A Quick Chat With Wil Linder

Wil Linder’s latest single, ‘Keep Getting Fooled’, is out now, bringing a gritty blend of country, rock, and indie straight from the rural outskirts of Sydney. In ‘Keep Getting Fooled’, Wil pours his heart out in a haunting tale of daydreams and the hard truths that often shatter them, creating a powerful anthem for anyone struggling to balance their dreams with reality. We caught up with Wil to find out about the track, his influences and more.

Can you tell us what this track means to you and what you want people to take away from it?

This track to me is about chasing your dreams and not letting anyone shut them down. It’s a hard road as a musician and unfortunately you can put your everything

into it and still not get a lot back sometimes. It’s at these moments people start telling you to get a real job. I have a day job myself and once got told by someone that “it’s great that you’ve got a safe job like that” and man, did that tick me off! All in all, this song is for the dreamers. Never stop dreaming.

Who are some of your influences, and why?

One of my biggest influences is Mumford & Sons. They were the first band that made me really fall in love with music and I wanted to be everything they were. I was so inspired by their songwriting and mesmerised by their stage presence. This was back in their folk-rock days as well before they released Wilder Mind! Man, when that came out that only solidified the love even more!

With this song, I wanted to try capture that classic indie rock vibe that they hold throughout that album, but also took a lot of inspiration for the sound from some of Jason Isbell’s rockier material!

What's the creative process for you, from writing through to recording?

My creative honestly differs for every song but I write a lot whilst I’m driving. This one particularly started after remembering a dream I had the night before, a pretty uncomfortable one where I had fallen over on glass shards, hence the first verse! And yeah, I wrote most of it that whole drive home before being able to pickup a guitar and work out what chords sat right behind it and how I wanted it to feel!

In comparison to some of my songs, this one is pretty fresh! I played it live once with the band before deciding this was the next single. I got into the studio with Tim McArtney (Hockey Dad) for a few days after sending him a demo that I’d made in my little home studio and

it was awesome to work with him. We laid our bed tracks down together, Tim on bass and myself on drums and built it up from there!

What do you think makes a great song?

I want to say a good chorus makes a song but I think it’s honestly about the emotion and energy that gets put into the performance in the studio, which also massively comes down to the producer as well!

A good producer can really pull that emotion out of you, whether it’s in your playing or your vocal performance which I think Tim really got out of me in this song. Before it even got mixed, we were both loving the amount of energy in the performances, it felt like a real, powerful band number.

If you could collaborate with any artist, who would it be and why?

Call me a Mumford addict but it would have to be Marcus Mumford, every single day of the week.

For me, he has to be one of the greatest songwriters of our generation. So many of my songs have taken huge inspiration from his writing, sometimes not just in the writing but also in the production!

Like I said earlier, Wilder Mind BLEW my mind and solidified that love but Marcus’ solo album came out at a really vulnerable time for me and I connected so strongly with it. It aligned perfectly with a time where I had dived deep into my songwriting, it was an emotional release for me, and the sensitivity and vulnerability of that album really allowed me to open up lyrically.

He also seems like a really chill, really cool guy, so I’d like to think we’d get along well and could just hangout!

When not working on music, what other creative outlet/s do you have?

I get to be pretty creative throughout the week! My ‘safe job’ is photography, so I get a great creative release there! I mean, I’d rather be playing or writing or jamming every single day if I could but the song says it all!

I’ve always loved the vibe and look of film photography but the one place in my local area that develops film has just shutdown so I’m quite excited to try out developing my own film photos, I think that will be a really cool skill to have as well as a really relaxing hobby to enjoy!

Who are some local bands we should check out?

You’d be foolish not to check out Piper Butcher. The diversity she has is amazing. Indie/rock/country/soul/blues POWERHOUSE! If you like Fleetwood Mac but also like Miley Cyrus, she’s got something for you. Or if you like Kasey Musgraves and Lizzy Mcalpine, she’s got something for you.

Charley Castle is another cracker of a muso too. The energy she has with her band, The Boys in The Well is phenomenal.

Winter or summer and why?

Winter, winter, winter and nobody can tell me otherwise. It’s jacket weather! Does that not excite people!! One thing I’ve always said, which I think is the perfect argument for this. In winter, you can ALWAYS get warmer. Cold in bed? Put another blanket on! Cold in the car? Turn the heater on!

In summer, you don’t get that luxury. You can’t keep removing layers because there comes a point in that where you’re going to get some kind of warning from the police! Winter you ask? Just keep adding jumpers until you’re warm!

What else do you have planned for 2024?

Well, it’s almost holiday season so there’s not much time to do a lot before the year is up! I’m really excited to be putting on a big launch show for this single on the 15th of November though. It’s been great to have the band back together, rehearsing and playing these new songs is awesome. Tickets are available now

But other than that, at this point in the year, it’s time to start winding down, writing some more and preparing for a huge year next year!!

Interviewsaustralianmusicscene8 November 2024