Lone Wild is the exact kind of alternative/rock band that we desperately needed this week. They incorporate soundings from a variety of sources and bring together an ultimately harmonious, yet audacious performance. We were impressed by the band after listening to one track, which tells us right away that they're great at first impressions from listeners. Their performances, we can only imagine, are wild and exhilarating. A sounding that's striking, and completely memorable: "Stranger Ways".
"Stranger Ways" is an extremely integrative alternative rock track from Lone Wild. They incorporate the best elements that alternative/rock listeners crave in a track like this. The sultry tone the lead vocalist is able to fulfill is incredibly charming, which adds a sounding to "Stranger Ways" that we think really amplifies the overall quality. Collectively, Lone Wild brings together their strong passion, which is easily distinguishable from the harmony presented in "Stranger Ways", and creates a thrilling experience for listeners. The vocal dynamics are crafted so purely and executed in a rough and vigorous way. The production completely matches this dynamic, as it's fully embodied in a blend of alluring and fierce melodies.
We know that Lone Wild expressed their gritty and industrialized side throughout "Stranger Ways", and we absolutely adore that type of sounding. They clearly don't fabricate their sound, the authenticity is 100% there, and the atmospheric side to their sound takes us to a whole other level with them. They're a sick alternative/rock band, providing a more bustling and high-spirited sound we know listeners will soon become addicted to because we fully did. We can easily say that Lone Wild is the type of band we're undoubtedly intrigued in after hearing "Stranger Ways". "Stranger Ways" is definitively the track that matches Lone Wild to the big-name alternative/rock bands, and we're seriously anticipating what they can release next.
Listen to Lone Wild's "Stranger Ways" here.
Welcome to BuzzMusic! We love your new vision to change the world, what made you donate some of your profits to Pre-emptive Love Coalition? Does this organization have any personal ties?
Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to ask us some questions, we don’t get to do it often so we always enjoy getting to shed a little more light on the music and our cause too.
I’m gonna try and keep the answer to this short, but I think a little background may help.
Our choice to share some of our profits actually came from a vision I (Ashkan) had way back in the first ‘version’ of this band (Aftermidnight) but backing up, even more, it kinda sparked when I was a teenager. I caught a concert on PBS back when I was like 13 or 14 with what is now one of my favorite bands (the band is U2). At the concert, there was a very emotional point where I was just so utterly moved that I had the whole ‘goosebump’ moment. You know the one you get sometimes when listening to music that just strikes a chord with you? That probably hadn’t happened often to me at that point, but it was at that moment that I said: “I want to do that - I want to create those same feelings with music.” So fast forward, as I continued down that road with music, I later learned on all the humanitarian and social justice efforts that Bono was involved in Africa, and how he used his platform for more than just playing music.
So, years go by, and in the earlier years we started the band ‘Aftermidnight.’ Though it was started with good intentions and with a cause behind it, we never really activated on it and carried ideas through. Then that sort of fell apart, and eventually, we wound up where we’re at today and decided “ya know? I don’t need to necessarily start some sort of organization from scratch that is doing something — what if we start with simply helping another organization that is ALREADY doing something huge in the Middle-East.” So that’s pretty much how we decided to give at least 10% of what we have to Preemptive Love. The reason we chose them, is because I am first generation Persian-American, my dad came to America from Iran when he was 15, and so it’s sort of a way to stay true to my heritage & my childhood, but also to help give back to the children & refugees in the Middle-East...ok sorry, that was long.
How does Lone Wild compare to the earlier works of The Fairweather?
Musically, I’d have to say things are a lot more focused and reigned in. I feel like it took a while to sort of figuring out what kind of music we wanted to make and how it worked with everyone else involved. When we wrote some of the songs for what would later find their way into Lone Wild’s catalog we were still The Fairweather, and we started to tailor the songs to be a bit more focused and not so all over the place as far as the overall genre. The Fairweather was a lot more guitar-driven rock and roll, and each song kinda felt like a sketch rather than a finished picture. We did have a few songs that had ‘dancier’ vibes, and those were songs that I genuinely loved getting to sing and perform. So, we started to do this sort of dance-rock type of thing back then, and as things were winding down in The Fairweather due to members needing to take time with family it kinda left a wide-open space to experiment, at least for me. This helped kinda run things through the filter of 1 person rather than 4, which concentrated things a little bit more. I don’t know though, we still have some songs from The Fairweather days that we love and have talked about re-introducing into the fold, it’s just how/when is the tricky part.
Which artists are the biggest influences on your work?
Hmmmm, so for me I LOVE music with a strong male vocalist that’s emotive. I just find myself leaning that way as the singer. I also love a good songwriter. So, first and foremost I’d have to say, Jeff Buckley - he’s probably one of my all-time favorites, and I wish he were still alive to keep doing what he did so amazingly well. I obviously will say U2 cause they’re somehow always in the back of my head, even though I try to kinda go the opposite direction almost on purpose cause it’s easy to let them influence my own writing. As far as this recent record, we were really pulling from the ’80s so bands/artists like Phil Collins, Tears for Fears, Michael Jackson, Simple Minds, Eurythmics and some Bowie were references when writing this record as well as some more modern bands. As I said, experimentation is big, so when writing the goal is to try & listen to different stuff depending on what we’re feeling for whatever we’re working on, and this record ended up being 80’s inspired through the filter of us.
Given that you are focused on indie, alternative, pop, and some 80s influences. How do you see the future of your music evolving?
Honestly, I think the rock/alternative backbone will always kinda be there, and I kinda find myself leaning towards writing pop-inspired melodies on the background of alternative music. This recent music was different for me cause though some of the songs have deeper meanings (at least to me) at face value they could just be taken as fun songs, even when there’s a little more going on under the hood. However, as you talked about with regards to evolving, there's definitely a desire to take what has been created and continue to build on that experience as me and the guys are all writing. I liken it to maturing from a teenager, to an adult in your early 20’s, to someone who’s got a family…you take the experience you gained from different seasons of life and apply what you learned so you don’t do the same thing or you at least do it with the intention of getting a different result. So with our last bit of songs, I’m asking “what can I do better? what can I tone down? what even do I wanna do with this next batch of songs?” — Also, when a song comes up that one of us writes, and we’re all vibing on it, we cautiously kinda let that lead the charge of what some of the other songs could sound like.
Thank you for chatting with us and provide us with an edgy tune. Seeing that you have performed on many stages, are they any local shows we can expect to see you in?
Thanks so much again for taking the time to ask these questions! Over the years we have played a bunch, however, with Lone Wild, we’re still sort of considered new since the name changed. Nonetheless, we’re still playing as often as we can regionally as we get more known in our area. We have one more show in our hometown before the end of the year. We’d absolutely love to do a west coast tour in your neck of the woods, hitting LA at one point, that would be a dream of ours coming true. To be able to do something along those lines next year would be rad, but for now, we’ll just have to keep working hard and play our cards right. Also, if you’re a manager (or you know someone who is) and you vibe with the music — hit us up, we need help from people that believe in us and what we’re doing!