Dmitry Wild – Interview – Thanks for Asking!

Dmitry Wild – Interview – Thanks for Asking! – by Liam Sweeny.

RRX: Like songs, every artist has a unique feeling about their first show. What was your first show like? Was it your best show? If not, what was your best show like?

DW: Yes the first notable show with Table Dreams I played that really made a lasting impression on me, was at a good ol’ CBGB where I wore Mozart wig and even though I was drunk as a skunk and I didn’t remember much but there was one moment when I started singing the first verse of my own version of an Immigrant Song and people just started singing along and the whole energy of that set was through the roof. Now I didn’t remember a thing luckily there was footage to prove it. J

The best show was probably upstaging the very band I used to listen to as a teen called Agatha Kristie, so the show was at The Cutting Room and the room was full of people and then they came up to me and said that was great, even better than the old guys that played after you. I smiled.

Although, I will tell you about the first show at Hudson as myself, I was supposed to play a Halloween Show at Hudson Brewing in 2021 I think and the drummer the same day calls me and says, “I can’t play I got Covid,” so I was thinking should I cancel or not, I decided to try my luck and I posted an ad on Albany’s Musicians’ wall on the same day at mid-day, “Need a drummer tonight, Paid gig!”

Guess who answers, Tommy freaking Love, in his deep voice on the phone, “I will do it kid. Send me the songs” so I did and then Tommy shows up in his old Honda and a car full of drums. No rehearsal no nothing, we played a loud Halloween show full of fog machines and Rock-n-Roll. It was brilliant.

RRX: Music genres are difficult for some artists. Some strictly adhere; others not so much. What is your perspective on the genre you play, or the genres you hover around?

DW: I used to care about genres and as I had 10 different bands, I tried to adhere to some specific style , this one is new wave, this is indie, this is goth and I  followed some bands as inspiration, but then after the Pandemic as I went to just start releasing my music under my own name, Dmitry Wild I stopped caring really, and I just focused on what I loved, which is playing guitar and performing and just trying to be honest with myself and I decided to play whatever style of song or inspiration I had at the moment. I knew my first few bands I deeply admired were The Doors, but my current style is no style as long as it’ got guitars in it and most importantly deep lyrics I am living though it, but it at any given time it could be a mix of Garage Rock, Psych Rock, Vaudeville, Blues, R and B and a bit of Punk.

RRX: It’s a lot of fun living in the present, but we all collect memories and give birth to dreams. We’re talking dreams here. Where you see yourself next year? In the next five years?

DW: Well good question, in 1 year, I would love to have a successful row of shows to promote my upcoming vinyl around New York and Canada. I would love to start expanding to shows to Nashville and New Orleans. In 5 years, I def want to travel to Europe with my band and visit all those beautiful places and theatres. But essentially, the dream of every musician and an artist is to start every day and focus on your art and to never think of lack of money cramping our daily goals.

RRX: “The best laid plans of mice and men…” I don’t really know the quote, but I know this one; sh*t happens. When we least expect it, calamity befalls us. Sometimes just comic inconvenience. Please tell us a story about some comic inconvenience that happened to you whilst performing?

DW: Oh jeez, where do I start, I guess stepping on the mic cable at CBGB and knocking part of my tooth out and then turning around to my guitar player questioning him if I am missing a tooth was a rather classic punk rock show occurrence. Later, there was one bloodier moment when I had a friend, a Japanese Saxophone player join for a few songs, and he would get so much into the music, he treated it like being a Samurai. The trouble was he didn’t  know what to do with himself, and that one time he decided jumping back at the drummer was a good idea, so he did but at that moment the crash cymbal went into the drummer’s head, and that put a pretty big cut on his forehead and as we finished the song, the drummer stood up and blood went squirting from his forehead all over his face. It was bloody crazy. Luckily he got stiches on his forehead in time.

RRX: What do you think is the most poorly understood thing about music, or the music you play?

DW: People don’t get the fact how metaphysical music is. How it creates energy in the air and, energy carries a feeling and that feeling has imprints of musician’s experiences in it and that is what we infuse into our listeners which is the most phenomenal thing and yet so poorly rewarded nowadays. The music is the art of energy and vibration. Even painting is a complete circle. You throw paint on a canvas you are done, and the completed canvas creates a feeling, with music you have to play it to hear it, to feel it to dance to it, and then to see it to really get a shot of that person’s energy. Quite metaphysical stuff.

RRX: What would you like fans to know before they come to see you play? (No basic stuff; get specific.)

DW: I am shy and sensitive as fuck and get overwhelmed easily, so I may sound and look like a gangstsa from the 1800’s but I love people and I mean well.

RRX: Tell me about your most recent song, album, or video (you pick.) Tell me a story about what went into making it. Not a process, but a cool story that took place within the process.

DW: Shit well that’s gotta be that one time when my wife said, well for Rock-n-Roll is my Business video you should film a day in the life of the Devil, so I thought oh man the Devil needs to live in a castle, so we went looking for a castle, which sounds crazy but we found one and it’s in the music video, “Rock-n-Roll is my Business” Then Jesse from Killswitch Engage starred in it as himself and Purple as a Pole Dancer, and Tryst as Devil’s associate and Byron as the priest. It ended up being a hilarious and punchy video.

RRX: We let it out differently when we play music. The happy, sad, good and back; it can all be put out musically. Overall, do you feel better when you sing about the better times, or the worser times? Is there a difference you can describe?

DW: Better or worst times it’s all part of the journey, I always try to leave a positive message at the end, to save someone from the noose if they are in one, just remember keep it wild, there is no set plan and no one is perfect and all else will be peanut shells.

RRX: A band is a business. A business of love, but you got to work for it. Let’s pretend, instead of a band, you all owned a business. What would it be, and why would it be good?

DW: On one hand, I would be a writer and for that I think a café would be good, I always talk about it but owning one seems like way too much work, but I love coffee and I would convert it to dinning and to a performance venue, so it would be decorated  all over with weird antique couches and Nick Cave would play on the radio, but yeah I would just sit in my café and write, but at the back I would have a 2 car garage to work on motorcycles and vintage cars.

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