For This Wild Life, the transformation from pop-punk rockers to acoustic crooners was as easy as a brief trip to the local music store.
Kevin Jordan and Anthony Del Grosso turned some heads when the pair of tattoo-stained former punk drummers marched into a Long Beach, California, music shop in the spring of 2013 to swap their kits for acoustic guitars.
"We literally sold our drum sets so we could buy guitars," Jordan said. "(With) my last set I sold, I bought a guitar and took my ex-girlfriend on a date because I didn't have a full-time job."
By shedding the harder-edged sound, and a pair of members from the band's original formation, This Wild Life was reconstructed to feature Jordan's emotive vocal stylings on the duo's melodic songwriting efforts. Ditching the drums was the final act, but the metamorphosis had started much earlier. Jordan, by default, had become the band's lead singer when it formed in late 2010. After producing an EP of fully electric punk music, Jordan started to experiment with acoustic pop.
"We started out as a 4-piece pop-punk band," Jordan said. "I didn't intend on being the singer. We couldn't find a singer so I just fell into the role of singing. I did an acoustic version of one of our songs on the second EP. It got a really good response. Then we did an acoustic cover video (of the Bring Me the Horizon song 'Sleepwalking'). That's when we started writing acoustic songs, not just playing acoustically. We thought the songs we were more excited about writing were the acoustic ones. It took a few years (to complete the transition)."
While they've left behind the punk music, they haven't abandoned the punk ethos, or the scene. They continue to be regulars on the Warped Tour and are more likely to share a bill with screamers than singer-songwriters.
"We've never played a coffee shop," Jordan said. "We play punk venues. I think people are ready to see mixed bills. People (at the shows) don't just listen to punk music. We're always really happy to stand out on shows. I think we take people by surprise. Our set starts and it's not a big explosion like every other band. We want to keep playing the scene and expose an audience to something they're not used to."
Jordan's voice is the most striking part of the duo's music, often reaching up into a fluttering falsetto to drive the ebb and flow of This Wild Life's songs. It's become a bit of a curiosity to new listeners, who tend to expect something different when they see the band.
"People have come up and said to me, 'I wouldn't expect your voice to be so beautiful,'" Jordan said. "Is that a compliment to my voice or are you saying I'm an ugly dude?"
After initially trying to mold his voice into the punk archetype, Jordan was pushed by Del Grosso to go in another direction.
"I tried my whole life to sing powerful, gritty and high and I could never sing it," Jordan said. "I'd try to sing like other people. Anthony was just pushing me to do what's natural. When I stopped trying to sound like other people and just sang naturally is when the songs started to progress and people started to take notice."
Del Grosso, for his part, provides harmonic vocals on many of the songs and the strongly rhythmic interplay between the two guitarists exposes their percussive roots.
"Both our older brothers are drummers," Jordan said. "This is our first band playing anything besides drums. It helps for locking in together (rhythmically). You'll see a lot of mistakes at a This Wild Life show but timing isn't usually one of them."
They released "Clouded" in May under the Epitaph label, giving audiences a full album dedicated completely to their acoustic pop style. Many of the songs had already become underground favorites of the band's fans as they experimented with the changeover.
"We felt like that's what our strength was," Jordan said. "We were so excited about these songs but we had never played an acoustic show. Without playing them, these songs were really finding an audience and (we) decided to try to reach those audiences full-time."
The duo is planning another full-length album in the winter and, like many bands, is taking its tour to Alaska as a multi-pronged trip.
"We were super excited when we got the offer to come up there," Jordan said. "We're broke kids. We're not taking vacations, obviously, so this is our only opportunity to see the world."
This Wild Life
When: 7-11 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31, at Anchorage Community Works (all ages)
Tickets: $25, available at Mammoth Music, at the door and online at groovetickets.com
When: 10 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, at Tap Root Public House
Tickets: $25 in advance and $30 door. Available at Mammoth Music and online at groovetickets.com
thiswildlifeband.com
Alaska Dispatch Publishing