There’s a reason why Avery Cardinal and Tyson Geick’s band The Run Wild is not yet a household name in the Comox Valley: starting a band during a pandemic has its challenges.
“We did play one live performance, then everything shut down (due to COVID),” said Cardinal.
That unfamiliarity is about to change, however.
The band’s first single, Don’t Need It, has just been released on all digital platforms.
“It’s been going really well so far,” said Geick on April 20, one day after the single was released. “I’ve had people reach out from across North America chiming in, some old connections of mine have been saying they have heard it - friends from Colorado and New York and California, so that’s pretty cool to hear about. And of course people in B.C., and on the East Coast too. So there seems to be a pretty good base. Now it’s a matter of getting on different playlists, and hopefully we can reach people beyond just my network and Avery’s network.”
Cardinal plays the guitar, while Geick takes care of the vocals. They brought in some session players for the recordings. Their first EP consists of three songs.
“It’s all digital (platforms),” said Cardinal. “We will be releasing the songs one by one - we are being very strategic with it. We are… on Spotify (https://spoti.fi/3vAGIG6) and Apple Music (https://apple.co/3rFAHHc), and hoping to get on the radio with it.”
Geick may be able to call in some favours for that. He used to work at one of the local stations.
Cardinal said when he and Geick first met, the connection was instant.
“We immediately clicked - we love all the same music,” said Cardinal. “We love jamming, and every time one of us suggested a song, the other guy knew it. So it was a great connection, which is pretty rare in music. People have so many styles and ways of interpreting music but for us, we just clicked. So we started making music, and doing covers on Instagram, and those started doing very well.”
Their Instagram covers were even drawing attention from the original artists.
“We did a Black Keys cover, and the Black Keys commented on it; we did a couple of Reklaws covers and they commented and shared them, so we were having fun with it,” said Cardinal. “Then we had the opportunity to record some of our songs, so we got a producer and spent a year doing that. So here we are, with our first release.”
Don’t Need It was produced by Canadian platinum certified producer/engineer Nygel Asselin (Half Moon Run - Dark Eyes), mixed by multi-platinum and award-winning Canadian record producer Jeff Dalziel and mastered by Grammy Award winning senior mastering engineer Randy Merrill (Taylor Swift - Folklore, Adele - Hello, and others).
Cardinal, who works at Courtenay Kia, has been in the Comox Valley for more than seven years - a Bonnyville, Alta. ex-pat, who came to the Comox Valley to be with his girlfriend - while Geick now lives in Nova Scotia. Thanks to the power of the internet, the separation is not a huge factor at the moment.
“He’s doing media for a lacrosse team (Halifax Thunderbirds) there right now,” said Cardinal. “He was here for three years. We started the band, and after we finished recording, he was offered the job in Nova Scotia, so he’s been there for six months now… but we are still working with our producer and some writers.”
“It’s obviously ideal when you are together, but we did lay out all the groundwork prior to me leaving and heading out east, so it was just a matter of getting everything put together, and sent off to our mixer and master after I had moved,” added Geick.
Cardinal said the long-term goal is to make music their full-time ‘gig.’
“I think it’s worth a shot,” he said. “We have talked about it, and I think we would go for it.”
“I would like to think so, yeah,” said Geick. “That is the goal. So hopefully everything is really well received and we can start to make some decisions.”
The National Lacrosse League finishes its regular season at the end of April, with playoffs to follow, so Geick has some commitments before he can look too far into the future.
“People say, ‘Don’t quit your day job,’ so I do have to hang onto that for the time being… so I guess I will make some decisions in the off-season. But I am going to continue to write with our producer and one of the other songwriters… so that’s the plan for now. But it’s good that we were able to get these first songs put together. Now we will just see how they were received and go from there.”
Cardinal has enjoyed some time in the limelight with his music endeavours already.
“Myself, personally, I’ve been in bands and have opened up for acts like The Trews, Hedley, Tupelo Honey…”
As for Geick, there is a distinct country sound to his voice. He credits family ties for his interest in the genre.
“I had two cousins - sisters who I grew up looking up to and spent a lot of time with. They had a country album way back in the day, and they are phenomenal singers. So I guess they were kind of my inspiration - Jacqueline and Cassandra Williams. Another really good friend of the family, Mandy McMillan, she was in Nashville for about 10 years, so I would drive down to visit her from time to time, and got a taste of Nashville…. so I guess I was inspired by all that and it led us to get into the country side of things.”
Follow The Run Wild on Instagram (therunwild) and on Twitter @therunwild for all the latest information regarding the next two releases.
