Jackson aka Big Wild signed to Odesza’s label just last year, and ever since has been hanging on to an upward, whirlwind of rising popularity and success. Or, for this cool West Coast native, just going with the flow. He’s electrified crowds with his live drumming, piano, and whistling at festivals all over the country this year including Shambhala, Lightening In A Bottle, and most recently Suwannee Hulaween in Live Oak, Florida.
Weekends like this can be a little overwhelming. I just came off tour with GRiZ to here, I go to Tulsa tomorrow, then finally back home to LA, but I think overall you have to take everything in strides when you get to this point. You can’t sit down, and think of everything that’s going on cause then you will be overwhelmed, but just one thing at a time and as cheesy as it sounds go with the flow.
We lucked out at the chance to pick Jackson’s brain just before his afternoon set in the legendary Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park Ampitheater. Diving into everything from his, background, his breakthrough year and what we can look forward to coming from Big Wild in 2016, read up more on the rising star down below.
Tell us a bit about your musical background and how your sound has evolved since you started making music?
I played from 3rd grade through 8th grade, and I got bored of doing just one instrument. That’s when I started breaking out music production on the computer. So starting at about 13 I made hip-hop beats all through high school and into college where I really started to take more of an electronic spin to it, making songs that could stand on their own and not necessarily need vocals on it. That kind of evolved into where I am now;
Always trying to do something unique and experimental in every song, but still be relatable to people. That’s kind of my driving mission.
You once stated that “Venice Ventures” was inspired by watching Pulp Fiction. Have you had any similar experiences lately that you could see blooming into more creative tracks as well?
You’ve had such a big year. Was there ever a moment when you realized that everything was going to keep going up from here?
How you cool was it having your track “Aftergold” featured in an Apple Watch commercial?
That was also kind of an indicator that this is going somewhere. It was cool to see my music set to visuals and video. There are a lot of opportunities like that that have been coming through and I never really thought of my music that way in like a visual, cinematic way, but that’s how a lot of people interpret it, and it’s cool.
I’ve got a lot of cool remixes and collaborations in the workings too. I’m working on a lot of cool tracks that I can’t really talk about yet, (but I can say) there is one GRiZ plays sax on. I’ve had better opportunities now to work with bigger artists, and artists that I’ve been wanting to work with for a while.
Since I’ve been so unknown nobody’s given me a chance, I’m finally getting that chance.
I think it can be tricky because if your music is out on the internet, then anyone can remix it, and take it a direction that you never really intended, which isn’t fair to you as an artist. But it’s something that comes with the territory. I still think it’s a really good opportunity to establish a name for yourself especially if you’re a smaller artist.
I’ve been under the idea that if I make the best music I can everything else will just follow.
The sky is the limit for this rising producer, and we can’t wait to hear what adventurous sounds he will come up with next. Big Wild’s entire library of remixes and original tracks is available for streaming now on Soundcloud.
Connect with Big Wild:
https://www.facebook.com/bigwildmusic/?fref=ts
https://twitter.com/bigwildmusic
https://soundcloud.com/bigwild
http://www.bigwildmusic.com/
Photo Cred: Emily Buckingham, Big Wild Instagram, Big Wild Facebook
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