South Californian songwriting Beau James Wilding built a steady reputation for breathing life into traditional and folk music. His songwriting style is dynamic and gently innovative, constantly looking to further his reflective abilities as he grows as a person and a musician. Unsurprisingly, Beau’s music speaks to digging deeper, discovering new layers of vulnerability and pouring emotive intensity into each phrase. Performing across the area he calls home, Beau and his band drive high-energy, gritty performances that perfectly represent the unique storytelling at Beau’s disposal.
Beau’s latest release joins his discography as a passionate new EP, entitled ‘Here There Be Dragons’. The project’s title track was teased earlier this year and allowed audiences an insight into a sound filled with life. Beau brings his rhythmic acoustic guitar and raspy vocals over a constant droning hum, the never-ending murmur becoming the foundation for the unique sound of the EP as a whole. Across the project, Beau takes the same core ideas and focuses on them through different lenses, some tracks are high-octane and aggressive, while others are reserved and thoughtful. All the while, Beau’s performances are filled with personality and charm.
Beau reflects on the new EP, “‘Here There Be Dragons’ is excitable and meant to encourage. ‘I Am an Illusion’ is a reflective and melancholic confessional with a slight twist of humor. ‘Cross-Eyed Heart’ is a vulnerable exploration into confronting a dead relative about old wounds and brings to ear tones of fear, darkness and death. ‘Bird of Paradise”’presents an instrumental, ambient landscape intended to express the principle of yugen in Japanese, or my limited understanding of this concept of beauty fleetingly emerging. I composed the tune while staring out my window during a rainstorm, watching the wind blow a bird of Paradise violently about. There is a sense of sadness and heaviness, contrasted with a lightness when you can hear the sun breaking through briefly about mid-way through. I hope to continue to touch on all of these themes in my work. Energy, honest humor, vulnerability, explorations of death and darkness contrasted with beauty are all themes I find exciting.”
