Wild Child
Maverick soulman Will Heard has been feted as one to watch in the UK music industry ever since he appeared on the massive deep house hit Sonnentanz (Sun Don't Shine) a decade ago. Now, having navigated high and lows both personal and professional, the talented singer-songwriter finally prepares to break out with his stunning debut album Wild.
Interview Adam Mattera Photography Christian Trippe
Jacket – Junli, trousers – Only The Blind, jewellery – Capsule Eleven
You recently guested with R&B star Cleo Sol at her sell-out Royal Albert Hall gigs – how was it appearing in front of a huge audience again?
It was amazing. It’s been a few years since I’ve been in front of a big crowd like that – not since I was touring with Rudimental. I’ve known Cleo for years. I did some sessions with her husband – the producer Inflo – maybe ten years ago. There are such a beautiful couple and so kind and loving to me. We sung Lauryn Hill’s Ex-Factor together and the response was kind of overwhelming. It's exactly what I needed, going into finally releasing my first album and taking on the world.
You’ve been a name to watch on the UK music scene for a while now, how come it’s taken so long for you to put out your first album?
I was signed to a major label for years and things just didn’t work out exactly as I wanted. I don't regret that because I met so many people in the industry through that. Sometimes I’d be put in a writers’ room with someone I didn’t resonate with at all, but then the next day, I might be working with a genius like Raphael Saadiq and I’d be pinching myself. It was all a learning process because it made me realise exactly what I wanted. I'm very independent and really want the work I put out to be honest and true to who I am. So I stepped away from it all and used the money from eventually getting out of the deal to make this project, and just took the time to really put all my energy and love into it.
Jacket – Junli, trousers – Only The Blind, jewellery – Capsule Eleven
“I'm very independent and really want the work I put out to be honest and true to who I am.”
Shirt – Taiino, shorts – Cos, shoes – Clarks , jewellery – Capsule Eleven
How long did it take to make?
It probably only took around four months to actually record, but really the whole process has been more than a decade. It's like a tapestry of my life up until now. I mean the opening track on the album – Come In – I wrote that when I was 18 years old. I was obsessed with Prince at the time and that song was like my homage to For You – with all those stacked acappella vocals. It felt like a cool intro to the album.
You’ve titled the album Wild – what was the thinking behind that?
I feel like we’re living in a world where everything is increasingly run by technology – it’s all driven by logic and algorithms – and we need to get back to the earth a bit more. We're all wild really, and we’ve been domesticated and lost something in the process. I’ve always felt most alive when I’m in nature. When I was a kid, my mom would rent me this little pony that I used to ride in the countryside. Those were some of my happiest memories – just being free and surrounded by nature. And then there's also connotations about art as well. Matisse created a group called the Fauvists at the turn of the 20th century. People called them the wild beasts because they threw out all the rules of art – changing the colours so you could paint anything anyway you wanted. You know – paint the sky pink, make a woman’s face green. No one had ever done that before… That kind of carries over into music for me. I love soul and funk and R&B and having the freedom to mix it all up and bend the rules.
“I feel like we’re living in a world where everything is increasingly run by technology – it’s all driven by logic and algorithms – and we need to get back to the earth a bit more.”
You’ve just released the single Wasteman. The lyrics seem to be about overcoming addiction and reclaiming your life – what inspired that?
It’s about putting down all the bad things and just growing up a bit in a way. It got to the point a few years back where I needed to go out and get absolutely off my tits in order to have a good time. I got sucked into this world of relentless partying. Alcohol and drugs helped me in certain social situations at first but it became a vicious cycle. It's hard to break. So I wrote this chorus about never wanting to go back to my old ways which are just kind of self-sabotaging and not really sustainable for my growth. So I guess you could say it’s a self-love song. It’s about realising time is so precious, and focussing on what really makes you happy. And for me that’s always been working on my music and my painting.
Shirt – Cos, trousers – Riac Oseph, shoes – Underground England, jewellery – Capsule Eleven
You first got into music when you were very young, right?
My mom would put on classical music to help calm me down when I was a kid because I was so hyperactive. I had this breathing problem when I was growing up that meant I had a lot of trouble sleeping. So the doctors gave me pills to help and it wasn’t until later down the line that they realised ‘Oh, there's amphetamines in these, we can't give them to kids.’ So essentially, I was on speed for the first five years of my life. I was a crack baby! It kind of explains a lot of why I am the way I am I think. I was always super-hyper with too much energy. I remember watching Grease on TV with my sister and loving all the songs and the dancing because I think it kind of matched my hyper energy.
How did you first discover R&B and funk then?
When I was 11, one of my sisters had this boyfriend called Jack and he nicked an iPod off the back of a truck and gave it to me. And he put all this cool R&B stuff on it – Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men, Missy Elliot – and it changed my life. I became totally obsessed with R&B and funk. After that I discovered people like George Clinton and Funkadelic, Sly & The Family Stone – and Prince. He was the big one for me. And then D’Angelo. They really influenced my singing in falsetto. I always loved singing like that – that's where I can do all the vocal gymnastic stuff that I love. But I was always scared to do it in front of people because I thought it was a girly thing. Then I thought ‘fuck it – if those guys can do it, why can’t I?”
“For me songwriting is almost like a sanctuary that you’re always welcome to go to when you need to.”
And at some point you started writing songs yourself right?
My sister was writing music at the time and she had a little studio in her bedroom. So I was like, ‘Alright, if you can do it, I can do it.’ ‘I’d read somewhere that Prince would write a song a day. So I would go into her studio when she wasn't there and try to do one song a day, just to like, train myself. And I must have done that for about two years. I literally made a song a day and produced it… drums, bass, guitar, whatever. Songwriting became a kind of therapy for me, 100%. My parents had divorced by then and I think being able to immerse myself into something creative really helped me. For me songwriting is almost like a sanctuary that you’re always welcome to go to when you need to.
And how did your songwriting change from a messing around at home thing into a ‘this is what I’m gonna do with my life’ kind of thing?
When I was a teenager I went travelling to Cuba, Argentina and Brazil for eight months by myself. I remember buying a guitar when I was in Cuba and starting to write songs on just the guitar and they were some of the best songs I’d ever written at the time. The whole trip was kind of life-changing for me. When I was in Argentina I ended up going to their gay pride festival and I’d never experienced anything like it before. It opened my eyes living life more openly and freely. So when I got back to London I kinda felt like a new person and I was more determined than ever to really focus on my music. I starting performing my songs wherever I could – pub gigs, open mics – and it was at one of those I met my manager Jevan. He was working with Amy Winehouse at the time. And then I got Sonnentanz sent to me – it was an instrumental at the time and they wanted me to write the lyric and melody for it. Initially I said ‘No way am I doing EDM!’ but Jevan was like ‘just try it – what's the worst that can happen?’ So I smoked a massive joint and did a freestyle singing to the sun. It’s funny because it sounds like it's about a person you’re in love with but basically I’m just praising the sunrise. And everyone loved it and it ended up going to #3 in the charts.
Shirt – Cos, trousers – Cos, shoes – Underground England, jewellery – Capsule Eleven
“This whole album is me at my most emotionally open and honest. I feel like life can be scary and fucked up, but when you find that thing that makes you tick, everything's better.”
I imagine that changed everything…
It changed my life because it meant that I didn't have to work in pubs and restaurants anymore. I started going to all these meetings with different people who wanted to sign me. First I got signed as a writer, then I got a record deal. And then Rudimental came along and said ‘can you join our band?’ And I was like, ‘No, but I'll come sing with you.’ So I did that for a couple of years while I was working on my own stuff. Sonnentanz served a great purpose, because it got me on radio. But I feel like it showed everyone a side of me that wasn't really the real me.
And that’s what this album is all about right?
Absolutely. This whole album is me at my most emotionally open and honest. I feel like life can be scary and fucked up, but when you find that thing that makes you tick, everything's better. For me that’s harmony and groove – that’s what lights up my life and what’s at the heart of this record. There’s no point in doing something unless it’s 100% real and that’s what this album is.
The single Wasteman is out now on UnderHeard Records followed by the album ‘Wild’ later this year.
To find out more about Will and his music, follow him on Instagram
Shirt – Taiino, shorts – Cos, shoes – Clarks , jewellery – Capsule Eleven
TEAM CREDITS
Interview Adam Mattera
Photographer Christian Trippe
Styling Stevie Gatez
Photo assistant Sophie Bronze
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