Gerry Casey Interviews Will Wilde

November 24, 2024

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Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey’s Interview with Will Wilde

Will Wilde is a force to be reckoned with – a phenomenal harmonica player with a voice to match.

Will’s intense harmonica style steals the spotlight from the traditional blues rock guitar, with a sound that owes as much to Gary Moore as it does to Sonny Boy Williamson. “I’m always looking to make new sounds with the harmonica, pushing its boundaries, trying to change people’s perception of it.” In fact Will has gone one step further and created his own signature “Wilde Tuned” harmonicas so he can play licks that weren’t possible before. “They enable me to hold my own with any blues rock guitarist”.

Will gained popularity on Youtube with his mind blowing harmonica covers of classic rock guitar solos, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird, which racked up over 3.5 million views, and helped him gain his 94K+ subscribers. These videos brought him to the attention of blues rock guitar legend Walter Trout, who invited him to play on his album ‘Broken’, which went to number one on the Billboard Blues Album Chart. To return the favour, Walter played guitar on the title track and first single from Will’s new album ‘The Blues Is Still Alive’. ” It was my great honor to be part of this music with the incredible Will Wilde. He’s the best! ” -Walter Trout

Will picked up his first harmonica at a house party when he was sixteen. “I basically nicked it,” he says. “It was a cheap plastic Guinness harmonica just lying around amongst the drink bottles and cigarette butts, I was drawn to it.” From then on playing became an obsession. “I used to play along to old Muddy Waters records for hours every day. Sometimes I played so much my lips bled,” says Wilde. “I couldn’t get enough of it. After a while it became like an extension of me.”

Will comes from a musical family. “Music was always around me” he says. “Blues, soul and classic rock were the soundtrack to my childhood.” His father is an avid music fan, his grandfather was a wartime jazz & blues pianist and his sister, Dani Wilde, is an acclaimed blues singer and guitarist in her own right.

Will has released four studio albums and one live album: Unleashed (2010), Raw Blues (2013), Live In Hamburg (2015), Bring It On Home (2018) and Bad Luck Friday (2022), as well as appearing as a guest harmonica player on albums by Walter Trout, Toby Lee, Brave Rival, Earl Thomas and Krissy Matthews. His earlier releases reflect more of a traditional Chicago blues sound, but over time he has developed a more intense style that draws from the classic rock and blues rock music he grew up on.

Will was nominated “Instrumentalist of the Year” in the UK Blues Awards 2024.

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