FAMILIAR WILD
The Tame sing like Wolves
What can you say about the music of Familiar Wild? It’s a drive down the edges of inner coastlines to revisit buried memories and dreams not yet forsaken. It’s a weave of fibre optic branches forming a cradle of symphonic melody that you want to fold yourself into and float away on.
Regardless how you spin it, Familiar Wild is a Vancouver band that will take you.
Take you by the hand. Take you by surprise.
As a child, Familiar Wild’s founder Melissa Bandura ran, barefoot, across amber Manitoba plains and gnarly BC backyard woods like any good Canadian girl. She would grow up to play violin, flute, keys, guitar and sing like any responsible multi-instrumentalist citizen. Now she wields her bow, guitar and pen to spin the tales of the wild she wanders still.
With rich orchestral arrangements reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens and Belle Orchestre, the band’s debut album, Dark Dreams, takes you down into a shadowy backcountry where familiar trails branch out into wilderness paths. The music is reminiscent of something lost, but almost within grasp. Like a feral child you spot hiding in the woods who turns to flash you a slight smile before dashing between the ferns and undergrowth. You know you’ve seen that face before, but can’t quite place it…
Put simply, Familiar Wild is a Pacific Northwest band that writes orchestral folk and “pop music with heart and soul…and brain…and kindness” (DJ Champion). Their songs are fluid, composed without contrivance, rhythmically unique, yet familiar to the ear. Their music is intimate and radiant, with a live show that is equally generous in its gifts of feathered shadows and lingering joy.