Canadian folk band Wild Rivers have already amassed over 200 million streams and built a strong following on Spotify. With their album release this Friday 4^th Feb, they’re set to follow this up with a UK and European tour in May 2022.

The band has seen growing popularity within Europe, so this will mark their first tour beyond USA. Coinciding with the release of Sidelines I caught up with Devan Glover from Wild Rivers to ask some further questions about them.

Your latest single “Bedrock” has just been released. How has the reception been so far?

Dev: Yeah, it came out last week and it seems like people are liking it so far. It’s one of our collective favourites from the album, and we love the video too, so we were personally excited to put it out. We get the best idea of which songs are resonating with people on tour where we can see a real-time reaction from the audience. As I’m typing this, it’s the first day of our US tour, so we will find out soon! 

Your album Sidelines is due February 4, what can we expect from this?

Dev: I can’t believe it’s coming out so soon. It’s been a long time coming, and we’ve also been sitting on it for a year, so having it out in the world will be surreal. I’m ready! Expect an existential exploration of what it means to grow up, some good old sad songs, mixed in with some upbeat fun ones. I think we experimented sonically on this album, more than we have before, and we had a lot of fun trying things. Hopefully that comes through in the music.  

Where did your name Wild Rivers come from?

Dev: I wish we had a better story behind it. It was the night of our first show as a band, and we still didn’t have a name. We had gone by “Devan and Khalid” before, because we just played as a duo, but then we became a band and needed something more legit. We brainstormed a million options and then we burned out making the decision and we were like “Ok let’s just go with Wild Rivers”. Hahaha. Its weird defining yourself with a name in the early days of being a band, but I think you naturally grow into whatever name you roll with. 

Who are your influences?

Dev: Many of our biggest songwriting influences are legends from the 70s like Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and James Taylor. Sonically, we listen to lots of music and try to borrow elements of different genres. Some of our favourite artists of the past few years are Phoebe Bridgers, Kacey Musgraves, Dijon, Sam Fender, and Holly Humberstone. 

What has been the best gig you have played to date?

Dev: Playing hometown shows is always special for us. It’s always fun to be able to perform for the people who have supported us from the beginning. The last hometown show we played was at the Opera House in Toronto, which is one of our favourite venues in the city. We grew up going to shows there, so there’s a lot of nostalgia tied to playing venues like that. 

If there was one artist or band to collaborate with, who would you choose?

Dev: I’d love to do something with Phoebe Bridgers, I feel like we could make something real nice and sad together. 

Your upcoming tour see’s many dates due around Europe, with a series of already sold-out shows in the UK. How did you build this strong fan base beyond Canada?

Dev: This will be our first time touring outside of North America, so it’s a big milestone for us. In the early days of the band we were booking all the tours ourselves, using backend Spotify data to see where people were listening to the music, and chasing fans in that way. We toured pretty heavily in our first 5 years as a band and found that that consistency resulted in the shows being a little bigger each time we revisit a city. Our songs got on a few big Spotify playlists, so that’s also been really helpful in gaining international exposure. I guess we’ll see what the turnout will be like abroad! 

Have you got any hot new favourite artists currently on your radar now?

Dev: Leith Ross is an incredible singer songwriter from Ontario, where we’re from. They’re such an amazing writer and their voice has a really special quality to it. They’re starting to gain a lot of fans on TikTok, so I feel like a big moment is coming from them. 

Have you got a message for your fans and followers?

Dev: Stream our new album Sidelines.

Thanks Dev - all the best for the future!

Author: Andrew Braithwaite

Andrew is the founder and Managing Director of Music Talkers. He's also a keen music enthusiast and plays the guitar.