I’ll start this the way I ended my phone interview with Jackson Stell, A.K.A. Big Wild. “I’m happy I got a chance to interview you because it made me find out about your music sooner than I otherwise would have, thank you.” My unfamiliarity of Big Wild, however, lies entirely on my shoulders, as he has been touring on his own multiple times and touring with other artists like Odesza and Griz, as well as having a solid EP already under his belt titled “Invincible EP.” I’m sure I would have found out about the ethereal, dreamy, dance-groove layered album that is “Superdream,” Big Wild’s debut album, at some point in the near future, either way, considering it is riddled with infectious tracks. Finding out now I do wish I had been in on the sound that Stell has been creating since 2013, and before, earlier but “Superdream” is an incredibly rich jumping off point for new listeners and a rewarding experience for fans.
The name Big Wild was born out of a trip to Big Sur in California about five years ago. Stell recalls at that point in his life going through some pretty big changes and starting new chapters in his life. “I just wanted to make a name that embodied that feeling of being adventurous, of being curious, pushing myself and trying new things which I’m always trying to do with my music.” On “Superdream” Stell’s voice, quite literally, is present like never before. An experienced producer, DJ, and engineer he has never been a vocalist in the capacity found on his debut album.
I asked him why he pushed himself to take such a new direction with his music, and his response came from the same sentiment that the name Big Wild embodies. “I got to a point in production where it felt like I was hitting a creative wall,” Stell said, “and I wanted to keep pushing further, and I had this natural feeling that the only way to do that was to get into vocals.”
About a year and a half ago, Stell began taking vocal lessons and getting more into songwriting as a way to expand his craft. Going from never really singing before to creating songs around his own vocals felt right, and he never looked back. The “fun” ways Stell finds to use his vocals through his production background are what keep him inspired to push the walls of his sound outwards.
Photo by Little Green Eyes
Despite it being an inspiration now, not everything was as easy as dreaming when Stell added his voice into his sound. “It was definitely a challenge at first everything sounds pretty bad,” Stell remembers, “the more I worked on it, the more I realized where my voice could lie in my music and where my strengths are and where my weaknesses are.”
The end result of this self-experiment mostly recorded in a small garage on his own is a polished album of varied tracks. The defining feature through them is Stell’s voice, sometimes as a lyricist and other times as an instrument woven between melodies. While Stell might be trying something new with “Superdream” and constantly evolving as Big Wild to stay on his toes a certain amount of charismatic confidence comes through as we talk. It’s not a bragging or brash confidence, but a certainty that he’s going to keep doing what he likes. When talking about how he came to the sounds found on “Superdream” it was about not sounding contrived and staying honest to what he wants to do. Stell hasn’t been all on his own in this journey though, he toured with Odesza, one of the first major artists Jackson remembers supporting his music.
As Big Wild grows, Stell says “at no point does anything feel too overwhelming.” Writing and producing mainly on his own he reflects on the hard work that has got him here, and how Big Wild has slowly grown over time at its own pace. Like the story of the tortoise and the hare, Stell isn’t looking to take the easy route or reach the end of his journey as quickly as possible. Always learning, developing and remembering the hard work has been something that’s kept him grounded as Big Wild gets bigger.
Music has almost always been a part of Stell’s life. Since middle school, he was producing beats for rap all the way through high school to make the odd buck or two under the name J.Beatz. Music was also part of his college career, majoring in music industry studies. He says he doesn’t use the business side of his major often, but he recalls taking as many music classes as possible. When Big Wild was born, it was out of the desire to express himself through music, an outlet he pursued his whole life.
“I just like making things by myself. I feel like I can just get my vision across more,” said Stell when I asked him about his recording process for this album. “I’ve always made music that way and its kind of gotten to a point now where I know what I want and know how to get it.” The majority of Superdream was made in a small recording studio Stell was running out of his garage.
Something that drew Stell to the particular genre of music he records is that electronic music, sometimes more so than other genres, can be done on your own. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t looking to expand his sound beyond his own creative input.
“One of my goals going into the future is to open up a little bit more and work with some new people and be open to new collaborations,” Stell says, looking forward. His struggle with that is keeping the very personal elements from him that the listener gets through the music intact during collaboration.
I asked him about who he’d like to work with if he stayed in his rap production phase, and he named some of the common mainstream artists of today as well as industry changing artists like Pharrell. Stell says he’s “attracted to artists who are pushing boundaries and doing their own thing, where their sound is unique.” Briefly, he laments on how a lot of music nowadays sounds similar; he looks to create longevity in the way that others have before him by paving his own path and making is own sound instead of copying others,
“Superdream” is Jackson Stell’s first album-length attempt at a new sound for him, and a refreshing change to the electronic genre. An album coated in personal touches and dashed with multi-genre influence like funk and soul to rock and hip-hop in the same tracks it’s an “amalgamation: a super dream combining all life’s curious, inspiring occasions.” Despite Stell’s slow and steady approach to reaching new heights, this may just be a 12 song sprint into bigger things as he currently tours his new music nationally and internationally. Catch him on stage confidently sharing his personal expression with incredibly catchy energy to a crowd that can’t stop dancing.
You can find Big Wild’s Superdream tour trailer here: