Interview with Wild & Free: “The album feels like a living document of our journey together”

We’ve discovered LA-based duo Wild & Free a while ago, with their stunning track “Tropique”. After releasing a couple of originals and remixes for the likes of Panama and , they’re releasing their debut album. It’s called “Shapes on Shapes” and will come out this Friday, November 17 via Discotexas. We have talked with them about this release, their creative process and their tour projects!

Hey guys! To begin can you introduce yourselves? When did your project start?

Hi there! We are Drew & George of the group Wild & Free. Our project started in 2015. We were introduced by mutual friends who thought we might work well together, and in our first session, we wrote a vibey little tune called “Tropique”. A little later, we were DJing a party together at Bardot in Hollywood, as separate artists. On a lark, we threw on the new track and sang our vocals together into one mic. It was a blast, and people responded really well, so we decided to make it a regular thing.

You are releasing your album on Discotexas, how did you start to collaborate with the label?

Yes we are! Our album “Shapes On Shapes” comes out November 17th, 2017 on Discotexas and we are really excited about it. We got in touch with the label earlier this year, while we were shopping demos around. Discotexas is a dream collab for us because everything they release is stellar! It’s tough to go wrong when the founders are true talents like Xinobi and Moullinex. They’re celebrating their 10th year as a label, and we really couldn’t ask for a better team to work with. Music is the first priority for Discotexas, and that’s the way we like it.

Can you explain us the creative process behind the album?

The album feels like a living document of our journey together for the last two and a half years. When we got together, we knew we had a story to tell, and we knew that if we got obsessive in our production and aimed really high, we could tell it all the better. We’ve both worked as studio musicians and songwriters throughout our careers, which really helped us click in the studio. Add in the fact that we’re both producers and singers, and things got interesting pretty quickly.

Part of our musical adventure for this album was being hands on with lots of new instruments. It’s pretty common for us to bring new synths or percussion or something that makes a new sound into a session and start a track around it. Our music exists in a very live and electronic space so it could be something as simple as a new cowbell or an acid synth. We’ll just mess with the instrument until something groovy happens and then we are off to the races. We can both play A TON of instruments so we tend to throw things around the studio.

“Shapes On Shapes” really took form when we started to branch out stylistically from the first track or two that we released.  On this album, we’ve added touches of jungle, R&B, reggae, samba, and latin styles to the disco and house sounds that we started with. The different genres act as colors that we can use to paint our music.

Will there be remixes for songs of the album?

Yes! We have a 12” with remixes coming out early next year. We’ll share more details about that once the album is out.

Do you have live shows planned soon ? What is your live setup?

We plan on DJing a few shows to close out the year, and we’ll start touring the record early next year. Our live setup is pretty eclectic and can vary depending on where we play. Sometimes we DJ and play percussion and sing. Sometimes we bring out the basses and guitars and synths and melodicas. We basically just like challenging ourselves on this front so that changes often.

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 Who are your favorite artists at the moment?

At the moment, we are really digging the new Lindstrøm, Moullinex, Stimming, and Touch Sensitive records.

Thanks to Wild & Free! Follow them on Soundcloud, Facebook and Instagram and make sure to listen to their album “Shapes on Shapes” out this Friday, November 17.

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