Somewhere around the time we caught up with Ferns, Phil Maves continued our ongoing dialogue about his other band Bad Bibles with Dan Leech that have now chrysalized into Wild Decade. The NYC by SF group are proud to announce their new album Conductor, that presents their songs of perceptions and conduits of boundless energy. Cuts like, “It Wants You To Run” works in cool lackadaisical structures with an assertive delivery of catchy, memorable verse and guitar progressions; while the finale “Eternal Glories” gives a gritty 10,000 ways to die exercise while maintaining an unrelenting heaviness.
This week saw the recent release of the “Nearsighted” video made by Mr. Maves himself. Phil sleep-sings in the Paris Hilton approved night vision captures that sends the room spinning, as Dan joins in the chorus lead from in front of a green screen that signals sights of near image nightmares to the unconscious mind's eye. Together the 2 combine amplifier guided shred fests in that similar coast-to-coast exchange that combines the imageries of dream states, dreamers, dream makers, and unravels the far sighted gaze into the fuzzy nearsighted observation of an arrived future drawing itself closer and nearer.
We had a chance to talk to both Dan Leech and Phil Maves about their new video, the transformation from Bad Bibles to Wild Decade, and inside their bi-coastal collaboration and synergy.
Tell us a bit about the making of the video for “Nearsighted”.
Phil: We made the video for “Nearsighted” the same way we made most of our album. My parts (the guy having the nightmare) were recorded in an apartment in Brooklyn, and Dan's footage (the menacing guy in front of a color-changing wall) was shot in San Francisco. I sent Dan the Brooklyn footage to review, then he recorded the SF video, sent it back to me, and I edited it all together with some input from Dan. Biggest production expense: time spent cleaning a dirty ceiling fan.
Dan: It was put all together in a vaguely David Lynch-ian style that worked well with the lyrical content.
The transition from Bad Bibles to Wild Decade?
P: We changed our name to Wild Decade because we got tired of having to explain what Bad Bibles meant. Although most people liked Bad Bibles as a name, we thought it might be a barrier to a lot of people who might assume that we were grandstanding or making a statement, neither of which were true. The name was meant to be a metaphor for the nightmare I had that prompted us to write some of these songs, but we can see how that might be a reach for some people.
D: It was initially a great conversation starter for the group, but it eventually turned into a hindrance. We weren't making any sweeping spiritual generalizations or judgments in any of our songs, so the old name really did not reflect our artistic intent. After some serious deliberations and soul-searching we came up with the very blithe name of Wild Decade.
P: Wild Decade just looks and sounds good, and is totally meaningless to us. Honestly!
Behind the scenes stories on the making of Conductor?
D: Conductor illustrates how we can use technology to make a creative project work regardless of geographic boundaries. Most of it was recorded with Phil living in NY, and me in SF. Emailing tracks back and forth truly shaped the sound of the record. Making this album became a study in asynchronous music making. That took some time for us to get used to, especially when all our previous recording experience was done in the traditional manner of the band being in the same room at the same time.
P: If rock 'n roll is about conference calls, spreadsheets, and paperwork, then consider us the real thing.
Summer memories from 2013?
P: Working, waiting, worrying.
D: Anthony Bourdain marathons. 'Blurred Lines' karaoke. Marketing brainstorms. Name changes.
Future prospects for 2014?
P: We can't say yet! There are some Wild Decade things we've been working on since we finished the Conductor album, but it's just way too soon to mention.
D: We've just started doing press for Conductor, but there's many songs/ideas on the horizon that'll hopefully come to fruition in the near future.
Wild Decade's album Conductor will be available September 24.
