Wild Ones, an emerging Portland group, ‘Paresthesia’ is the cracking recent single from their forthcoming album Mirror Touch. An addictive trip through the feeling of foreboding, of struggling to face love and the world. Lead vocalist Danielle Sullivan’s giddy, almost nursery rhyme couplets hot step through these gleaming evocative pop shudders: bittersweet yet possessing an attitude her delivery is juxtaposed by lyrics ripe with an existential anxiety and foreboding. Modern, fresh and yet rippling with an appreciation of dynamics, Thomas Himes’s keyboards ripple through drummer Seve Sheldon and bassist Max Stein, dexterous percussion that even includes an R&B breakdown. ‘Paresthesia’ is a boldly brilliant, hot shot of post millennial pop for the disenchanted generation.
“Paresthesia refers to a time in my life when anxiety was ruling my mind. I was withdrawing from friends, wasn’t leaving my house, and had stopped engaging with the world outside. The song explores strained love in the context of manifested fear.”
Growing up on Cocteau Twins and En Vogue, Wild Ones’ sound is a mash of R&B synths, muted guitar, and somber vocal melodies. After seven years together, Mirror Touch, the band’s latest record releasing in October 2017 via Topshelf Records, explores spaces of isolation, loneliness and how it feels when the line between self and other becomes blurred. The record title refers to the condition “Mirror Touch Synesthesia” and the physiological experience of empathy. How can you know yourself, when in public you become everyone else?
