Our Wild Lies is Auckland duo Sebastian Jones and Revlon Red. A few weeks back they uploaded promising new track 'Take It & Run' which inspired us to get in touch and find out more about the project. We caught up with the pair over email and talked about dirty lo-fi post-punk music and their curiosity in what lies beneath a white lie...
How did Our Wild Lies come together?
Sebastian: Out of a need for a creative outlet not controlled by anyone except ourselves. No bosses, no deadlines. Between us we have a scope of influences and thought we would see what happened if we put them together.
Where does the name come from?
Sebastian: There is a Japanese phrase: Honne and Tatemae. It means there is the way things are and the way we'd like them to be. The reality and the facade. The real reason and the pretext. Being direct and being diplomatic. The truth and the white lie... It is used to avoid conflict in social situations and tries to create harmony. However, some say the reality is merely to push the image of harmony. What lies beneath may be completely different...
These are things that we write about in our songs whether they are personal experiences, observations of society, the truth or complete 'wild lies'...Revlon came up with 'Wild Lies' which I loved, our flatmate added the 'Our' which just finished it off beautifully (we think).
How would you describe your sound?
Sebastian: The sound is a result of our collective influences. I grew up on grunge and love dirty sounding bands in that vein and a lot of blues. Revlon introduced me to bands like My Bloody Valentine and Little Dragon. The sound ultimately, for me, is Lo Fi Post Punk Indie Rock.
Revlon: Dirty, dark, sparse and melodic.
Can you put your finger on three songs that have most influenced your music?
Sebastian: Difficult to give just three but these songs are on a long list:
This Dust Makes That Mud - Liars
Operation - Yuck
Misfit Love - Queens of the Stone Age
Revlon: Thats hard but here's a couple...
Haven't You Heard - Jeff Buckley
Electric Alice - Grinderman
Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths
Who do you think is the most underrated artist at the moment?
Sebastian: The Very Wicked.
What should we expect from an Our Wild Lies live performance?
Sebastian:Dark beats, lots of reverb, half hazard vocals and (feedback if you're lucky). Something fresh and exciting as it will only be our second show. We are working on visual accompaniments with a creative collaborator for all our shows but the atmosphere of The Wine Cellar may be best suited for this so looking forward to how it converts.
We just get really amped and grateful for every show so we want to make each one better than the last. We love being at this unknown level where there are no expectations so I would say come and be part of something organic...
Have you collaborated much with other musicians before?
Sebastian: Not as Our Wild Lies but we have both been involved in previous musical projects. Mine are mostly in dark foreign lands that no one will have heard of: An indie / pop boy band, solo acoustic and straight up rock 'n roll blues.
Revlon: This is my first musical endeavour in a long long while. A lifetime ago: I was in an angsty teen band (we got food thrown at us during a lunchtime gig) and a duo with my best friend (who now has her own beautiful EP out as Rhiain & The Utter Strangers).
How is 2012 looking for you?
Sebastian: We've managed to secure a few forthcoming gigs and we're mainly concentrating on booking more, so if anyone is keen for us to play with them or wants to book us, please drop us a mail...We are really keen to meet more like minded musicians, bands and audiences. Other plans are getting a new (demo) single up really soon, an EP out by the end of the year, make some music videos and art to go with them and find time to finish the new seasons of Game of Thrones and True Blood.
