And “they” say television is bad for you …
Had it not been for the tube, who knows where Familiar Wild’s future would have lain?
Vancouver alternative folkster Familiar Wild (violin, vocals, guitar) will be joined by Melissa Hammer (trumpet, keys, vocals) and Ben Hermann (drums, vocals) at Wild Flour Bakery in Banff, tonight (Nov. 14) as she nears the end of a Western Canada tour.
And, while she’s visiting Banff to play Wild Flour in support of the September release of her 10-track album Dark Dreams, she’ll also stop in at The Banff Centre for some residency work.
Dark Dreams follows Dark Dreams Day, released in fall, 2012 and will be followed by Dark Dreams (Night or Stories, it hasn’t been decided) in 2014 to wrap up the trilogy.
“The album is still very fresh,” she said, “it’s all original and I’m looking forward to being in Banff and working on some new material.”
To get the TV angle for Familiar Wild, a person has to look back to the mid-80s when the show Fame was a hit series centred on young musical phenoms attending a New York high school for performing arts.
As a child of three, Familiar Wild saw the show and was struck by it enough that by age four, she had bugged her parents for a violin like the one played by a Fame star.
That early quest for a violin eventually carried her through the Royal Conservatory of Music’s classical training, from which she’s graduated and teaches other youngsters, along with yoga instruction, “to pay the extra bills,” said Wild.
“Actually, I had the violin mixed up with a cello being played on the show, but my parents said I stopped what I was doing and watched the whole episode. You could say TV changed my life.”
Wild also has a degree in science, so her parents thought she was going to have a real job, and a degree in dance, but an injury put the brakes on that as a career. “Sometimes,” she said, “the straightest path isn’t the best.”
These days, Wild is a singer/songwriter who mixes life experience with story telling. “Actually, these days I’m more of a storyteller, with the stories being based on real life, mine or others’.”
Being classically trained on violin, and with Hammer’s trumpet and keys, the Familiar Wild sound is a rich melding of chamber orchestra sensibility, Pacific Coast sound, even indie pop, with ethereal vocals and intricate harmonies.
Wild will spend about six weeks at The Banff Centre in all, with a gig in The Club on both Nov. 7 and again on Nov. 28. She and Hammer will split the time in residency.
“I plan to do lot of work when I’m there,” she said. “I’m going to be writing and arranging some new songs, doing a photo and video shoot and performing.”
Her current tour has carried her into bars, halls, sit-down venues and lounges. “With our music, which I think is listening music, we’re trying to pick venues where that works.
“I’m really excited to be back in Banff, it’s an amazing place. I’ve written songs there before and I have another couple of really solid tunes that I want to arrange and record while I’m there.”
“Oregon”, a single from Dark Dreams, was a finalist in a U.K. songwriting contest. Dark Dreams was born out of a period of artistic growth after a serious car crash a couple of years ago. “Single Out” reflects on her accident and mortality.
Joining Familiar Wild at Wild Flour will be Dana Sitos, who will also sit in with Hermann.
