Wild Child

Hailing from Texas, Wild Child specializes in elaborate yet frequently buoyant indie pop laced with worldwide folk traditions. Their initial full-length effort, Pillow Talk, surfaced in 2011 and paved the way for Best Indie Band and Best Folk Band honors at the 2013 SXSW Festival, just ahead of the October arrival of The Runaround. By the point the anxious but characteristically bright fifth album End of the World took shape in 2023, the collective had expanded past a half-dozen participants.

Austin, Texas served as the birthplace for the outfit fronted by principal songwriters and vocalists Alexander Beggins and Kelsey Wilson, who ushered in their recording career with Pillow Talk in October 2011. Swift acclaim followed for their energetic concerts, culminating in several SXSW trophies by March 2013. The Runaround yielded the breakout track “Crazy Bird,” which prompted national TV slots on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and CBS This Morning: Saturday. Expanding at that stage to encompass Beggins on vocals and baritone ukulele alongside Wilson on vocals and violin, plus Evan Magers on keyboards, Sadie Wolfe on cello, Chris D’Annunzio on bass, and Drew Brunetti on drums, the group issued Fools in October 2015 via Dine Alone and Dualtone Music; the set logged one week at number 14 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart. The next June they performed before 25,000 spectators during a local radio station’s outdoor series. Expectations, another Dualtone release, emerged in February 2018 and climbed to number six on the Heatseekers tally while also reaching the Top 20 on the Independent and Vinyl Albums charts; its sessions featured Beggins, Wilson, Wolfe, Matt Bradshaw on keyboards and trumpet, Cody Ackors on guitar and trombone, Tyler Osmond on bass, and Tom Myers on drums.

Five years after Expectations, Wild Child confronted pandemic-induced touring halts, the 2021 Texas ice storm that inspired the title track of their forthcoming record, the addition of John Calvin Abney—the first outside collaborator on songs for the core duo—and the launch of their own imprint, Reba’s Ranch Records. End of the World appeared through that label in partnership with Secretly Distribution in March 2023, prompting an immediate, wide-ranging U.S. tour.