Vilde is the new project from Australia-born now Stockholm-based musician Thomas Savage. Previously frontman with Kins, Vilde has released a string of singles as he builds up to an album piece by piece.
Recalling Wild Beasts' more recent work, Maintain is a sinister aural assault - all brooding falsetto vocals and haunted synths. It takes a certain kind of track to create a genuine level of uncertainty as to whether it is actually playing correctly or whether your device is glitching out, and Maintain managed to catch me with that trick not just once but twice.
This is the kind of track that feels equally at home in your earbuds on a lonely rainy Tuesday morning as a beer soaked Thursday night. I just want more, longer, deeper.
Describing the song, Savage says:
"The subject matter of the song is somewhat of a crammed amalgamation of ideas. Part inspired by the film ‘Ace in the Hole’, where a news reporter begins to twist events in a dark way to gain fame through his portrayal of the story. There’s some pretty bleak imagery in the lyrics, yet bits of optimism seep through too, provoking a sense of solitude, release & calm."
Catch Vilde live later this year:
July 21 – Kantine Am Berghain, Berlin w/ Foreign/National July 29 – Old Blue Last, London w/ Foreign/National