This past March, Wes Dawson of Reckless met with Neil Jensen of VIBER to discuss the evolving approach to music the band has taken, his recent dabbles with other musical avenues, and his fashion plans for 2019. What follows is a snapshot of the mind of an artist as the world eagerly awaits the arrival of the bands next big projects and tour.
“Reckless kicks off a 46-date North America tour later this year without a clear date and fans have already propelled #ReadyforReckless to the top of the trending charts everywhere. While there hasn’t been word on the locations they’ll visit, the five-man powerhouse intend on making this the first of a string of new musical releases over the next few years.”
(Preview the interview below and look for the full piece when the May issue hits the stands.)
NEIL JENSEN: I wanted to start off by asking you about the gesture of making your Instagram public a few months ago. I know you don't do a lot of interviews, but how do you feel about having the opportunity to say what you want to say when you want to say it through that platform?
WES DAWSON: It’s been pretty interesting to say the least. There was a lot that I was exposed to just by seeing the reactions from different sources through the band’s instagram account but now it’s a lot more personal you know? At just the band level, there were a lot of things being filtered here and there through our publicity group, our manager... Now it’s literally me posting and letting people see into just my personal and everyday life that it gets a little daunting. I remember the first day I opened up my page to be seen by anyone, I got so many DM’s within the first few hours that it was a little overwhelming. But I think I’m handling it a little better now.
NEIL JENSEN: With that in mind, do you think there's any misconceptions people might have about you that you're trying to confront?
WES DAWSON: There’s a lot that could be said and done. But there are only so many things that I can do to please everyone and at the end of the day those misconceptions are just going to turn into something else even if I try to set words straight. The only person I think really gets definitive answers to anything they might hear about me or the band is Breeland Aldridge since she’s our manager. She’s gotta deal with a lot of repercussions for so many things so on a professional level I think the only person that needs clarifications is her.
NEIL JENSEN: With regards to reflecting and putting out a more rich tapestry from the band, I'm interested in how you all come together and decide how things are put into your repertoire.
WES DAWSON: We all have so many ideas and directions we want to take things. A lot of it obviously comes down to what we all prefer as a whole. Like if only three of us want to explore a specific sound for a song or even the entire album, and two of the other guys aren’t cool with it then we pretty much start from scratch. It’s gotta feel good to all of us, and I think that’s important for us to really feel like we’re putting out a piece of us into the music.
NEIL JENSEN: Are these records or specific artists you keep coming back to whenever you guys need some inspiration?
WES DAWSON: There are a lot of different things we like to revisit. We each actually have pretty different tastes in music which helps us a lot when coming up with the right sound. For me specifically it just depends on the tone I might be feeling. Last night I was playing some Scorpions on my way home and then this morning on my way here to meet with you, I was going through some playlists with a little bit of everything from Cigarettes After Sex to ASAP Rocky. There’s nothing to specifically pinpoint that we’d have on our mantel to always look to, if that makes sense.
Happy birthday, Mel! I hope that you are having a great day and that 2017 will treat you kindly <3 Please, enjoy this random selection of OT3 moments ;D
