A common and misguided refrain in the historical discussion of any branch of pop music would have it that, by its very title and aim, this genre must be standardized in presentation, restrictive in theme, and formulaic in composition. This adage is a boldfaced lie, cunningly lit. It can be easily and permanently discredited with a single listen to the way in which traditional pop formats were and remain forever altered by the likes of Cyndi Lauper or Nirvana. Pop is currently being creatively rewritten again, this time in perpendicular neon, by New York’s own Wilmah, a shape-shifting band that has created its own pocket universe of pop sensibilities. Wielding a powerful ability to conduct industrial-strength synthesis on every sound they seem to have ever heard, Wilmah is in the process of turning all of those aural amalgamations into the colored jujubes that will collectively serve as their first EP in 2022. As such, effectively, Wilmah can be best described as Pop Rocks for your stereo. If you don’t know them yet, you will – and your ears, heart, and speakers will be the more delightfully diverse for it.
Comprised of Matt Connolly and Will O’Connor, Wilmah may well yet be young men, but they have clearly re-goggled and taken the red pill with regard to artistic integrity long ago. Their first trio of singles might as well be three smiling suns from a triad of deliciously disparate galaxies. In a solitary song, such as their latest release entitled “Good to Go”, they may give you Beck with a bit of drunken tailoring in one phrase, pile up a little guitar part that might as well be an audio-cairn to the Pixies in the next, and layer it all around lyrics talking about the most unsexy parts of life with an eroticized innocence winking.
Mainstream pop, indie-pop, jangle-pop, gloom-pop, electro-pop, country-pop, folk-pop, baroque pop. One could go on and on. Wilmah emphatically says you don’t have to. They are more than willing to let you have all of the above and then some if you will but let them borrow your ears. If you will lend your eyes too, their optical virtues will take you everywhere from gritty ur-Disney to a tie-dyed twist on Friends. Theirs is an art bond founded on the implicit knowledge that interstitial intelligence gets to range these streets of sound and image with an esprit de corps that no one drawing lines around themselves in permanent marker will ever experience.
Another malicious mythology malingering around the pop macrocosm is that it is music made by and for content-free people, that it is somehow an insufficient outlet for pain and brilliance. Having un-hesitantly leaped several of the serried cliffs of adulthood that stagger many other musicians lacking their level of passionate dedication, Wilmah has already balanced full-time jobs, the demand of college schedules, and the stress of interstate moves to make this band work. All of this while they seem to effortlessly make a chewing-gum-themed bar out of the wrack and wreckage of human life, as freely able to laugh at the bionic hookers in the rope-soled sandals as they are ready to publicly weep at the miser mode of modern society’s approach to courtesy and benevolence.
One truism that can be relied upon with regard to pop music is that its best purveyors tend to announce themselves early and with vigor, long before the press or the public catch on or follow suit. Determined not to let that happen with a band we would proudly take to every back-alley-fight on a dark night and the Met Gala in the daytime too, QRO purposely jumped the line to chat with the Wilmah lads about a characteristically blended goodie-bag of topics as timeless as Rage Against the Machine to as time-sensitive as their planned global takeover of your radio – and every sweet-sour idea in between. Zero in on that funny frequency that both Wilmah and the ancients might have called “refreshing transparency” right here:
QRO: Hello, lovely gentlemen! Firstly, I’m oh-so-glad to see your gleaming faces today. Secondly, let me congratulate you two on being comic badasses in your video for “Television” because you seriously make great Wayne’s World boys!
Matt Connolly: Thanks so much for having us; we’re super excited to talk to you! Yeah, that movie and that whole video aesthetic – it was just the way that we grew up. We thought it would be fun to play different characters from the ‘90s and just have that throwback vibe throughout the music video – it was really fun!
QRO: You did a bang-up job with it because, a lot of the time, when people do “throwback” it’s almost ironic. While I know you were likewise being funny, you also honestly could also have been Dana Carvey! You touch on something in that song that I think is an intriguing and important concept: the lie of memory. Can you talk about that idea within the song and also your own lives?
MC: Yes, that song is about how loneliness informs memories. Like you said, if you’re looking back at a past relationship when you feel lonely, sad, and shitty, you might think it was better than it actually was. We always tend to romanticize the past even if it’s not in terms of thinking “Oh, I missed out.”
Wilmah’s video for “Television”:
QRO: Absolutely we do – and you know it was Faulkner who famously said “The past is never dead; it’s not even past.” I’ve always thought that was such a genius way of expressing the reality that, for as much as humans like to try to categorize time, you are currently every single version of yourself that you’ve ever been. It’s both terrifying and uplifting in equal measure – as is the way you guys blend the brutal with the hilarious in your music. What role does humor play in the creation of your art?
Will O’Connor: Yeah, that’s our signature style, I guess. People have always told us that we’re funny people, but I would never do stand up! I would just fall apart up on a stage. [laughs]
QRO: [laughs] Come on, Will! I want to see you at Second City!
WO: We’re going to start performing at comedy clubs next!
QRO: It’s a whole separate skill, isn’t it? Which leads me to ask you if you write any of your songs in the way of the great comedians – riffing, bouncing ideas off one another, improv – how do you come up with these bubbles of giggle and gravel?
MC: I honestly see a lot of the writing that Wilmah has as stand-up comedy with punchlines and different funny observations that we have. I’m proud that we can be serious and heartbreaking in one line and the next line is, “Oh my god, that’s hilarious.” I’m a huge fan of Father John Misty. I think he’s a genius, the best in the game doing that, and I’m heavily inspired by those styles of writing.
QRO: I think it shows, in a very positive way. Who else would you guys classify as your biggest and most formative influences? In Buffalo, New York, where you guys are from, you’ve got everybody from Vincent Gallo to Mercury Rev to Brian McKnight – all kinds of random wonder from your area of the world!
WO: Honestly, I don’t think anyone out of Buffalo influenced us. When we were writing back home, we kind of just did the opposite of what everyone else was writing, and that was the goal.
QRO: Punk rock hearts. This is why I love what you’re doing already!
MC: [laughs] Yeah, Will and I have always been ridiculous enough to think that we are so different and that we are the best at what we do that it’s working out so far!
Writing is one thing, but if you can’t translate that onto the stage, no one is going to want to come to see you play.
QRO: Most definitely! You guys have to know and believe that or it can’t manifest! Look at what it has brought you so far – the proof is in the pudding! Okay so, if I said, “Give me your top three artists that just make you go, ‘Oh my god, that song,” who would it be?
MC: Mine would definitely be John Mayer, Bob Dylan, and, at the moment, Father John Misty. Just from a writing standpoint. John Mayer has probably informed a lot of my guitar playing.
WO: I always draw blanks when I’m trying to think of this kind of answer, but number one would definitely be John Mayer. There’s songwriting, but then you’ve got to look at stage performance. We’ve been heavily influenced by some older bands and what they do on stage because we know how important that is for your live show. Writing is one thing, but if you can’t translate that onto the stage, no one is going to want to come to see you play.
QRO: That’s exactly right. It was Dylan that said, “Go where they’re not.” My favorite quote of all his, and it’s back to what you are saying, Will, about thinking in an alternative direction. I feel like “pop” is a bit dismissive of what you are doing even though it is upbeat and you can certainly dance to it. What would you call your genre?
MC: I would say that it’s like indie-alternative pop. Our management is often alarmed by our punk mentality because we’ll be like, “Okay we want to produce this like a jazz ballad and we’re going to have the drummer play with brushes and use an upright bass” and they’re like, “Listen to the last single!” [laughs] So, they’ve kind of reined us in, but we just follow what we’re inspired by and what we think is cool. We don’t give a fuck about sounding a specific way. I just want to make something that excites me, and other people latch onto that. I’d much rather have a small, cult following that understands what we do.
QRO: Beautiful! And now you’ve inadvertently put your toe into exactly what I intended to ask you next, which is: what would your “musical success” equation look like?
WO: We want the culty-ness but we also want to be the biggest and most impressive and greatest band in the world.
MC: Because we think they don’t have to be mutually exclusive!
QRO: No, they’re certainly not! I’ve had to take quite a few people to the verbal mat before over their misguided ideas about how huge bands somehow forfeit cool. It’s actually the opposite for the guys that did it right – like U2 or Metallica. When it’s done right, that kind of size and scope happen because those guys are the coolest guys in the room. I’m so glad you know that because that’s a great trajectory to strive for. Any dream collaborations?
MC: Do you know the Australian artist, Mallrat?
QRO: Oh gosh, yes! She’s a star! She works with Cub Sport a lot and they are just a few of my favorite humans on planet Earth.
MC: I’ve been listening to her since she put her first EP out on Soundcloud.
WO: Then, we saw her in 2019 at a music festival, which was pretty awesome.
We just follow what we’re inspired by and what we think is cool.
QRO: I can just imagine! Anybody else you’d like to hit up for some musical mixing and mingling?
MC: I’d love to do a song with Skizzy Mars! I know these sound left field, and we could probably come up with some more reasonable ones…
QRO: Not at all, these are across-the-board amazing folks!
WO: We would love to do something with The Knocks too.
QRO: I love these answers, gentlemen! Don’t censor them because I think it’s exactly the direction you want to be thinking. What about me hearing some echoes of Rage Against The Machine in “Welcome to America”….
WO: Oh yeah, we went through a heavy Rage phase two or three years ago and I still listen to them all the time. We were supposed to see them but then COVID canceled that for us!
QRO: Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that! But you know they are planning to tour this year so I hope you’ll get the opportunity because there is nothing like them in this world. It is so inspiring to see a band that can talk about serious things, like what you’re doing in “Welcome To America,” because it can be done in a way where people don’t want to hear it and it’s more comfortable to stick their heads in the sand. I think you did a brilliant job in that song of formatting such a hard conversation in a way that people would listen to, which is what Rage does better than anyone.
MC: Yes, and it’s not humorous, but it still has that playfulness that all of our lyrics have. I always say that song, to me, was never a political thing. I’m not even really taking sides on anything. I’m kind of just reminding everyone, “We’re all humans so let’s be nice to each other.” The standpoint is only that something’s got to give!
WO: Yet still some of the comments that we got on that video, like on Facebook and elsewhere, were absolutely ridiculous.
QRO: Oh, I bet! But you realize that being an open-minded person who is able to truly observe from a willfully objective station and then comment on what you have observed – just that is a radical act today. Because, as you say, Facebook has factionalized everybody.
MC: My mother and I always have the conversation about how, politics aside, if more people worried about themselves, focused on just being a good person, and worked on being kind to one another even on a surface level, a lot of these issues would go away.
If more people worried about themselves, focused on just being a good person, and worked on being kind to one another even on a surface level, a lot of these issues would go away.
QRO: I cannot express how much I agree with that sentiment. Would you say that this is an essential part of your artistic message?
WO: Yes, that and connecting with people, sharing vulnerability, and allowing a space for that to take place.
MC: Wilmah is an expression of who we are as people. In doing that, a lot of people are able to go, “I’m the same exact way; I feel the same exact way.” It’s never our intent to be super universal, but we’re very personable and we’re brutally honest. I say things in my songs that people don’t want to admit about themselves. The songs kind of end up being, “I feel so bad for myself” or “I gotta get laid”… [laughs], but, at the end of the day, these songs are who we are and people love that honesty for some reason.
QRO: The reason is that it’s extraordinarily well-written and you execute it with a world of flash. You may be too humble to say that, but I’m not too proud to tell you! So, you guys have got this set of strong singles out right now – is there an EP or full-length coming, or what’s next for Wilmah?
WO: We’re kind of finishing up the EP right now. We want to release it in 2022 for sure, which is exciting because we just want to put out as much music as possible. Then, hopefully, play more shows and get a tour going somewhere. By 2023, we really, really want to play festivals. That’s my biggest bucket-list goal right there.
MC: I think we’re going to do five singles, and then drop this seven-song EP. And there are a lot of different things going on inside that EP. There’s a Bright Eyes-style ballad, there’s a country-ish indie-pop song called “Dead To Me”, there’s a hardcore punk song….just a lot of variety that’s very exciting!
QRO: It sounds like a candy bag of ear-wonders! I can’t wait. What’s been the best thing that has happened to you in your musical career thus far?
MC: Hmmm… “Television” got put on a lot of really good Spotify playlists. I think it was put on about four editorials the Friday after it got released. I remember then, being like “Holy fuck, that’s insane!”
WO: Yeah, that was pretty satisfying!
MC: Other than that, we just played a show recently that both Will and I agreed was the best we’d ever sounded. I think it’s only up from here.
QRO: Where was this mystical gig?
MC: We played Mercury Lounge (QRO venue review)!
QRO: Oh wow, that’s such a special venue to me, for so many reasons. And it’s storied to a lot of other people I know as well.
MC: That’s where we met our manager, right before COVID happened, which changed our lives. So yeah, it holds a special place in our hearts too.
I want to be people’s favorite band.
QRO: Talk to me about “Wait Until Tomorrow” for a moment. One of the things that interests me in that song, and that I’m seeing as a little bit thematic across these singles, is you guys talking about what I perceive to be the self-protections we have to put in place to stay balanced in life. Do you feel that being upbeat people in general, and people that care about kindness, causes you to be hit by that a bit harder than your cynical neighbors? Do you think, as I do, that the world tends to view a genuinely nice person as weak?
MC: Will and I are definitely sensitive people and there have been a lot of instances where something is going well with maybe a girl or just in life, and then it gets taken away from you right away. It keeps repeating itself and you start to feel like it’s a consistent thing in your life. So, that song is kind of about holding on to when things do feel good and being like, “I’m terrified of when this is going to break my heart, but maybe we can postpone that for a little bit and I can just enjoy the moment.”
QRO: Wait until after dinner if you’re going to leave me! [laughs] Frank Sonnenberg says, “Lessons in life will be repeated until they are learned.”
WO: Yeah, those lessons have definitely not been learned for us yet! [laughs]
QRO: You’ve got time; you’re definitely not old men! I appreciate that song for talking about looking after yourself and having some joy even when you are downtrodden. A stellar message. What will the next single be like then?
WO: I would say that it is iconically Wilmah!
MC: It’s called “Good To Go.” It’s interesting because we recorded about 80% of the song on an iPhone and just using voice memos. We wrote it in one day with this great writer that we worked with also on “Wait Until Tomorrow” – Jackson Wise. It was the first time we’d ever met him and we hopped on Zoom one day in the summer, and five hours later we had this crazy song!
WO: We came into that session with no idea what we were going to write. We used to do this thing where we would plan out each song in a really structured way – super detailed about how the song was going to go, what it was going to be about, production, and all that. So, for “Good To Go” to happen literally within ten minutes in that one session was kind of crazy!
MC: It is the best feeling in the world for us when we have a session in the afternoon, we write something, we get a bounce from the producer by like 11 or 12, and we put it on the Bluetooth speaker. Leaving a session and going, “Damn, that song was amazing,” and listening back to the work you did later that night….it just doesn’t get any better than that.
WO: It makes you feel like, “This is what I’m supposed to be doing.”
MC: It’s all we talk about or think about. I’m sleeping thinking about it! [laughs]
WO: Everyone’s always talking about getting a single to blow up on TikTok or whatever, and Matt and I are over here with a seven-album plan in our minds where we are already thinking about how we want to present ourselves at each stage of that. Our career is the band and we want it to be as long-lasting as possible, and I feel like we are among the few who think like that now with all the social media that dictates the music industry.
We are not a viral TikTok moment; we’re a band.
QRO: You are so right about that, and I think it’s extremely hope-forming that you are standing apart from your generation in the best possible way!
MC: We want to be the type of band that you fall in love with and grow up with. That’s the goal. I love The 1975 and I started listening to them when I was maybe fifteen. I grew up listening to them with my friends and my girlfriend at the time. That was a part of my life and I still love them so I want to be people’s favorite band. I think we can be!
WO: Adding on to that, The 1975 is the one band I can think of where I was there for every single album. I can remember each album release so vividly and nothing sticks in my mind like their records have.
MC: Albums being a defining moment of your life is really cool to me and I want to be able to soundtrack people’s different eras.
QRO: You just don’t know how much I starve for people in your age bracket to say and know this! I’m so happy to hear that you are thinking in terms of longevity and your music being of service to other people.
MC: You can have a song on Spotify with 120M streams and it’s trash – and in two years no one will care about it. We’re making full bodies of work and they have meaning. The idea is for people to slowly fall in love with them and us. We are not a viral TikTok moment; we’re a band. It pisses me off that people act like bands did not get famous before TikTok.
QRO: I really commend you for navigating the digital component the way that you’re doing and would encourage you to continue to look at all of that as a curation, not a creation of your artistic vision. Actively knowing that fame is an illusion, especially on the internet, is going to keep you enviably different from your peers. Thank you so much for letting me ramble away at you today, guys. It is some major pirate gold for my pen to find young artists doing what you are doing.
MC: Thank you! This has been awesome beyond belief.
WO: This has been such a great conversation and we really appreciate you taking the time.
QRO: The pleasure is all mine. See you at the festivals!
MC: You’ll be there, side of the stage!
Wilmah will be out there sounding like golden horses and winged lions in a city near you soon enough. Keep an ear to the ground of the socials that could not possibly contain them for a chance to let them become the house-husbands in your head for a night, and friends of your ears forever.
