When Wilderado began writing songs for their second album, Talker, the idea of chasing after their debut record's success — including pair of Top 10 hits on alternative radio — couldn't have been further from their minds.
"We were coming off 265 days on the road, and we all felt a little broken," says frontman Maxim Rainer. "We had to ask ourselves if we still wanted to do this, and we decided that the only way to rejuvenate the band was by making new music that we love. That was our only rule."
The result is Talker, a dynamic record that finds Wilderado reframing their purpose and broadening their perspective. Recorded with producers Chad Copeland (Sufjan Stevens, SYML) and James McAllister (Gracie Abrams, The National) in Norman, Oklahoma, it's the sound of three musicians shrugging off the allure of success and, instead, embracing the thrill of the unknown.
"This record was a process of rediscovering the things that made us excited about our band at the very beginning, back when we were writing songs for nobody but ourselves," says Rainer, a Tulsa native who co-formed Wilderado in 2015. "When you're a brand new band, you have no expectation of anyone else hearing you. We wanted to go back to the beginning and revisit that excitement."
Like all of Wilderado's releases, Talker blurs the boundaries between genres, creating a multi sided sound — soft-hued and subdued one moment; anthemic and buoyant the next — that defies categorization. "We've always had an eclectic catalog and an 'anything goes' mentality, where the only thing that matters is the song itself," Rainer says. Appropriately, the songs are the real stars of Talker. With "Sometimes," Rainer pulls back the curtain to expose the skeletons in his own closet, including the coping mechanisms that most keep under wraps. "Sometimes I hide it when I'm high," he sings in a Midwestern drawl, contrasting the vulnerability of his lyrics with bright acoustic guitars and sunny, singalong hooks. He gets personal during "Tomorrow," too, turning a hypnotic guitar pattern from bandmate Tyler Wimpee into the launchpad for a song that tackles big topics like religion and being trapped in a search for God. "Tyler used to play that riff every night during soundcheck," he explains. "It helped me write something I've always wanted to write, which is about my relationship with the Church, my experience growing up in a Christian family, and where it's left me now. It felt very freeing to say those things. A lot of our first LP was about being on the road, and I didn't want to regurgitate that same idea on our new album. Instead, I decided to get confessional and vulnerable."
He got collaborative, too. In addition to writing songs with his two bandmates — guitarist Wimpee and drummer Justin Kila — Rainer also teamed up with the British band Flyte, whom Wilderado had met in London while on tour in 2022. Together, they created songs like "Longstanding Misunderstanding," writing the track during a 25-minute burst of creation in the recording studio. "A big part of my growing process with this album was learning to ask for help, which isn't easy for me to do," he admits. "But it turned out so beautiful, every time I did."
Equally beautiful were the new album's mellower moments. "Everyone in Wilderado had fallen in love with music that was softer on our ears, and that influenced our writing," says Rainer, who sings Talker's songs in an unforced voice that occasionally gives way to a gentle, high flying falsetto. "We began asking ourselves, 'What if we keep the drive and the groove that's always been part of our music, but dial back the approach of both the vocals and the drums?'"
The strategy worked, filling songs like "Bad Luck," "Tomorrow," and the title track with a mix of laidback swagger and calm, collected energy. Talker still finds moments to get loud, too, building its way toward atmospheric crescendoes with "Waiting On You" and "After All."
Wilderado aren't chasing after hits. They're just being themselves — and enjoying it. With Talker, they've hit a new stride, fueling themselves up on sharp songwriting and adventurous arrangements before setting off toward some new horizon. This is Wilderado at their best: inspired, invigorated, and answering to nobody but themselves.
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