The Wilful Boys’ latest release, World Ward Word Sword (Big Neck Records), is their third full-length, following 2016’s Rough as Guts and 2019’s Life Lessons. Everything about this band is so intriguing and engaging — from the raucous, multi-faceted sound to the often-urgent vocal style, to the subject matter, which spans from “a bit silly” to more complex matters.
The Brooklyn-based band, who formed in 2014, have an amazingly cool, unpredictable sound that makes their material so gripping and exciting, which, according to vocalist/drummer Steven Fisher, can be attributed in part to the members’ influences and musical experiences.
“My influences in Australian rock and punk were kind of more slower and swampy and more post-punk leaning, like The Scientists or Cosmic Psychos. And I’m quite a big fan of Wire and The Fall,” Fisher, who emigrated to the US from Australia, explains. “And I think that contrasts with [guitarists] Johnny [Provenzano] and Nick’s [Isles] love of faster hardcore, NYHC punk, or just in general faster American hardcore and punk. I think we ended up meeting in this happy middle ground where our stuff is drum and bass-driven, which is what I love, but then Johnny and Nick add this sort of more US element to it. So, it’s a sort of hybrid between the two, in my mind at least. I don’t know if that’s how it comes off, but Johnny would frequently play a riff and I would just be like, ‘Maybe do a half-step instead of a full-step to make it sound more augmented and weird.’ Just taking classic rock ‘n’ roll structures and making it a little bit weirder.” Rounding out the four-piece is bassist Eric Lau (of Child Abuse fame), who adds a vital dimension to the band’s sound.
Contributing to the band’s energy and unique aesthetic is that Fisher plays drums and sings. “Playing the drums and singing, it becomes kind of a visceral thing,” he explains. “The music we play is always pretty high-energy and it’s somewhat of a release to get it all out in that way. The earlier stuff, I yelled a lot more and now I’m kind of a little pulled back with the same intention.” He laughs, “I’m a generally placid person. I need some way to get it all out.”
In addition to The Wilful Boys sounding eclectic musically, their lyrics fit that bill, too. “I think it definitely depends on the subject matter,” Fisher elaborates, “Sometimes when I reflect on our songs, we have some that are a bit silly and some that aren’t necessarily about important issues or they’re not super-emotional, sometimes they’re just a little funny or tongue-in-cheek. But then I think some of them have a little depth to them.”
In all, he says, “We try not to take ourselves too seriously, but then if we have something to talk about, I’ll try not to be super-overt about it; I use a lot of metaphors and I use a lot of idioms and such. If I have something serious or emotional to talk about, I try to skirt around it a little bit and leave it up for interpretation and I sort of get what I need out of it as a songwriter.”
Watch the video for “Muttley” here:
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Photo courtesy of Nick Washkin
