This Sunday November 10, Ottobar will welcome The Wild Feathers, a five-piece band from Nashville. They have played shows with with Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, Dawes to name a few. Their first album,The Wild Feathers, came out on August 13. Watch the video for their first single “The Ceiling” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tPkGcKckjao and listen to more songs here: https://soundcloud.com/the-wild-feathers/sets/the-wild-feathers. The Greyhound interviewed Taylor Burns of the group about the band’s music and upcoming show.
Your band name, The Wild Feathers, is really unique. How’d you guys come up with it?
Well, I wish we had some cool story to tell you, but we really just liked something cool with “feathers” in it, so we were playing around with the idea of something “feathers” and then we just kind of all decided that “wild feathers” sounded pretty cool so we went with that.
I read a Rolling Stones article about you guys and they were comparing you a little bit to Tom Petty, and people love to make comparisons. Are you guys influenced by any major musicians or anyone you listen to?
Yeah, of course. Tom Petty’s one, I think one that we all share is probably Neil Young.
Your lyrics range from upbeat (“The Ceiling”) to a little bit sad (“If You Don’t Love Me”). How do you guys come up with your lyrics? Do you draw from your own lives or just write as it comes to you?
I think they’re all different. There’s three of us who write in the band, at least from this last record. I guess some are autobiographical and some are fictional, it just depends on the song and the process and kind of who brings it to the table and everything, so there’s no set way we do it or formula we have, we just kind of take them as they come and write them down and record ‘em.
Your album just dropped on August 13th, but you guys have already toured with big names like Willie Nelson and Needtobreathe. What were the best moments from touring so far?
That Willie Nelson tour was pretty amazing; just to get to share the stage with a legend was a dream come true for all of us. We got to sing three or four songs with him almost every single show. I think it was after the third show he started bringing us up there to sing gospel songs with him. It was just amazing how nice and cool he was, him and his crew and his whole band was just really gracious. It was just a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. The Needtobreathe guys have been great. This is our last show tonight with them. We’ve only been with them for a couple of weeks, but they’re really cool guys. I wasn’t very familiar with their music, but it’s been fun watching their show every night.
Do you have any personal favorite songs to play?
I just like the ones that people like the most. We do a couple covers that I really like to play like the Tom Petty song, “Listen to Her Heart”, and a Led Zeppelin song, “Hey Hey What Can I Do”. Those are fun, but any of our songs I love to play.
You guys are going to be in Baltimore this Sunday. Do you have any plans while you’re here?
I know, we’re excited! Coming back! We played there on the Fourth of July and it was awesome. Not really, I guess get there on time and play a good show. It’s quite a drive from Athens [Georgia]. I guess we have a day to get there, so hopefully I want to eat some famed Maryland blue crab. We went last time and the restaurant was out so hopefully I can get my crabs ‘cause I’ve never had it.
Okay, final question, how would you describe your band to new fans or college students that don’t really know you guys yet?
I think it’s a high energy, American rock and roll, try to get you movin’! It’s a lot of harmonies and loud guitars.
