The Wild Kindness

I’ll always be amazed at how effortlessly the Wild Kindness formed. Doug and my former band AM Magic had been chugging along for years when our good friend and bandmate Karma decided to move his family to Ohio in 2011. Doug and I knew we wanted to keep playing and knew we had to start over. I felt privileged and lucky that James and Ross (both friends and stellar players) wanted to join us without any coercion—all we had to do was ask. Our goals for the band were simple: create something interesting and fun. Ambition was completely absent. We wanted to record good music, play out occasionally and that’s it.

In 2 years we played 10 shows and recorded 2 EPs. It’s nice to reflect and know we created something for posterity that we’re proud of even if we didn’t make much of a dent. It’s been a blast to play with these guys, but sometimes you need a little wind in your sails to keep moving forward. James left the band to pursue school and his other band, In Letter Form; we lost our practice space in SF; plus enthusiasm in the band in general had waned.

I’ll most likely pick up the pieces down the road and start a new project. I doubt it’ll be as effortless as the Wild Kindness, but definitely fun and interesting.

-Mike