Page 17 - BiTS_04_APRIL_2021

BITS INTERVIEW: SUNDAY WILDE

BiTS: Well, Sunday, let’s get on and talk about you and your record and stuff. First of all, can I ask
you what decided you to move all the way from Atikokan to where you are now? What’s the name of

the place you’re in now?

SW: Thunder Bay. I moved here, Ian, because
my partner, Reno Jack, who played music with
me and we recorded a number of albums
together, passed away. Then, my children are
big, and they moved away, so I was basically

alone in that small town. I knew I wanted to
continue music, so I moved to the bigger town
close by. It had more places to play and more
people to play with and stuff like that, so I
thought it was the best thing for me just to
continue on my music.

BiTS: The last album that you made seemed to
contain a large number of tributes to Jack in
one way or another.

SW: Yes, I know, but this new one does not.
The new album, none of the songs are about
him, which is a first for me [laughing].

BiTS: Did you find being able to play music

and writing songs very therapeutic?

SW: Oh, yes, of course. Very much so. Very
much so for me personally and music helps so
many people even if they’re not a musician. That’s why I do it myself. It’s very therapeutic and I
wish everybody that I cared about played music because it helps people.

BiTS: Did you have difficulty putting this album together? Had you got a lot of songs that were
ready to go?

SW: I didn’t have difficulty, no, because I write songs all the time and I wanted to do another
album, so I just really focused. When I want to do something, I just focus and get it done. Over the
fall and early winter, I wrote every day and fine-tuned the songs as much as I possibly could.
Because we’re in lockdown, I could only have a small group of people in my home, so I just had the

bass player come in and the engineer come in. The new album was recorded on my acoustic piano
as well. I wanted it to be simple. Yeah, it was really cool. He had put microphones all around the
piano and I wanted it done that way and this album has no drums and no guitars neither. I know
you’re a lover of acoustic blues, so sometimes people think acoustic blues is often guitar work and
delta and stuff, but this is not like that at all [chuckling].

BiTS: I know if you don’t have electricity, if you don’t have amplifiers and stuff like that, which I

gather you probably didn’t, it’s an acoustic album, regardless of the instruments you use, in my
opinion.