Selling Her Soul: An Exclusive Interview With Guitarist LAURA WILDE
By
Valerie Nerres,
Writer/Photographer
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 @ 6:09 PM
"I can appreciate every guitar player whether they play 3000 notes or just one note, it’s just a matter of expressing your personality through the instrument."
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Coming off the road with FUEL and about to embark on her second tour with legendary front man Ted Nugent, 23 year old native Australian, Laura Wilde stops by to speak with us about her upcoming tour, who she is, and where she’s going…
After the successful release of her first record Sold my Soul in 2012 followed with a successful summer tour, Wilde returns to embark on another major summer tour after which the hard hitting guitar player will be entering the studio after her run with Nugent to record her second album along with some pretty impressive guests. Let’s talk about all of that.
KNAC.COM: Good morning, Laura. Nice to talk with you finally, I’ve wanted to interview you for a while and the opportunity just presented itself so I’m excited to be speaking with you. I just have a few questions for you for KNAC.COM. So, tell me a little bit about yourself, you’re doing amazingly well right now. But tell us a little bit about your background, who you are so that some of our readers who may not be familiar find out who is Laura Wilde?
WILDE: Well, basically, I’m from Melbourne, Australia. I started playing guitar when I was about 12. I’ve been obsessed with musical instruments my whole life. My parents didn’t want me to play when I was little, but I kept nagging nagging nagging and eventually started playing guitar and then basically, that just led me on this crazy musical journey it led me to move to a totally different country, tour around, I’ve been having the time of my life. It’s really just been great.
KNAC.COM: So, how did the whole thing with you opening for Ted Nugent come about? Did they contact you? I mean that’s kind of a big deal, to go into opening for someone like him.
WILDE: Well, I released a record last January, January 2012 and the woman who was doing press, Laura Kaufman, was actually coincidentally Ted's first publicist and so, she was coming to my live shows, she really got to know me and how I perform and she was like "Oh my God, she’d be great to go out on the road with Ted Nugent" so she sort of just put the feelers out to see what they would think and before I knew it, I was at Ted’s managers office telling him everything and then, yeah, they wanted me to open for Ted. So we toured with him last summer and we had such a great time hit it off so much so now we’re going back again, it’s been really exciting!
KNAC.COM: So, are you still out with FUEL?
WILDE: Well we just finished the FUEL tour about a week ago, we did a lot of Midwest and east coast dates with them from mid-May until the end of June and then we got back to L.A. to just sort of unwind, take a little break, do a couple of rehearsals and then we’re heading out again to do the Ted tour on Tuesday, so the break really *laughs* didn’t quite happen. I can’t wait to get back on the road!
KNAC.COM: Tell me about your band. Who’s in it?
WILDE: Well right now, I’ve got Chris Price on guitar, RJ Shankel on the drums and Jeff Subaste on the bass and they’re all fantastic guys amazing players. It’s really fun to be out on the road with them we all get along really well, playing the shows every night, it’s such a great experience.
KNAC.COM: Going back to you and your guitar playing, where you self-taught or did you go to school to learn how to play, how did you learn how to play?
WILDE: Well, I actually enrolled in lessons at my school when I was 12 but the teacher was a touring musician, so he’d book all these lessons in with me and then I’d go down to the room where the lessons where and he wouldn’t ever show up! So, I used that time to just listen to my favorite songs on the radio and try and work them out by ear I was actually self-taught for pretty much my whole life. I mean I’ve had a few lessons here and there, I recently had a lesson with Michael Angelo Batio which was a completely different guitar style to what I’m used to, I mean it really gave my fingers a serious wakeup call! It just opened up a whole new world of guitar playing; he’s just a master of all styles. It just goes to show the skill that’s required, anything from jazz to metal to blues and everything.
KNAC.COM:Who are your influences? Who got you started, when you listened to them, saying to yourself, "ok, I want to learn how to play".
WILDE: Well I’ve always been a sucker for blues based lead guitar styles so; I guess my top three are Jimmy Page, Jimmy Hendrix and Slash. I also love Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn and B.B. King all those kinds of guitar players but then I can appreciate every guitar player whether they play 3000 notes or just one note, it’s just a matter of expressing your personality through the instrument.
KNAC.COM: Do you have any new material that’s coming out?
WILDE: We’re actually in the process of writing a new album at the moment. We’re about half way through, you can get a sneak peek at one of the live shows, we’re hoping to get in the studio and get it all tracked as soon as we get off the tour, so there’s no rest for the wicked!
KNAC.COM: How does your songwriting process go? Is it collaboration or is there one songwriter?
WILDE: Pretty much varies from song to song sometimes we’ll be jamming something in the studio and that can develop into a song or it can stem from when I have a strong emotional reaction to something or something will come into my head and I’ll have to hum it into my phone at 3 in the morning before I fall asleep and I can’t really understand what it was its very varied, it just depends on the song really.
KNAC.COM: So was I reading correctly on your website that you may be recording a song with Geezer Butler?
WILDE: Yes, that’s currently in discussion. Hopefully I’ll have more information on that very soon! It’s very exciting!
KNAC.COM: Anything else that you would like to add? Where can people go to hear your music?
WILDE: Well you can go to www.laurawilde.com and www.facebook.com/laurawildemusic also I’ve been posting a lot of photos on www.instagram.com/laurawildemusic, the candid straight from the horses mouth embarrassing photos so if you’d like to get the inside scoop you can go on that.
Laura Wilde On Tour
07/11/13 - Boise, IDAHO - Knitting Factory
07/13/13 - Agoura Hills, CALIFORNIA - Canyon Club
07/14/13 - Phoenix, ARIZONA - Celebrity Theatre
07/15/13 - San Diego, CALIFORNIA - House of Blues
07/16/13 - Anaheim, CALIFORNIA - The Grove Anaheim
WILDE: Well, I released a record last January, January 2012 and the woman who was doing press, Laura Kaufman, was actually coincidentally Ted's first publicist and so, she was coming to my live shows, she really got to know me and how I perform and she was like "Oh my God, she’d be great to go out on the road with Ted Nugent" so she sort of just put the feelers out to see what they would think and before I knew it, I was at Ted’s managers office telling him everything and then, yeah, they wanted me to open for Ted. So we toured with him last summer and we had such a great time hit it off so much so now we’re going back again, it’s been really exciting!
WILDE: We’re actually in the process of writing a new album at the moment. We’re about half way through, you can get a sneak peek at one of the live shows, we’re hoping to get in the studio and get it all tracked as soon as we get off the tour, so there’s no rest for the wicked!