The Wild Feathers

with Freddy Trujillo
Dante's
350 West Burnside Street, Portland, OR
Sat August 13, 2022
Doors: 8:00 pm / SHOW: 9:00 pm PDT
Ages 21 and Up
$15.00
By the end of 2019, The Wild Feathers had enough. They’d been through the
wringer of big hopes and major label realities. Instead of becoming a
music biz sob story, the band knew they had one option to succeed: blow
everything up and do things their way.

And they did.

Ahead of Medium Rarities, an odd-and-ends collection that was released last
year, the group went through unreleased tracks and ended up self-
producing three new songs in relaxed sessions that were fun and
spontaneous. While in the studio, each member agreed that they didn’t need
the high life and fancy workspaces in order to succeed. Rather than relying on
others, The Wild Feathers kept things in-house, producing themselves, which
was a part of the hard-scrabble work ethic that got them their success in the
first place.

It brought the Nashville-based group closer. The Wild Feathers decided to
keep a tighter ship, not only with input on their career but sonically as well.
What could have ended things, liberated them. They figured out new ways to chart out and work on songs in a fuller, efficient manner. Armed with newfound confidence and a brand new attentive team surrounding them, the quintet were ready to dive in headfirst. The new approach’s success is confirmed on Alvarado, The Wild Feathers’ latest album that’s perhaps the strongest work in the band’s catalog to date.

The positive vibes and energy of this time can be heard on the album’s title
track. “Alvarado” is a song the band has had in their back pocket for almost
a decade. While they were going through some of the recordings that would
comprise Medium Rarities, they rediscovered the eight-year-old up-tempo
rocker and couldn’t let it fade into the dustbin of lost songs. It also set the
overall vibe and tone for what was to come.

In December of 2020, the group hunkered down in a small cabin northwest of
Nashville to chip away at a bunch of new songs they worked on during
the pandemic. Using the confidence gained from self-producing the new
songs found on Medium Rarities, they spent a week together hammering out
material. For the first time without a fancy studio, the band were confident and calm during the process, which cohesively allowed the sound to be exactly
what they felt like instead of having to answer otherwise. Knocking out 14
songs in just four days, they bonded over barbecues and beers and there was
a warmness that hadn’t been present since their early days. It is reflected in
the laid-back nature of the songs on Alvarado.

The collaboration and intricate layering of instrumentation, as well as the
lyrical matter, on Alvarado showcases The Wild Feathers’ growth as
songwriters and burgeoning producers. Without pressure and the newfound
confidence to write and produce their own material, The Wild Feathers have
done what’s usually a difficult task for a band at this stage of their career:
evolve and produce some of their best work to date.

If they’ve learned nothing else from their odyssey, no obstacle will stop The
Wild Feathers from getting to where they want to go.
Freddy Trujillo