Interview by Mark Lacey
Inspired by his father’s blues collection, Will Wilde’s path to playing harmonica was an unconventional journey, and yet his natural abilities have seen him elevate his status to become one of the genres brightest lights. His ability to span traditional blues styles, whilst also re-inventing classic rock covers on his YouTube channel, as well as creating his own sound and tuning, Will has established himself as a role model and champion for a new generation – and has made the instrument fashionable again.
In recent years Will had moved away from the blues, performing rock-based material, however his latest album ‘Blues is still alive’ sees a return to his roots, and it may well be the finest album of his career.
Will Wilde talks to MyGlobalMind.com
MGM: The last time you spoke to MyGlobalMind.com in Autumn 2024, you were just about to go on tour with Walter Trout. How did that tour go?
Will: Yeah, that’s right. I did all the UK dates except for the London one because I had another thing on that day, but it was really good.
MGM: You’ve been performing for a number of years, and are well known in blues circles. However, in the wider rock music industry you’re still an underground artist. How would you describe what you do?
Will: I’m a blues rock harmonica player, singer. The way I would describe, certainly this latest album; it’s like a Gary Moore or a Water Trout blues record, but with harmonica solos instead of guitar solos. The way I play harmonica is very much influenced by people like them.
MGM: Some of your earliest recordings go back to about 2008. Honing your craft as a harmonica player will have started much earlier still. When did you first discover the harmonica and decide that was something that you wanted play?
Will: Well, I first picked it up when I was 16 or 17. I’d always been around blues harmonica from a very young age because my dad used to listen to a lot of blues and take me to some blues gigs. I grew up hearing people like Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter. It was always something that I thought was cool, but I never really thought about it as something that I could potentially do myself until I was about 16. I found a Guinness harmonica at a house party I was at, like a free one that had come with some cans of Guinness. I just started to teach myself off Muddy Water’s records, and it went from there, really. My sister is a blues singer. She signed to Ruf Records. She’s a little bit older than me. I’d only been playing for two years when she signed to Ruf, and then I went on tour with her as her harp player. I learnt a lot from that.
MGM: Was the harmonica the first instrument you played? And did you get proper training when you transitioned to the harp?
Will: I played drums before that, through school and stuff, and I was in various bands. I self-taught harmonica for the first couple of years; I just played to Muddy Water’s records, and I worked out quite a lot from that. It came much easier to me than other instruments that I dabbled with. I found I could get quite a good vibrato pretty much straight away intuitively, which was helpful because if you’ve got a good vibrato, you can make a nice sound straight away just playing one note, and then that inspires you to keep going. But that’s something that a lot of people struggle with when they first start. I worked out how to bend notes quite quickly, which is another thing a lot of people have trouble with, and they give up before they get there. It did come very naturally to me.
MGM: Did you find yourself a teacher in those early days?
Will: I went on a weekend thing called the Euro Blues Weekend, and it was in Farnham, and I had some lessons there with Eddie Martin, who’s a blues harmonica player from Bristol. That was really the only formal training I had. I learned how to play a couple of scales, and that set me on the right path. Then I just went back to learning stuff from records and talking to guitar players and the guys in my band, and learned the theory side of things that way.
MGM: Listening to your album, your playing is reminiscent of the way that Joe Satriani delivers vocal melodies through his guitar. Obviously, you’re doing it through your harmonica, but do you recognise the comparison?
Will: Yeah. It’s a very expressive instrument. There’s a lot of parallels with the guitar and with the saxophone at times as well. Instruments where you can bend notes and manipulate your tone and vibrato, all have that vocal-like quality to them. It does feel like an extension of the voice.
MGM: Your first recorded work was on ‘Nothing but Trouble’ back in 2008, although it’s not one that many people will be familiar with.
Will: I’m surprised you managed to find that record. I don’t really include that in my official releases. It was quite scrappy. It’s a bit punky, grungey, garage blues. The harmonica playing was OK on it, but as an overall record, the vocals on it were pretty terrible. I started quite young, and I was 19 when I recorded that. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I just wanted to make blues, so I put a lineup together and started playing gigs and going into the studio straight away. That album was never actually pressed. It was only ever on CDR. That’s how small scale that one was.
MGM: Your latest recording ‘Blues is still alive’ is your fifth official release, including your four studio albums, and also the Live in Hamburg release? Would you say that your sound has changed a lot from album to album?
Will: My music has always been heavily blues-based, But the way that I play has changed over the years for sure. The harmonica playing on the first three albums was much more in a traditional blues style. I don’t feel like I had my own voice so much then. When I made the Bad Look Friday album, that was a rock record, rather than a blues album. That’s when I really started to find my own voice on the harp, and I really improved my vocals and writing in that time as well. I’d reached a point with the blues where I felt like I didn’t really have anything more to say within the constraint of a 12 bar. But coming back to it with this album, I feel like I can do just a slow blues or a 12-bar shuffle and really put my own stamp on it. I think that’s what being a proper blues artist is all about. If you think of any of the old guys, they can play the same old blues, but you know it’s them.
MGM: ‘Blues is still alive’ will be your first album under your own name since 2018 and the ‘Bring it on Home’ album. Was that important for you to put something back out under your own name rather than just reinvent what you were doing with your previous project?
Will: It always seemed while I was doing Bad Look Friday, that I still had a bigger following as Will Wilde anyway, because I’ve been doing it for a long time and my YouTube presence was quite good. It didn’t really make sense for me to keep going out as Bad Luck Friday because Will Wilde seemed to be a stronger brand name, if you like.
MGM: Are you still using some of the same musicians on this versus your previous solo work?
Will: No, it’s an entirely new band. The drummer, Steve Rushton, he played in the Imelda May’s band for years, all through the Rockabilly era. I met him on a gig with Todd Sharpeville. We were both playing with Todd at Rockpalast in Germany. Me and Steve just got on really well, on and off stage.
MGM: Did Steve play in Imelda May’s band during the time Jeff Beck was performing with the group?
Will: It’s funny you mention that. There’s a video of Steve playing with Jeff Beck and Imelda doing a version of Walking in the Sand, which is one of my favourite live performances on YouTube. A big part of that is because of the drums on it. I mentioned to Steve that I was going to be making a new blues album soon, and I was going to ask him to play on it. Before I could ask him, he offered. He was the first person that I confirmed for the lineup, and I knew that it was going to be a good record then because if you’ve got a drummer like Steve, everything else falls into place. Next up was Bobby Harrison, the guitar player, who actually plays in Cliff Richard’s live band when he does a tour. I found him through YouTube, actually. I know a lot of really good blues guitar players, but they’re all frontmen. They all sing. They all are more interested in playing lead than rhythm. I needed a rhythm player for the most part. I just reached out to Bobby, and he agreed to come and play on it. Greg Coulson is the keys player. I’d worked with Greg before in my sister’s band. He’s an amazing piano player and Hammond player as well. And Russell Carr is the bass player. He’s played with Ian Dury and the Blockheads recently. He’s a great, really solid player.
MGM: The new album is by far your best yet, and many fan are raving about the opening track, and title track ‘Blues is still alive’ which sees you performing with Walter Trout. How did that come about?
Will: I met him about eight years ago for the first time on Worthing Pier. I had supported him and he liked my playing, and then invited me to sit in with him that night. He told me that I could sit in with him anytime he was passing through. I went to play with him again in London a few years later. At the end of the song, he walked over to me on stage and he said, how would you like to play on my next record? I ended up playing on a song of his called ‘Bleed’ on his latest record. In return, he offered to play on mine, so it worked out really well.
MGM: Another one of the new songs getting attention is ‘Wild Man’. It’s very reminiscent of Joe Bonamassa; such a feel-good track with really high energy, and an almost big band feel. What were you trying to achieve with that song?
Will: It’s just straight up 12 bar shuffle in E. It’s not reinventing the wheel, but it’s one of my favourite tracks on the album. It’s very natural for me to do that thing because that’s what got me into playing when I was 16. The first couple of years I picked up the harmonica, that style of blues is all I ever played. It feels very natural. With that song I wanted to do something that would appeal to the blues purists out there and the blues harmonica community, and show that I can do the old-school blues thing. But then I wanted to, in the second half of the solo, step it up and take it on, modernise it a little bit. The first time around the solo is very much like Chicago Blues, traditional style. Then the second time through, it’s more of my own style that’s inspired by people like Gary Moore, as well as the old Little Walter stuff.
MGM: You’ve called the album ‘Blues is still alive’. Of course, Joe Bonamassa’s record label is called Keeping the Blues Alive. He’s been doing marvellous things to raise the profile of the blues genre over recent years, and arguably it’s now in a better place commercially than it’s been in for a long time. Would you agree with that?
Will: Probably, yes. I suppose since the mid ’90s, there was a bit of a resurgence then with Gary’s ‘Still got the Blues’ album and Stevie Ray Vaughan in the States, and Jeff Healey. It probably is the biggest blues resurgence since then.
MGM: Do you see yourself following that traditional blues path or are you trying to bring something completely different?
Will: I don’t really like blues to be messed around with too much from a songwriting point of view. People like Water Trout, and Gary Moore; when they make a blues record, they might play a lot more notes and they might play a lot louder than Muddy Waters did. But it’s still very much in the 12-bar format. It’s not completely reinventing the wheel. That’s the blues that I like. I’ve seen a lot of artists when they start to get more commercial success, they start to really change the sound and everything is put into this commercial template where you have verse chorus, verse chorus, middle eight, chorus, structures, and the solo will be cut down to just eight bars somewhere in the middle. I think that’s great for pop music, and rock music. But that’s not what I want when I listen to a blues album. If I’m listening to a blues guitar player, I want to hear them play blues guitar.
MGM: You describe not wanting to mess with the blues formula, and on you latest album, you’ll playing all self-penned songs, aside from one co-write. However, on your social media, you’re widely recognised for reimagining other traditional rock songs, including harmonica cover versions of things like Free Bird, Sloe Gin, Lazy by Deep Purple, and then obviously Parisienne Walkway. On those songs, you definitely put your own stamp on them. Do you still feel that you’ve done that in a way that is honest to the original?
Will: Yeah, I think so. With things like the Free Bird solo or Stairway to Heaven, those videos that I’ve done for YouTube, part of that is just showing people what can be done with the harmonica. Part of it, of course, too, is that when I record a cover of a big well-known song, I’m going to get a lot more views on it than just a random 12 bar jam. The songs that I tend to write myself, certainly at the moment, are more in the traditional blues style. I take a lot of inspiration from the rock stuff. I’m a big fan of AC/DC. It wouldn’t really feel right for me to start writing and recording songs that sound like AC/DC, but I do take inspiration from Bon Scott’s vocals and Angus Young’s guitar playing and work that into my own sound. It might not be that obvious to the listener, but it’s all in there somewhere.
MGM: Are there any cover versions that you’ve tried to play on Harmonica and given up?
Will: Certain guitar solos don’t work particularly well on the harp, and often it’s because of which notes you’re able to add expression to, because you can’t bend all of the notes, and obviously, guitarists can bend all of the notes. You can’t add vibrato to all of the notes on the harmonica. Certain things just don’t translate very well. That was why I came up with my own harmonica tuning, it’s called the Wild tuning, and that allows me to get a lot more expression in the upper octave of the instrument.
MGM: You’re playing a number of shows across the UK and Norway throughout March and April. What can people expect from those shows? Will you be playing the new album end-to-end?
Will: I think we’re going to play all 10 tracks from the new record, plus a few favourites. We’ll probably play Lazy by Deep Purple, which I’ve been playing for a long time. Parisienne Walkways, On the Road Again, the Canned Heat song. A couple of other covers and a couple of other older songs of mine as well.
MGM: How do you go about keeping yourself in shape when you’re doing a tour? This time of year, you must be desperately trying to avoid any illnesses?
Will: Obviously, my lungs are very important to me as a harmonica player, especially the style I play. I need every bit of lung capacity that I can get. I try to stay well, and go to the gym quite a lot to keep my fitness levels up. The harp isn’t usually a problem for me. I can be close to death, and I think I’d still be able to play harmonica, but it’s the combination of playing and singing. It can be difficult keeping your voice in good shape on tour when you’re singing every night and not getting much sleep. I’m out of breath before I open my mouth to sing a line from playing harp. It’s quite demanding. I have to be very mindful of my breath control.
MGM: Where are you hoping that this new album will take you?
Will: I’m hoping it’s going to raise my profile on the British and European blues scene, which it seems to be doing already, so that’s good. I’m hoping that it will get me into America because I know that the majority of my online following are in America. I can see that from my analytics and people are always asking when I’m going to tour America. It’s not easy for British artist to tour America because of the visa requirements and things. But it’s someone I’m working on. I’m working with a US label on this album, the VizzTone label group. I’m hopeful that it’s going to get me into America and play some of the clubs and festivals there.
MGM: Any other summer festivals this year?
Will: Yeah, we’ve got the Old Bush Blues Festival in August. We’ve got one in Romania. We’re at the Kwadendamme Blues festival in the Netherlands this May.
Will Wilde will be performing live throughout 2025:
13 March: Login Lounge Camberley, United Kingdom
15 March: Coolham Live Music Club Coolham, United Kingdom
16 March: Liverpool Blues Festival Liverpool, United Kingdom
21 March: The Carlisle Hastings, United Kingdom
02 April: Bjøgvin Bluesklubb Bergen, Norway
03 April: Haugesund Bluesclub Haugesund, Norway
04 April: Blueslaget Lokst Utøve Odda, Norway
22 April: Tuesday Night Music Club Coulsdon, United Kingdom
23 April: Temperance Leamington Spa, United Kingdom
24 April: The Tree House Frome, United Kingdom
25 April: The Bear Club Luton, United Kingdom
09 May: Emsworth Music Club Emsworth, United Kingdom
10 May: Kwadendamme Blues Festival Kwadendamme, Netherlands
16 May: Crookham Memorial Hall Church Crookham, United Kingdom
10 July: Hot Box Live Chelmsford, United Kingdom
17 August: The Old Bush Blues Festival Callow End, United Kingdom
22 August: Blues in The Garden Festival D?rm?ne?ti, Romania
20 September: Gerd’s Juke Joint Joldelund, Germany
21 September: Gerd’s Juke Joint Joldelund, Germany (Will Wilde & Dani Wilde Acoustic Duo)
24 September: ChaBah Kandern, Germany
25 September: 8 Bar Altstadt Kleinbasel, Switzerland
26 September: The Raven Straubing, Germany
27 September: Wotufa Neustadt An Der Orla, Germany
28 September: Bounty Rock Cafe Olomouc, Czechia
01 October: Rio Eschweiler Eschweiler, Germany
02 October: Theater im Fischereihafen Bremerhaven, Germany
03 October: Brücker Landgasthof Brück, Germany
04 October: Kuhstall Tanna Starkenberg, Germany
20 November: Hanger Farm Arts Southampton, United Kingdom
22 November: Booglaoo Promotions Blues Weekend, Bournemouth, United Kingdom
For more information:
www.facebook.com/willwildeofficial
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