Jeff, who runs the label, had stopped by to watch Title Fight, who Tigers Jaw were supporting. McIlwee met Run For Cover long before Wicca Phase materialised, their paths crossing at a basement show in Boston. I know what kind of business they run and it makes sense to me, it feels good to be a part of that.” But in the long term, I have more ownership and authority over my music and my branding. “At the end of the day, I was like, listen, I could sign with Columbia Records for a million dollars and I will never make them a million dollars,” McIlwee reflects, “or I could sign with Run For Cover for less money. It just seems like you're trying to serve other people.” If anything, it solidified McIlwee’s relationship with indie stalwarts Run For Cover, who’ve been working alongside him throughout Tigers Jaw and WPSE. “It just didn't interest me like that because it doesn't feel organic and it doesn't feel fun. “I was meeting with major labels in the weeks after Peep died who wanted to just grab the next thing,” he reflects, looking back to the rebrand one had proposed. Typically late, the industry, particularly major labels, reared its head, honing in on those involved with GBC. It went until three in the morning, which was totally foreign to me at the time.” And so as the live came together, born viscerally out of sticky venues, DIY warehouse shows thrown by early curators like HamOnEverything, Wicca Phase-and GBC-bridged a gap between the digital and physical world.Īfter Lil Peep's untimely death in late 2017, the underground music scene he was a part of experienced a dramatic shift. There was a building next door for rent and we called the owner and offered him money to let us move the show next door. When we got there, the bar was like, no, this is 21 and up-and all of our fans were teenagers. Recalling their first show, it’s clear they’ve always found their own way: “It was supposed to be at an 18 and up show at a bar. “It wasn't until I started playing shows with other GBC people where it started to feel comfortable,” he explains, having been booked initially as ‘Adam From Tigers Jaw’ and met with bemused reaction: “No one's coming to the show to clown on us or expecting something else there. Consisting of the late Lil Peep, Lil Tracy, and Horse Head amongst others, it became a way of propelling forwards each member and those adjacent. “I would just be on Tumblr for seven hours a day, meeting people and posting,” explains McIlwee, this leading to him crossing paths with a lot of the people he still works with today.Ī kindred partnership between an assortment of outsiders, the collective was integral for pushing the project forwards-and the new scene they represented. It was here, in the hours spent trawling through Tumblr when work ran dry, that Wicca Phase really came to life. He studied English at a nearby college, and, with little plans beyond music, later took up an office job in marketing. From practising with bands in the basement of his grandmother’s funeral shows to playing DIY shows thrown by friends, he integrated into the music landscape of northeastern Pennsylvania. A lot of these bands that I was in or my friends were in got successful, to some extent, and got signed to indie labels or stuff like that, and then moved on from there.” Gone are the days when every man, and his dad, was in a band. There should be good shopping, there should be good music venues, but they just don't last for whatever reason,” Mcllwee mediates. “It's more like a city where there should be stuff to do. It’s known for The Office, Nottingham Lace, and, from a Google deep dive, really not much else. A former coal mining capital, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania. We catch up over Zoom ahead of the project’s release, where, after almost a lifetime of residing on the city’s outskirts, Mcllwee informs me of his upcoming move. “What I'm trying to do is describe this world wherein you can't pin down everything on a map, but if you were making a movie about it you could set the scenes.” “I wanted to build out the world of Wicca Phase, go back to what I was doing when I first started the project but with 10 years more of songwriting experience and a little bit more focus and maturity,” he says on the upcoming record, an introduction to this realm. Gearing up to the release of his self-titled full-length, McIlwee doubles down on this entirely, returning to his roots in worldbuilding. Everything feels almost tangible, if a little off-beat. To enter into it feels like greeting your double, sharing whispered secrets behind opaque walls, the allure of a hand offered to pass right through. Shrouded in mystery, he creates a new realm, with its lakes, mystic portals, black cats, and synchronicity it’s all a little off-kilter. He hasn’t met his-yet-but it’s been an ongoing fascination. The multi-instrumentalist has a thing about doppelgangers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |