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Wild Nothing is the indie rock project of American multi-instrumentalist Jack Tatum, formed in 2009 in Blacksburg, Virginia. In the recording studio, Tatum writes, records and performs the project's music. As a touring act, Wild Nothing performs as a full band, featuring longtime bass guitarist Jeff Haley, guitarist Christoph Hochheim, drummer Victor Donahue and keyboardist Lou Rebecca.
Wild Nothing | |
|---|---|
 Wild Nothing performing in 2016 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Blacksburg, Virginia, United States |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Labels | Captured Tracks |
| Members | Jack Tatum |
| Website | wildnothingmusic.com |
To date, Wild Nothing has released five studio albums: Gemini (2010), Nocturne (2012), Life of Pause (2016), Indigo (2018) and Hold (2023), as well as three EPs: Golden Haze (2010), Empty Estate (2013) and Laughing Gas (2020).
Tatum has also production and writing credits on songs such as Japanese Breakfast's 'Be Sweet' and Molly Burch's 'Emotion'.[1][2][3]
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Jack Alexander Tatum (born June 10, 1988) previously played in bands Jack and the Whale and FACEPAINT in the college town of Blacksburg. He began recording under the name Wild Nothing in the summer of 2009. Emerging at a time when a handful of C86-esque groups were in vogue, Tatum's demos garnered attention in indie music circles with a cover of Kate Bush's "Cloudbusting".[4] Tatum signed with the Captured Tracks record label after the success of these demos, and began touring with Haley, Goodman and drummer Max Brooks.
Wild Nothing's first single, "Summer Holiday," was released on Captured Tracks in 2009, followed by "Cloudbusting." The band's debut full-length, Gemini, was released in the spring of 2010. Gemini was ranked the 49th best album of 2010 by Pitchfork[5] and 36th best album of 2010 by Amazon music editors.[6] Blogcritics wrote, "While I wasn't totally convinced with Gemini as a whole, I adored it in chunks".[7]
Follow-up EP Golden Haze was released in October 2010.
Wild Nothing released their second album, Nocturne, on August 28, 2012, via Captured Tracks. The album was well received critically and commercially, debuting at No. 1 on both the Billboard New Artist and Alternative New Artist charts, receiving "Best New Music" from Pitchfork, and receiving top slots on the year-end lists of Under the Radar and iTunes Alternative.[8][9][10][11]
Wild Nothing's next EP, Empty Estate, was released on May 14, 2013.[12]
On October 7, 2014, Wild Nothing announced the production of their third studio album. On January 6, 2015, Tatum announced that he was en route to Stockholm to begin recording.[13][14]
In the same year, they were featured in the shoegazing documentary, Beautiful Noise.
On November 24, 2015, Wild Nothing announced their third studio album, Life of Pause, would be released on February 19, 2016, on Captured Tracks. A double-sided single, "To Know You"/"TV Queen", was released the same day, with accompanying music videos for both tracks.[15]
Wild Nothing announced their fourth studio album, Indigo, alongside the first single, "Letting Go", on June 5, 2018. The album was released on August 31, 2018.
On January 16, 2019, their single "Blue Wings" was released. The following year, Wild Nothing also announced that "Foyer" would be out on January 1, 2020, followed by the Laughing Gas EP.
On August 16, 2023, Wild Nothing announced that their fifth studio album, Hold, would be released on October 27, 2023. A single, "Headlights On", featuring guest vocals from Hatchie, was released to coincide with the announcement, accompanied by a video. The album's second single, "Suburban Solutions", was released on September 12, 2023, also accompanied by a video.[16] A third single, "Dial Tone", was released on October 3, 2023; like the two preceding singles, it too was accompanied by a video. Hold was released on October 27, 2023, to mostly positive reviews.
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Founding member and songwriter Tatum records Wild Nothing's albums and EPs alone, and is subsequently joined by the other members for live performances. In 2013, he stated: "I'm not really sure what we are at this point. It's a weird gray area. On the road, it definitely feels like a band; the live show's all about how we individually interpret the songs I made – there's five different takes on them. But the records are all me. Gemini was all me, and so was Nocturne, save for the drums."[17]
Current
- Jeff Haley – bass guitar (2011–present)
- Christoph Hochheim – guitar (2021–present)
- Victor Donahue – drums (2023–present)
- Lou Rebecca – keyboards (2023–present)
Former
- Clay Violand - bass guitar (2010–2011)
- Max Brooks – drums (2010)
- Nathan Goodman – guitar (2010–2017)
- Michael Skattum – drums (2011–2012)
- Jeremiah Johnson – drums (2012–2013)
- Kevin Knight – keyboards (2012–2013)
- Matt Kallman – keyboards (2016)
- Colin Caulfield – keyboards (2017)
- Elroy Finn – drums (2018–2019)
- Pete Chudzick – drums
- Nic Hessler – guitar
- Cameron Allen – drums
- Joshua Sushman – keyboards/saxophone
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Studio albums
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US [18] |
US Alt. [18] |
US Heat. [18] |
US Indie [18] |
US Rock [18] |
BEL (Fla.) [19] |
BEL (Fla.) Alt. [19] | ||||||
| Gemini |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| Nocturne |
|
113 | 23 | 1 | 21 | 34 | — | 23 | ||||
| Life of Pause |
|
170 | 16 | 2 | 10 | 23 | 195 | — | ||||
| Indigo |
|
— | — | 2 | 15 | — | — | — | ||||
| Hold |
|
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||
Live albums
EPs
| Title | EP details | Peak chart positions | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Heat. [18] |
US Indie [18] | |||||||||||
| Evertide |
|
— | — | |||||||||
| Golden Haze |
|
— | — | |||||||||
| Empty Estate |
|
8 | 41 | |||||||||
| Laughing Gas |
|
— | ||||||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||||||
Singles
- "Summer Holiday" (2009, Captured Tracks)
- "Cloudbusting" (2009, Captured Tracks)
- "Nowhere" (2012, Captured Tracks)
- "Shadow" (2012, Captured Tracks)
- "Paradise" (2012, Captured Tracks)
- "A Dancing Shell" (2013, Captured Tracks)
- "To Know You" (2015, Captured Tracks)
- "TV Queen" (2015, Captured Tracks)
- "Reichpop" (2016, Captured Tracks)
- "Life of Pause" (2016, Captured Tracks)
- "A Woman's Wisdom" (2016, Captured Tracks)
- "Letting Go" (2018, Captured Tracks)
- "Partners in Motion" (2018, Captured Tracks)
- "Shallow Water" (2018, Captured Tracks)
- "Canyon on Fire" (2018, Captured Tracks)
- "Blue Wings" (2019, Captured Tracks)
- "Foyer" (2020, Captured Tracks)
- "Headlights On" (2023, Captured Tracks)
- "Suburban Solutions" (2023, Captured Tracks)
- "Dial Tone" (2023, Captured Tracks)
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