Wild Light
By Brett Cromwell
Photo by Lara Woolfson

Although it may be a stretch to call it fate, the idea of four high school friends being in a band together, going their separate ways for college, and then reconvening to pick up where they left off upon receiving their degrees seems a bit unlikely. But that’s exactly what happened to neo-psychedelic pop quartet Wild Light, and they seem just as surprised about it as anyone.

“When our band broke up in high school, I don’t think any of us anticipated being together again at all, much less all of us being in the same band again,” notes Tim Kile, a multi-instrumentalist and co-songwriter for the band.

“We started playing together right away,” echoes second multi-instrumentalist and co-songwriter Seth Pitman, discussing the summer that he, Kile, and third co-contributor Jordan Alexander found themselves in their Southern New Hampshire hometowns. “Then we moved down to Boston in the fall of 2005 to be in the city. We invited Kasper over to say hi, played him some songs, and he wanted to join us.”

Pitman is referring to Seth Kasper, the band’s drummer who works double-time for Boston electro-punk band Hooray for Earth. Also a former high school band member, Kasper was eager to reconnect with his friends, using his contacts to get Wild Light started in the Boston scene. “Without Kasper, I’m not sure what we would have done,” Pitman says thankfully.

The band began recording in the fall of 2006, although things didn’t really pick up until early 2007. Engineer Bob Logan, in the midst of building a new studio for his recording outfit, The Small Church, brought a portable rig to Kile, Pitman, and Alexander’s single-family house in Quincy. Setting it up in the basement, Logan came by a couple of nights a week to lend his help, leaving the band to work on tracks any time they wanted in between.

“I would say he’s somewhat of a co-producer,” says Kasper of Logan. “He’s a real enabler to help us get through the tracks and make sure we get a good performance.” The results of this fruitful partnership will be either a long EP or a short full-length, currently scheduled for release this month.

Musically, Wild Light are probably most often compared to their friends Arcade Fire, but with an abundance of keys, reverb-drenched guitars and tambourine, their music actually has more in common with Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs. The lyrics are bittersweet stories about the pain of learning through experience, sprinkled with enough cerebral turns of phrase to keep lyrical-minded listeners thoroughly engrossed.

“Bands are rarely exciting lyrically,” says Pitman. “For us, I feel like when we write a song, there’s no stone unturned in the end. Every word has been poured over.”
The ease of working together both lyrically and musically is, according to the members of Wild Light, one of their biggest strengths. “I think when bands have really defined roles, and there’s one guy calling all the shots and writing all the songs and lyrics, there’s never going to be a problem with someone else in the band not liking the lyrics,” describes Kile. “But with our band, if someone doesn’t like the lyrics, then they can say that. I think in the end, this makes it a more beneficial process.”
Despite not having an official album, Wild Light has managed to secure some impressive live gigs, opening in recent months for the likes of Arcade Fire and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. With the extensive overdubs and studio tricks used on their recordings, the band is quick to admit that their live show is a slightly different experience, but their passion makes up for any excess layers lost in the transfer to stage.

“There are a lot of things on the recordings that we could never pull off live,” assures Kile, “so the live shows tend to be a punk rock version of what we’ve put on the record. But I think the cores of our songs are strong enough that we can play them in any number of different ways, and they will still sound like the same songs.”
With a set of well-mixed tracks in hand and strong aspirations to extend their reach outside of Boston, it appears that Wild Light’s natural instincts to join together again after college have already paid off.

www.myspace.com/wildlight