BAD LUCK FRIDAY – AN INTERVIEW WITH WILL WILDE
Bad Luck Friday is a British four piece that dishes out a ferocious brand of heavy blues. Fronted by lead singer and multi-nominated harmonica player, Will Wilde, the band is releasing their self titled debut album on Sept.2nd via Wilde Fire Records. Don’t underestimate Wilde’s harp playing as it adds a dynamic layer to the tracks already embellished with high energy. The 11 outstanding songs on Bad Luck Friday are a brilliant fusion of aggressive rock and stellar blues.
Besides Wilde, Bad Luck Friday is comprised of Steve Brook (Guitar/Backing Vocals), Jack Turnbull (Bass) and Alan Taylor (Drums).These four talented musicians have developed a unique blend of the two iconic genres. The album cranks on every level.
Amp had the pleasure of speaking with Will Wilde.
AMP: Can you give the AMP readers a brief history of the band.
WILL: We formed during the pandemic. I had been touring the blues circuit under my own name for the last decade and Steve, Alan and Jack had all played with me at one time or another in that band, so that’s how we knew each other.
I’d always had a vision of starting a hard rock band with the harmonica as the lead instrument, so when everything ground to a halt with my old band during the lockdown, it gave me time to focus on the music I wanted to create. I teamed up with Steve in the studio and we began working on the new sound, and so Bad Luck Friday was formed.
AMP: What drew you to play the harmonica and who were your influences?
WILL: The song that first sparked my interest in the harmonica was Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Help Me”. My first harp was a free plastic Guinness one that I found at a house party when I was about 16. It must have come with someone’s six-pack of Guinness, I basically nicked it and then later taught myself how to play by listening to Muddy Waters records. T
o begin with I was influenced by all the old blues harp players; Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton etc but nowadays my influences are mostly guitarists, people like Angus Young, Slash and Gary Moore.
AMP: The harmonica has traditionally been a blues instrument. Do you feel it should have a bigger presence in the rock scene?
WILL: I think so yes, I feel like the harp got left behind somewhat in the fifties. The harmonica and guitar used to have a pretty equal presence as solo instruments in the blues, but whereas the guitar went on a journey through the 60’s and 70’s with pioneers like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton taking it to the next level, the harmonica never really made it’s way out of the constraints of 12 bar blues.
You would get rock bands like Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin where Ian Gillan or Robert Plant would play a bit of harmonica on one or two songs, but it was never really the featured lead instrument in the band. The only rock band I can think of aside from Bad Luck Friday where the harmonica is the main lead instrument is Blues Traveler with John Popper. Our music is very different to theirs though, we’re much heavier with more of an aggressive bluesy sound.
AMP: Your new album is dropping Sept 2nd. How psyched is the band?
WILL: We can’t wait to get this record out and to play the songs live.
AMP: You’ve collaborated with Diplo in the past. Are there any other artists the band would like to work with?
WILL: Yeah, I played the hook on his song Do-Si-Do, it’s a country EDM track, so very different to what we do in the band. I do a lot of remote harmonica sessions for all sorts of things, if you ever saw the More Than pet insurance advert on TV with the cat playing blues harmonica on the front porch, that was me! As for artists we would like to work with as a band, I would say Black Stone Cherry, Rival Sons and Halestorm. They are three of our favourite bands on the scene at the moment.
AMP: Your sister, Dani, is an accomplished guitarist and singer/songwriter. How does it feel to come from such a musical family?
WILL: We grew up playing music together as kids. I used to play drums while Dani played guitar and sang. After she signed with Ruf records in 2008 I played harmonica on her albums and toured Europe with her band. We still play together occasionally. I wouldn’t really say we’re from a musical family though because neither of our parents are musicians, our Dad just introduced us to a lot of good music growing up. Our Grandad was a trumpet player in the Royal Air Force band, but sadly we never got to hear him play.
AMP: What’s the best part of being a musician? And if you couldn’t continue in your musical career, what would be your dream job?
WILL: I enjoy the songwriting process and working with other creative people. We had a lot of fun in the studio writing and recording the songs for this album. I think the best part is when you take the songs on the road and people connect with them. If I couldn’t carry on making music my dream job would probably be a motorcycle racer, music and bikes have always been my biggest passions.
AMP: If you could support any artist, past or present, who would it be and why?
WILL: From the past, I would have to say AC/DC with Bon Scott. Rock and roll doesn’t get any better than that if you ask me. From the present, Black Stone Cherry, I really like the way they blend blues and southern rock with contemporary hard rock, I think what we do is similar but with more of a British sound.
AMP: What’s the future like for Bad Luck Friday?
WILL: It’s still early days, so far we’ve only put one single out, so time will tell. Our debut album comes out on 2nd September, we’ve been getting some really good reviews in already and lots of radio play, so I think the future looks good.
To learn more about Bad Luck Friday, Check out the Website!
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Stream music: Spotify / Apple Music
Purchase: Amazon
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