Hi, everyone! Last week, I got to speak with the Los Angeles based multi-instrumentalist, singer- songwriter and producer Wyndham Garnett. Known by his stage name as WYNDHAM, he has put out three studio albums, with another release on the way soon. In the past, he has been a founding member of both Elvis Perkins in Dearland and Diamond Dove. Wyndham has also had the opportunity to tour with a young Justin Vernon (a.k.a Bon Iver), and My Morning Jacket. After hearing about his music background, I was excited to contact his publicist and schedule an interview. Soon after I had written, I was delighted to hear that Wyndham gave me the opportunity to speak about his experiences.
bazzreviews: Which artists or albums inspired you to start a music career?
Wyndham Garnett: Well, the other day, I was remembering my earliest memory of me sitting on the floor with a tiny little record player and my first record, “La Bamba”. That was sort of the portal that hyped me onto music, but the first band that I really loved was Nirvana. After the grunge wave collapsed, I jumped on to more Americana vibes and dug into the archives of The Band. I was also really into Steely Dan as a kid. For my newest record, I turned to Kevin Ayers’s record Banana More, and that’s one of my favorite records. It’s pretty abstract and interesting, and the sounds on it are sort of a hybrid of lo-fi and hi-fi. Someone who has also been an influence on me is JJ Cale. I don’t know if you are familiar with him, but he put out a couple of records called Naturally and Troubadour that are also a few of my favorites. I do listen to contemporary music, too, but I have to say the things that have inspired me the most have been from the early 70s.
bazzreviews: When did you realize you wanted to start a music career?
W.G.: Well, I think I always had a deep kindred connection with music. My first instrument was the trombone. I played that at school through orchestra and jazz band. I also picked up guitar when my uncle gifted me one and taught me some chords. I moved out to Los Angeles and briefly lived with my godbrother, Elvis Perkins, and we started jamming and playing together. It started to become clear to me that this was something I could potentially do with life.
br: If you weren’t in the music industry right now, what do you think we would be doing?
W.G.: At the same time I was living in LA, I was thinking about becoming an actor. However, I had just come back from this amazing spiritual trip to New Zealand where I was with a bunch of artists in the rainforest. The whiplash and culture shock from going to a rainforest back to Los Angeles and living a Hollywood actor’s lifestyle just didn’t do it for me. After I moved on from pursuing acting, Elvis and I kept working on some songs that he had been writing, and that led to us forming the band Elvis Perkins in Dearland. That was my first real experience touring, and we did that for 5 or 6 years. We put out a couple records, and the rest is history.
br: How did you meet the other members that made up Elvis Perkins in Dearland and Diamond Doves?
W.G.: Nick [Kinsey], our drummer and I have been best buds since we were about 5, and our bass player Brigham [Brough] and I both went to high school together. The weird coincidence of it all was Nick and Brigham went to college at Brown, and down to Cuba to study music together. They came back when I was living with Elvis in LA, and I realized that I needed to go back to school. I ended up going to Bard College, and something about my decision to do that made Elvis want to finish his education, too. He went to Brown, where both Nick and Brigham went. The three of them were playing together and I came down to visit on the weekends. That’s about the time when we became a band. It’s like one of those things where you don’t know what’s going to happen, but all of the sudden, it does.
br: I saw that with these members, you got to collaborate with bands like Bon Iver and My Morning Jacket. How did you guys get that opportunity?
W.G.: My Morning Jacket had been doing their thing for a while before we hit the scene. Our manager was also managing My Morning Jacket, and he connected us with them. It turns out that we all became close friends, and we toured with them early on in our career. With Bon Iver (Justin Vernon), he came into the music scene early on in our touring career like a bat out of hell. His first record hadn’t even been released yet, and I remember being completely dumbfounded because he was so good. People were going to his shows and knew all the words to his songs. Our booking agent sent us his record and we were like, “hell, yeah, let’s do this,”. Justin is one of the sweetest guys ever, and we worked with him before he had the big backing band that he has today. He was just as powerful by himself without any other members with him, no joke. To have made music with these incredibly talented people has been nothing short of a blessing.
br: When you’re in the studio, what is your typical process for making songs?
W.G.: For me, everything starts in a musical way. I’ll typically start with the guitar or the drums. I’ll either be thinking of a groove or some kind of melody. That will typically encapsulate an emotional situation that I’m currently going through. From that point in time, I’ll try to prescribe words to the song as it becomes more enlivened. In terms of recording the music, I tend to have a pretty specific idea of what I want things to sound like. That goes back to the records I previously mentioned on having been an influence on me. I like things to feel natural and loose, but at the same time, I want it to feel present and focused.
br: In your opinion, which is more important, lyricism or production value and instrumentation?
W.G.: I’ve yet to have an experience where I wrote the words before I wrote the music. I know some of the great songwriters have to do that, but it’s never been something that has worked for me. I think part of that is because I have been more focused on what was being said through the music than through the words. The music can say so much on its own in terms of tone and sentiment.
br: Can you tell me a little bit about what your upcoming album has in store?
W.G.: I’m pushing the release date to May 3rd so it gives me a little bit more time to fix some things that I need to. It’s a short record, 7 tunes and it’s about 30 minutes long. These songs have come to me over the last few years since I released my last EP. A lot of this record has to do with letting go of one life and embracing another. It sort of has to do with the decision I made to stop drinking. The other part of it is love songs, not only for myself, but my significant other. It’s reflecting where I am now and the road past traveled.
br: What music goals do you have for the future?
W.G.: I’d like to master all the instruments I’m currently playing, and the art of performance. Every time I play, I learn something completely different. I’ve been doing it for ten to fifteen years, and that is such a beautiful thing to experience. My personal goal is to keep on growing and making records that inspire people. There’s a lot of stuff happening in the world today, and I want my music to reach people that need it the most It makes me happy to see people react positively to my music, and I hope it helps them grow as individuals.
Thanks so much to WYNDHAM for giving me the opportunity to learn more about his music journey! I wish him the best of luck with his new record and his other musical endeavors. For those who have not checked any of his solo or group projects, please, go do so now. I appreciate you guys for reading this, and more great content will be coming your way soon!
To support WYNDHAM's music, go to https://wyndham.bandcamp.com/
Comments