Quiet Hollers Songwriter Takes On Mental Health Challenges

For Quiet Hollers, the song comes first

Lacrosse Tribune

Michale Martin

August 25, 2017

His wife has a panic disorder and Wilde suffers from depression — something alluded to in the song, “Medicine”. Meanwhile a close friend, a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder, took his own life.

For a while it looked like Quiet Hollers were going to be pegged as an Americana or roots band — or maybe even an alt country band. But the latest album by the Louisville, Kentucky-based band — “Amen Breaks” — makes it clear that those kinds of “boxes” are far too small to contain the band’s creativity.

The Hollers are doing a show at the Cavalier Theater on Sept 2. The band’s latest album has elements of post-punk and indie-leaning sounds, as well as hip-hop-style drum machines, soaring synthesizers, string quartets and harmony-laden choruses. Despite the disparate styles and sounds, it’s all somehow held together by Shadwick Wilde’s thoughtful songwriting.

Wilde, the band’s primary songwriter, explained that the album was inspired by life challenges faced by friends and family. 

“It’s kind of an amalgam of things that have been in the forefront of my mind, about mental health and mental illness — these things that have touched the lives of virtually everyone I know, myself included,” Wilde said.

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