For those people that haven’t heard of the Wildfire Sessions could you tell us a bit about your story?
We first met up about 4 years ago for a jam in a studio which was in a small cabin in Dalavich which is in the North West of Scotland. It was nothing too serious but we had such a good time that we started to meet regularly to write and jam in a dance studio in Glasgow. We were then approached by an Italian filmmaker to work on some soundtracks. This encouraged us to improve our small music studio. We then started running a kind of two-tier operation of being songwriters for soundtracks and also trying to produce our own sound as Wildfire the band. We are still working away on our own stuff as well the soundtracks The soundtracks tend to sound very different from what we would naturally do as a band but we feel this keep us on our toes.
Who inspired you to get on stage and perform?
We seem to come to the conclusion that we have all been encouraged subconsciously to get on a stage by our parents’ music collection. Those beats that we first heard have probably stayed with us forever.
This has brought us to be inspired by such greats as Chuck Berry, Gerry Rafferty, Led Zep, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, The Stranglers and Talking Heads.
In fact, you could say that even the Mamas and Papas have inspired us because of our Mamas and Papas.
Are there any particular artists or albums that have stuck with you and informed your sound?
The albums that have stuck with us also vary but in the main, they would be Bob Seger. Stranger in Town, Fleetwood Mac.Rumours, Led Zeppelin iv through to various tracks by The White Buffalo, Arcade Fire and Johnny Cash.
When you are writing new material is there a particular time/space/mood that you have to be in?
In general, like most artists, we write better in the evening with most inspiration arriving in the early hrs of the morning. It does help if you can just chill out and get into a zone.
We can in the main write at any time if the mood is right but times, where we can all escape to our cabin in the woods, have been some of the most productive.
Could you tell us a bit about the writing and recording of the ReverbNation winning track Gods?
The track Gods was partly inspired by the title of a short film that we had read about called Gods Among Us. Initially, Michael had come up with a rift and I had sung out .”You and I in a hotel room, looking out for”. Michael then dropped the notes off from the guitar as if he was answering the question. It sat about for a while till one evening I was watching the news and thought, we need the Gods to come along fight it out and hopefully, the victor will make the world a better place. Martin then came up with the lyrics for the chorus and we then thought that we should add a waltz to the song so that it would depict the Gods having a final waltz before they commenced with the battle to save the world.
As this was such a big track we used an outside studio bringing in Sam Macloed to engineer and Stephan Buggy for drums. However, Martin did use our own small studio to add some instrumentation and do the final mixdown of the track.
What are some of your favourite venues to perform at?
One of our favourite venues is a small festival called Loch Stock which is held yearly on the banks of Loch Awe in the Scottish highlands. We love this festival mainly because we have made many great friends there and also partly because we have written a track about the very place where it is held which is Dalavich.
What do you think is missing from today’s music industry?
In some ways, I’m not sure that there is much missing from today’s music industry from a creative point of view. It is now much easier to get music to the masses than ever it was and it’s now much easier to create it in your own home. Unfortunately, the downside of this is that although the platform providers do not technically own your music neither do they pay a reasonable rate for them using it.
So probably what is missing remains as it has always been and that is some sort of fair and proper representation for the very people who actually create the music.
What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
Our plans for the rest of the year are simply to stay positive, focused, healthy, work on new material and when it is possible play some live gigs.
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