William Wild Announces Debut Album PUSH UPS

WILLIAM WILD today announces the release of Push Ups, his sophomore full-length and debut album with Sony Music Masterworks, due out March 20. Available now to preorder, the 11-track collection combines subtle folk textures with gripping electronic and alternative elements in a sonic and thematic contemplation of identity and morality. The album marks a pivotal moment in the career of Tennessee-based artist Garrett Sale, the singer-songwriter, producer and engineer behind William Wild, as he journeys from crisis to reconstruction. Originally making its debut via EARMILK and available alongside today's preorder is the latest offering from Push Ups, "Holy Ghost (where did my life go?)"

Listen below!

"Holy Ghost (where did my life go?)" was born out of a songwriting experiment between Sale and his co-producer, resulting in the song's opening lyric "I need more time." What began as an entirely literal plea, however, became one of the album's most vulnerable moments, eventually evolving into a moment of clarity for Sale, who explains of the track, "I really connected with the easy-going nature of the melody and found solace in a more light-hearted picture of self-doubt."

PREORDER THE NEW ALBUM FROM WILLIAM WILD PUSH UPS

Drawing from a period of life marred by existential crisis and the sensationalized perception that often coincides with hallucinogenic exploration, William Wild's Push Ups is a momentous step forward from the artist's previous work. Diverging from his previous work in an expansive way, the resulting full-length is both as intimate and personal for Sale as it is dynamic and progressive for his career as William Wild.

"The record is less a chronological journey than an emotional map," Sale explains. "There are moments of purity and naïveté. There are moments of full emotional chaos. There are moments of apathy. I encountered my mortality: the death of who I thought I was and who I lived my life as. The record is sort of me trying to figure out what it is I have to say. The songs are glimpses into manic behavior, extreme highs and lows."

Since William Wild's first release in 2014, he has quietly gathered a devoted following-evidenced by the reception of his 2016 EP Steady Now-demonstrating with each release Sale's progressive maturity and tactful savvy as a producer and songwriter. The single "Morning" surpassed 12 million Spotify streams to date and takes up real estate on playlists such as Roots Rising, Fresh Folk, and more. In addition to praise from American Songwriter, No Depression claimed, "If Dan Fogelberg, Neil Young, and Harry Chapin put their musical genes together to create a musician in their image, they would have come up with Garrett Sale." Songs from Steady Now also reached the screen with high-profile film and television syncs in Yellowstone, Brittany Runs a Marathon and Wind River.

On the heels of Steady Now's success and holed up "in a cheap rental house," Sale struggled to write and record in 2017, his momentum offset by a series of difficulties and tragedy. "Eighty percent of the time, there was no inspiration, or I would slip off into a really weird spot where I was trying to write," he explains, "but it wasn't working." After nearly a year of struggling with the album, a tragic drive-by shooting that left his next-door neighbor murdered on his front lawn finally convinced him to make a change. By December 2018, Sale had moved out and constructed a new studio.

"Getting in the new studio was like shaking off the last couple of years," he elaborates. "There were some growing pains. I completely flipped my world view. When I finally got settled, I had a sketch of every single track. And I was basically like, 'the only way I'm going to get through this project is to just finish it.'"

"In hindsight, it's what I should've done the whole time," he concedes, "finish the music."

Although introducing Push Ups with the 2019 release of "Hard Lines, Hard Times," his 2020 follow-up "All My Life" best hints at the scope of his overarching vision for the record. Led by the swells and hums of a Fender Rhodes, chords ring out between the beats of a WWII-era marching drum-"bought from an ex-cop on Craigslist"-and a gospel-like choir of synths. The simple chord progression underscores a potent and riveting delivery.

"The line 'I never lied' popped out one day while sitting with the Rhodes. I wasn't sure where it wanted to go, but I had the feeling that it was a complicated statement...like it had come from someone who had been through something and maybe they were just talking to themselves, lying to themselves," he recounts. "I love how the Rhodes sounds so natural and organic but also other worldly, I wanted to lean into that and see if I could bring synthetic elements into my music in an organic way and build a narrative in it."

He dusted off an old guitar acoustic melody to reside in "Rental House," a song whose vocals mirror the highs and lows of its origin. The obtuse narrative is a nod to his parents' divorce and how his dad moved-out into a secondary house his family called "the rental house." At the same time, it offered personal closure on a tumultuous and trying relationship with his late father. Meanwhile, the delicate finger-picking and soft intonation of "Slow Records" channels the stream-of-conscious style storytelling and vivid vignettes of a late-night drive. "I tend to experience my life as a dream often, so I tried to encapsulate that," he adds. Finally, "Radio (where im goin)" concludes the multifarious journey with lush guitars and a soft falsetto hum and homage until he croons, "Radio...play that one song...get me where I'm going."

"I was going through a lot of existential confusion and kind of became obsessed with my own well-being," he confesses. "That didn't feel interesting to write about though. In the past, music was almost an unconscious experience. I'd just write a song in my bedroom. I never really thought about what I wanted to say or had a finite sonic direction. To me, there was a newfound pressure to say something meaningful. When I listen back, I vividly hear the place where I was-it's almost tangible. I feel like I've grown so much. It's the child version of me figuring it out."

In the end, these pieces fit perfectly together on William Wild's Push Ups-a timeless record that leaves its listeners planted squarely within reality but still questioning what is yet to come. "I found some solace in creating Push Ups," Sale confides. "You don't have to take the route of making everything look okay all of the time. There's power in being honest and open."

WILLIAM WILD - PUSH UPS
TRACKLISTING -
1. Let Me Know
2. Slow Records
3. Older Brother
4. Hard Lines, Hard Times
5. Pictures (the push ups)
6. Holy Ghost (where did my life go?)
7. Wound Up (alt.)
8. Rental House
9. All My Life
10. Middle America
11. Radio (where im goin)

WILLIAM WILD - 2020 TOUR DATES WITH CITY OF THE SUN
Thurs, March 12 - Philadelphia, PA - World Café Live
Fri, March 13 - Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Steel
Sat, March 14 - Washington, DC - U Street Music Hall
Sun, March 15 - Baltimore, MD - Metro Gallery
Tues, March 17 - Asheville, NC - The Mothlight
Thurs, March 19 - Charlotte, NC - Free Range Brewing
Fri, March 20 - Atlanta, GA - Vinyl
Sat, March 21 - Nashville, TN - High Watt
Sun, March 22 - Indianapolis, IN - Hi-Fi

To post a comment, you must register and login.