INTERVIEW: Wildstreet are ‘Born to Be’ rock ‘n’ rollers
Photo: Wildstreet have recently released the single “Born to Be.” Photo courtesy of Max Bello / Provided by O’Donnell Media Group.
The rock ‘n’ roll band Wildstreet are ready to have a banner year, that is if the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t disrupt their musical mastery. Before the excrement hit the fan, the group was preparing for a year of nonstop touring, with upcoming dates celebrating the release of their new single, “Born to Be.” Now, their global travels may need to be reconsidered.
If all goes as planned, the Kings of the World tour will see the band playing the United States, Colombia and Mexico, with dates stretching into July.
The band is fronted by Eric Jayk, on vocals and guitar. He is joined by best friend Jimmie Marlowe on guitar and vocals, Jonny D on bass and vocals, Dom on lead guitar and vocals, and Lock on drums and vocals.
“[It’s] the beginning of a year of constant touring, I guess,” Jayk said in a recent phone interview. “So the single that I was talking about is called ‘Born to Be,’ and it’s coming out on Spotify, Apple Music. It’s coming out on all digital music services.”
Jayk likened the new single to another Wildstreet song, “Tennessee Cocaine.” For fans, he called the new tune “up to par” with the other releases, many of them having broken out of the rock world and entered the pop-culture realm. Over the years the band has seen their work featured on TV shows on E!, MTV, VH1, Oxygen and TBS. They have also opened for the likes of Sebastian Bach, Avenged Sevenfold, Sevendust and Three Days Grace.
“Truthfully the song was written and finished in 2012-2013,” Jayk said about the new single. “It kind of sums up what we’re doing this year, doing what you’re born to be, being who you were born to be. … We play it sometimes [at concerts], and we play other songs sometimes. It really depends, if there are fans who are really stoked on some of the older songs. We play to the crowd because that’s what you’ve got to do. It’s also the mood. Sometimes you feel like playing a song, and sometimes you don’t. I’d say more shows than not we’ll be playing ‘Born to Be.’”
When Jayk, with his wild blond hair and dynamic stage presence, looks out at the crowd each night, he sees a mixture of people. There are fans who have been with the group for some time, perhaps those who remember the band’s concert on The Jimmy Fallon Show, and others who have onboard with their new music and recently taken a trip down Wildstreet.
“It’s so awesome to think that people all over the world are listening to your music,” he said. “People are just getting into Wildstreet, and they find that we’ve been a band for 13 years. It’s just really cool.”
The current lineup of Wildstreet formed after Jayk put an advertisement on Craigslist. He was looking for a fellow guitar player, and in the process he ended up finding a best friend in Marlowe.
“We hung out,” Jayk remembers of those early days. “We started playing, and we just started writing some songs together. It ended up that we broke up the band that I had asked him to join and started this new band. It was unnamed at this point, and we were just taking songs that I had written and songs that we had written together and combined them into making something that was, as we said before, trying to make Def Leppard punk rock. And the first Wildstreet record was just me and Jimmie, and then we found a live band. And the story goes from there, but the songs have always been number one, writing great songs.”
Jayk started playing guitar when he was 8 years old. He remembers watching Aerosmith on MTV when he was a boy, and the experience changed him forever.
“I saw Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and I’m like, woah, I want to do that,” Jayk said. “And then truthfully I started playing a little bit and took some lessons and things fell into place. I started playing in these silly little cover gigs when I was a pre-teen. It was almost like a comedy show because we were so young, and we were playing like ’50s rock ‘n’ roll and ’60s rock ‘n’ roll. And we were 11 years old at people’s weddings. That was my first music, and then obviously my love for music got deeper and deeper. Now it’s led to Wildstreet.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Wildstreet’s new single is “Born to Be.” Click here for more information.
