DAMIAN WYLDES

Brave, bold, and completely courageous, Damian Wyldes‘ “Dancing With Your Ghost” transports you straight to the heart of a spaghetti western action scene. With the galloping rhythm brought to life through dancing strings and a bellowing brassiness, the track is simply triumphant in its battle. Without a single synthetic sound, the song is doubtlessly authentic, proving the vitality of the rugged folk-country sound, and timeless instruments.

The cantering pace and quirky melody instantly befriends the richness of Wylde’s mighty vocals. Counting Elvis Costello as a comparison, Damian Wyldes’ voice is an instrument of its own. He effortlessly transgresses from velvet smoothness to intense bursts of bristly gruffness surging with intensity.

Despite the nimble sound, the tracks artwork and lyrics illustrate a rather different story. The lyrics are quite reflective of the Tim Burton-esque Corpse’s Bride style cover, painting a picture of remembrance of a loved one. The wise and mindful lyrics could easily appear in a much more downbeat song. However, the quick tempo and colorful instrumentals do the talking, making this track perfectly unparalleled and undoubtedly genuine. - Track Rambler

Damian Wyldes-jpg.comThe backmasked sound clip during the opening 20 seconds of the video for Damian Wyldes’ single “Disengage” is mesmeric, crisp and sonically inviting, especially through headphones. An acoustic six-string soon enters in three-quarter time before a faint trumpet adds a uniquely absorbing touch. This happens in the first 58 seconds, prior to Wyldes’ distinctive vocal entry. But as you know, there is much more to this music story than meets the ear and eye.

An Audiovisual Connection

The music production of “Disengage” is nicely polished, with violins, brass and upright bass providing a somewhat sad and trippy texture. TheDamian Wyldes-jpg.com same can be said for Wyldes’ singing, which features a resonant delivery. Meanwhile, an accessible emotional force can be felt during the music and in the lyrics: “I’ll never see your face; I’ll never hear your voice reach out again.” The performance is quite haunting.

Available on the River Moon Records® label, watching the accompanying 6:02 video, which was shot, produced and edited by Wyldes, is a must The slightly tinged black and white footage is Damian Wyldes-jpg.comstylized and engrossing, particularly when the mirrored images of the dancer and musicians occur on the steps of a neo-classic building facade. The musical arrangement compliments the video in a cinematic fashion, conveying another place in time. Meanwhile, Wyldes’ striking voice, matched with the imagery, tells you this El Paso, Texas-based musician is surely an innovative artist.

The personnel on “Disengage” are Damian Wyldes – acoustic guitar, upright bass, vocals; Nathan Sell – first violin; Thomas De Santos – second violin; Mark Andrew Alvillar – trumpet; “Disengage” written and produced by Damian Wyldes. - Music Review Magazine

Damian Wyldes is a local musician, music producer and some of the best talent the border town has to offer. He has played Streetfest and SXSW. He runs Rivermoon Records off Gateway East, a studio dedicated to development of artists and recording borderland music. A 20-year veteran of the music scene, he is rife with experience surrounding the recording industry and the struggles of being an artist. This year, the fruits of his labor have amassed attention from prestigious music awards. He was recently nominated for a Hollywood Music in Media Award (HMMA) and is also in first round considerations for the 61st Grammys.The HMMA “honors the music of visual mediums, the talented individuals responsible for creating, producing and placing it,” the website explains. Previous noteable winners include Phillip Glass and Demi Lovato—the award is no small business. Damian submitted the video for his song “Dancing With Your Ghost” to the HMMA academy thinking he had only a long shot at being considered. The spaghetti western-inspired video is sprawling with border town imagery that includes rambling desert landscapes and calavera-garbed folkloric dancers. The song is one of “love and loss,” says Damian, it begs the question of “am I still dancing with your ghost?” he goes on to say.
When he checked the HMMA website, he was surprised to find he had been nominated for an award in the Americana/Folk/Acoustic category. He quickly started planning to attend the red-carpet ceremony that was being held in Hollywood. He initiated a Go-Fund Me to help raise money to take him and his band to the ceremony. The fund-raising campaign is a testament to the overarching grassroot approach to his career. “If I make it onto a commercial or anything, I want it to be because I worked for it,” Damian says. He takes pride in his El Paso upbringing and the hard work that has sustained him throughout his careerDamian is also being considered for a first-round nomination in the Grammys—more proof of his willingness to work toward his goals. The first-round voting took place between October 17-31 and the decision will be announced December 5. The single that is currently being considered is called “Disengage”—a southwestern folk song about the loss of his father. “It’s a personal part of me as an artist,” Damian states, and then continues to say that he left himself “kind of exposed to the audience.”It is precisely this kind of commitment to the conviction of his craft that has carried him through two decades of making music. His grassroots and bootstraps approach are evident through his studio’s artist development program, and it is another way he strives to represent El Paso and its talent positively. “I’m excited to represent El Paso,” he says about the red-carpet affair at the HMMAs. No matter where his career has taken him—from Pittsburgh to Denver, from the deserts of the southwest to the Grammy’s—he remains whole heartedly El Pasoan.
You can find more of Damian’s music at damianwyldes.com. You can also listen to “Dancing with Your Ghost” and “Disengage” on his website or YouTube. - THE CITY. El Paso MAGAZINE

Expressive and even stirring describes the vocal intro from Wyldes’ latest song. Talk about having presence on a studio recording. A feeling of anticipation builds by the time the contemporary El Paso, Texas-based singer proclaims, “Money don’t buy you everything.” With remarkable gravitas and warmly picked acoustic fret work, “Greed” moves to different time changes, sometimes almost reggae-ish, by way of a unique 4:03 arrangement, including cordial trumpet solos. But you have to listen for yourself. - MUSIC INTERVIEW MAGAZINE

Damian Wyldes
10 Dec 20120
The man of many musical talents.

by Jessica Nguyen

Wyldes is a solo, multi-talented bilingual performer from El Paso, Texas. Speaking with him, I noticed that he’s not the type who will
take much time to stop moving or making music. There’s always something Wyldes wants to be doing. Already, he has his song “There it Goes” featured in 2008 on a soundtrack for the film The Utopian Society. He also was nominated in 2011 for an IMA award in the Latin song category for the song “Tu Que Lloras Por El”.

“Anytime I am on stage performing, I view this as a positive experience,” says Wyldes of his career. He’s actually very optimistic and didn’t have much to say regarding the negative sides of being a performer. “I am proud of everything I have done.” And he should be.

Wyldes doesn’t give up. “I was being courted by a huge TV network in Mexico. I basically ended up being stringed along for a long time and it almost made me quit all together,” he says. Lucky for Wyldes’ fans, he didn’t quit. He found the strength to rise above this obstacle and become who he is today.

Like all artists, he has other musicians to look up to and thank for their perseverance Some of the biggest musical influences Wyldes has would be “any type of classical music, Led Zeppelin, Empire of the Sun- I have a wide range of weird musical influences and tastes.”

With such a wide range of musical interests, Wyldes actually can’t pinpoint one in particular he would like to try or work with in the future. “I can say for sure not any kind of rap music,” he adds. To each their own, of course. “I like rap music and I listen to some of it, but it’s not my style. I would like to work with any musician who makes good music because good music is just good.”

Wyldes recently released he album All the Long Goodbyes and is currently working on another side project with his producer Steve Luxe, currently being called Dream Walkers. While working on his side projects, Wyldes doesn’t have a tour worked out just yet. “Nothing planned for Philadelphia, but I would love to play in Philly- it is a great city,” says Wyldes of a possible tour stop. Luckily, Wyldes knows there is the possibility of a tour one day. He did almost fall off a mountain, which means we never would have a chance to discover his many talents.

“Before I was a solo performer I was on tour with another band in Lake Tahoe and we were driving a standard van, hauling a trailer behind it. We were all tired and went to lay down and get some sleep. The person who took over the job trying to drive the van didn’t know how to drive standard and he had to drive the van up a hill. I was sleeping in the back when the van started to slide backwards down a step hill. We almost went off a mountain- it was pretty funny.” - THAT MAG

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