MEMBERS: Steven Serna (guitar/vocals), Sean Blomgren (bass), Allen Trainer (drums)
FOUNDED: 2012
FROM: Olympia, Washington
YOU MIGHT KNOW THEM FROM: Their first go-round as a West Coast four-piece called Wet
NOW: Blowing out your speakers with their debut LP Subjective Concepts, out on Sub Pop
The seeds of punk/hardcore trio Strange Wilds were planted organically: at a house show in Olympia, Washington, in 2012. Steven Serna lived in the house, and Sean Blomgren was in town from Boise to play the show. Blomgren moved to Olympia for college in the following months, and the two put together a four-piece band called Wet.
“I’m twenty-eight, and I got into alternative music really young,” says Serna. “My parents listened to rock radio […] in the late ’80s and early ’90s, so […] I’ve grown up with it. But I never played in a band that sounded like that, like alternative or grunge. I just played in hardcore punk bands. In 2012, I was like, ‘Why not try something different?’ I wanted to put a lot of focus into a band, make it a real serious band, and tour, and write a bunch of records.”
After a personnel change and a new name, Strange Wilds released a four-song EP on Inimical Records in June of 2014. Then a certain legendary Seattle label started sniffing around. The rest isn’t exactly history—it’s only taken place over the last year—but it’s a step in the right direction.
“You know, when you’re a punk kid, you don’t wanna like what the jocks like, or what all the cool kids like, so you didn’t really talk about it. But I had always liked Nirvana, and I wasn’t ashamed to say I liked them.”
“We had just made a lineup change right before Sub Pop came calling,” Serna says. “We got a new drummer. So it was kind of like a fresh start.”
Rather than rest on their laurels, Strange Wilds set them ablaze. “We just started writing tons of songs right away,” Serna says. The band composed Subjective Concepts in September and October of 2014, practiced it during November, and recorded it in December.
The finished product is tight, loud, and urgent. It’s reminiscent of another Sub Pop debut LP, the one by the band that turned the Pacific Northwest into a travel destination. Serna acknowledges the similarities. His young love of Nirvana was a kind of rebellion, but not in the way you might expect. “Nirvana had gotten so popular,” he says. “You know, when you’re a punk kid, you don’t wanna like what the jocks like, or what all the cool kids like, so you didn’t really talk about it. But I had always liked them, and I wasn’t ashamed to say I liked them.”
The songs on the album were co-written by Serna and drummer Allen Trainer, with titles that are probably in the index of an Intro to Psych textbook somewhere: “Pronoia,” “Egophillia,” “Oneirophobe.” They sound lofty, but they’re just words that Serna came across while reading and liked. “I think the song titles came last, actually, when it came to everything,” he says. “Like, it was music, and then lyrics, and then song titles.” This is exactly what the album sounds like. Strange Wilds are not putting music to carefully crafted poetry. When the lyrics are decipherable, it’s because they’re delivered via shouted sing-along. The music is not set dressing; it’s what makes Subjective Concepts necessary.
Serna says the band is really lucky. But finding a hundred-dollar bill on the ground is lucky. The level of exposure Strange Wilds have received is not. “I’ve been playing music since I was like twelve, and it’s always, like, people have other stuff going on,” he says. “And usually I had other stuff going on too, but when I got to that point in my mid-twenties, I was like, ‘I might as well give it my all before I have to settle down for some shitty career or something.’” Chalk it up to effort, dedication, and pre-teen spirit. FL
