well.
What did you feel when writing this song?
We were super deliberate lyrically with this one - more so than we have been for any other song. Considering the subject matter was near to both of us, we really wanted to be respectful and handle this song with grace. After we finished writing this one, we knew we had something really special. That sounds so cliche to say and we’ve heard it from so many artists before, but when it happens you just know it.
(Quote from Katie) I was out walking my dog listening to the track before our session and the first verse just kind of spilled out of me. I remember taking a voice memo and thinking “this could be cool”, but you never really know what will end up being a part of the song until you sit down to write it. I really wanted to incorporate nods to my personal experiences into the lyrics like “rainbows in our eyes”. When I sang out the first verse over Zoom to Viv I just remember feeling like we were onto something special.
In the second verse we traverse into a somewhat new territory that we’ve both also experienced first hand; which is mental health. We wrote the lines, “Would they notice if we got lost - If we disappeared. Tell me right after this rainstorm - That the smoke will clear” to open the conversation about feeling invisible and wondering how those around you would react if you were gone. It’s a tough conversation to have in the midst of a pop song, but it’s one that we both felt deeply tied to. Mental health is still such a taboo topic in our society and we really wanted to tie ourselves to our lyrics as personally as possible so that our listeners know they aren’t alone. We’ve both struggled with our own mental health and we have found music as a huge source of comfort during those times.
What's your favorite thing about this single?
Our favorite thing about “Different” would have to be the message and heart of the song. We’ve been blown away by the support of this song so far and the personal comments and messages we’ve received. We wrote “Different” as a song to celebrate our differences and to bring people together and we can’t wait to see where it takes us.
What made you want to release "Different" as a single?
We wrote and recorded this one not even a month ago, but we felt the timing was too perfect to not release it during Pride month. Being as we are still so new as a band, it’s super important for our fans/listeners to know what we stand for. Equality and a voice for all is always going to be a part of that for us, so we wanted to come out of the gate with a message and a song like “Different”.
What is your goal for this single?
As far as our goals for any song - we just want people to love our music. For this song in particular, we really wanted it to be a song that people respected as identified with on a more personal level. We pulled from personal experiences and spoke from our own understandings because we never want to oversimplify or generalize communities, narratives or voices. Our intention and hope with this song is to connect and bring people together in a celebration of what makes us all unique and beautiful.
What are your thoughts on today's music industry? If you could change one thing, what would it be?
As a whole, we think the music industry has some deep issues that some within the community are working to change. Barriers to admission for minority and under represented groups would probably be the thing we feel needs to change the most. The music industry is a male, particularly white-male, dominated market and has been saturated with men for a very long time. So many people have had to fight their way in and work twice as hard for half of the opportunities. It’s time for us to start acknowledging this and working to change it as a community. We have to start bringing these voices into the mix and finding ways to make their voices heard.
In your opinion, what would make the world a better place?
Wow - this is a very tough question, but such an important one. In our opinion the world would be a better place if we could all start to use a bit more empathy. We are all so quick to judge and pass blame onto others, but so rarely do we look at how our actions or our words are contributing. If we all took a look at our collective actions and how these actions are impacting the world around us - we think it would create a better world for all.
What message do you want to give to LGBTQIA+ communities?
The message we want to give is that you are not alone, we see you and we hear you. We hope our music can be a symbol that there are two people out there in the world that love you just the way you are. We’re not here to say “it gets better” or “everything is going to be okay” because those are false truths for some. We can’t make blanket statements for real life hardships, but what we can say is that your voice matters, your story matters and you matter.
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