Marrying atmospheric rock with a modern pop sensibility and traditional strings and piano, Wyland skillfully crafts tunes that show appreciation for both the present and the past. The band has appeared alongside quite an impressive roster thus far, including Mumford & Sons, Alabama Shakes, and the Vaccines, to name a few. We had a chance to get into the head of lead songwriter Ryan Sloan of Wyland for how their powerful song “The Answer” came to be:
“When I’m writing a song or the band is working on a cool riff or song idea, I’ll record a voice memo on the iPhone so that the moment can be retained somewhere. The Answer came together from voice memo recording #748 of a moment we were having over a year ago.
I believe musically it was originally intended to be the instrumental opening track for our last EP In A Sea Of Things Unsaid but we scrapped it because it just didn’t feel right at the moment. Nearly a year later, I revisited the voice memo and found myself singing a melody that I really liked. I finally sat down and began structuring it. And then when I felt like it was at a good place, I brought it back to the band and that’s when the tune began to blossom.
See Even More Imagination With The Video For “The Answer”
The band’s music really dictated the lyrics for me. I felt like we were creating something so beautiful and powerful that lyrically, I knew I had to say something worthy. At that moment in time, all any of us could think about was the election so that’s what I decided to write about. And hopefully, people can find a spark of light in that.” – Ryan Sloan
You can catch up with Wyland here, as well as check out their music here!
