NBNL:
Please describe your music for those, who don’t know Wildstreet yet.
Eric Jayk:
We’re the band, who made trying to be better at being Def Leppard (down to recording every guitar one string at a time on our first record). Punk-Rock.
NBNL:
Your first album was released in 2009, your second album in 2011 and your latest this year in summer. What changed during the albums?
Eric Jayk:
We toured coast-to-coast in 2009 – 10 ½ weeks in a van, meeting fans and pounding the pavement. It was the first time we played Rocklahoma and our world got larger.
Wildstreet II: “Faster Louder!” was our first record as a band (Wildstreet 2009 was just me and Jimmie Marlowe, it was OCD).
Wildstreet III takes the first two albums and mixes the two and more. It’s a preview of what’s to come. The first singles are safer than the rest of the album! Expect the unexpected!
NBNL:
Wildstreet’s latest single Three Way Ride is out since one month now. What inspired your latest song? 😉
Eric Jayk:
It was written immediately after “Easy Does it.” What inspired the song? Let’s just say this: If you need to ask you’ll probably never know!
NBNL:
The name Wildstreet appears again and again in your band history. Not only is your band called like that, but also all three albums. What do you associate with that name?
Eric Jayk:
It represents stages of the band’s evolution. Honestly, fans have no idea yet what we’re capable of and what we will he showing you guys this year really is already old news to us… Cheers to the future!
NBNL:
What do you do when you’re not on stage right now? You are also a producer and active in several music projects, right?
Eric Jayk:
I am a full time musician and I produce, co-write, vocal produce…
I have three albums of all instrumental music, that’s unreleased. I was doing a lot of other projects, but now Wildstreet needs more attention. I am, however, really good at my day job! I’m a coach for pro singers, instrumentalists and artists/ songwriters to help them make better music. I got over 300+ reviews! 😀
NBNL:
Let’s talk about your musical role models. Which bands or musicians have influenced you the most?
Eric Jayk:
As a child my first three albums were “Thriller”, “Purple Rain” and “Appetite For Destruction”. I started playing guitar at age 8. I started playing gigs with my little cover band when we weren’t even 12yrs old. When I was 11 years old, I was introduced to Jimi Hendrix, Gary Moore, Miles Davis, Living Colour, Alice In Chains and others by my guitar teacher.
As a teenager, I discovered glitter rock and reacquainted myself with the 80s Rock I liked as a child. In all my bands prior to Wildstreet, I dumbed the musicianship down to what I thought people would be able to accept. Jimmie and I decided to set the bar higher. The greatest songwriters can make the most complicated music sound really easy and universal.
NBNL:
Did you actually have this one band or this one album where you were 100% convinced that you wanted to make music?
Eric Jayk:
I remember as a child seeing Aerosmith on MTV and decided, that I wanted to be both, Steven Tyler AND Joe Perry… True Story! 😀
NBNL:
What fascinates you about 80s Glam Metal and Sleaze Rock style in general?
Eric Jayk:
I think Rock ’n’ Roll is a way for those to forget the woes of the daily grind and real life. It’s something universal… I don’t really consider my music to be Glam Metal and surely not Sleaze Rock… I can say I love 70s Glitter Rock, Prince, Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Guns N’ Roses, Michael Monroe and the list goes on. I would rather listen to RATT then Panic at the Disco, but I love 90s Rock. I love (yes this is true) Glassjaw, My Chemical Romance, The Used and that period of Emo/ Punk. I also love Debussy, Chopin and Bach.
What I’m really saying is this: A lot of people see us as something we aren’t. It’s no one’s fault, but our style is our own. Is Guns N’ Roses a Hair Metal band? Def Leppard? I don’t think so. All the bands, who sound and look 1980s, don’t sound or look like Wildstreet.
NBNL:
What are your plans for the next year?
Eric Jayk:
Tour the world! Yes, I’m serious! 🙂
NBNL:
Let the year 2019 pass in review. What’s the best thing that happened this year?
Eric Jayk:
Wildstreet has played great shows, met wonderful new people (like you!) and reacquainted ourselves with our existing longtime fans. Baby steps, but Rome wasn’t built in a day! To the top in 2020! 🙂
NBNL:
Do you have last words for the readers and your fans?
Eric Jayk:
Thank you for your continued support of our music! We appreciate you & there’s a lot more coming.
Please follow us:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5pttBZUGPhF7AcVgDke02r/related
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/wildstreet
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/wildstreetnyc
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/wildstreet
Instagram: www.instagram.com/wildstreetofficial
TickTock: https://vm.tiktok.com/x9T52A/
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