Bemidji rock band Wildview emerges from hiatus with new music
May 8—BEMIDJI — Local rock band Wildview was at the top of its game when the coronavirus pandemic shut things down four years ago.
But despite that and a couple of other challenges, the five-member group is back making music and plans to release the first two songs from an upcoming album later this week.
"Covid just took the wind out of our sails completely," said Matt Jensen, the band's leader. "We couldn't keep playing shows."
They were just coming off a concert following a Beaver hockey game at the Sanford Center in January and a gig in Fargo before the pandemic hit.
"That gig at the Sanford Center was incredible," said Jensen, who started the band as a teenager and was joined by his brother Eric on guitar, Ben Aube on drums, Brent Gilge on bass and Tony Naylor on vocals.
Since that time, Aube has moved to Montana and Naylor has left the band, replaced by Paul Olson, who has collaborated with Matt Jensen on writing new music. Aube has been able to record his drum tracks from afar and plans to return to the area for shows that Wildview books in the future. Between Covid and Aube's move, Wildview's process of writing and recording music has changed.
"Now we actually work on stuff, Paul and I get together and hammer out ideas for a song, then we send it to Ben, and he will put his drums on it," Matt said. "That makes logistics a little difficult. Ben sends it back to me and we put final touches on it. Technology has kind of been our friend as far as writing and recording music."
On Friday, May 10, Wildview will release "Live a Lie" and "Hey Misery," two new songs co-written by Matt Jensen and Olson. They play to release a new single every month until the full album comes out in late 2024 or early 2025. The band hopes to schedule an album release concert after that.
"The big push right now is getting new music out," Matt said. "With a new singer, all of a sudden the ideas have just been flowing, and now we have a ton of music. Paul and I found that we had chemistry right away. It's almost overwhelming because we have so much music that we're working on. I think the future is bright."
The new songs will be available through the band's website,
or on all streaming platforms.
