ION INDIE MAGAZINE September 2015, Volume 16 | Page 59

I was very excited to get the chance to interview WAYLAND. It came up in the forum for ION, and I looked
at it a bit, knowing they would be in my area shortly. But wasn’t sure I could pull it off--I am pretty shy in
person when I don’t know people. And even though I have met the guys in Wayland a few times, I knew it
was still a stretch for me. However I felt I owed it to them. Back a couple years, I caught Wayland when
they were on tour with JESSE DUPREE. I hadn’t been to a concert in years, and some friends had invited
me to see the show. I caught two really GREAT bands that night--one a more regional band called
MEANTOOTH GRIN--and Wayland. Both bands rekindled my love for live music. I am not one to enjoy big
crowds, and before this show, I had never really known that national acts played in such a intimate
setting…and you got to meet the band and get an even better feeling for the band and their music. At this
show, Wayland really did this for me. I hope you read this interview and get a bit of the fire I feel when I
see Wayland--and check out their music and even better, their live show….
CW: Tell me how the four of you got together… the beginning of Wayland.
Phil: Mitch and I met in Los Angeles. I moved
there when I was 18 and graduated from school to
pursue music. And totally by a fluke, I ended up
sharing an apartment with Mitch, a guy I didn’t
even know. This Dude from Indiana, Dean, he
already lived there. He was pursing acting at the
time. So Mitch and I started playing on the streets
of L.A. and we toured Europe as an acoustic duo,
and Dean was like, our best friend that lived with
us at the time. At the time we also wanted to grow
the band. Dean had just enrolled into college--got
his first role in a play, new job, a new girlfriend.
We ended up sitting him down and said,
“Dude, you should quit your job, you should quit
this play, break up with your girlfriend, and you
should join our band!” Dean did…he quit
everything and learned to play bass for the band-he practiced 8 to 10 hours a day. He played his
first gig with us, like, two weeks later. It’s truly
amazing. Back then he was just learning to play
bass and now he’s one of my favorite bass players I
know.
CW: And what about Tyler?
Phil: We auditioned a bunch of drummers--we
were in LA at the time trying to make a record. We
auditioned around 30 Drummers, and no one
really fit, no one really felt right. And Tyler is from
my home town, well, right next to it really, a town called Middleville. It’s right next to Wayland. We knew
a lot of the same people, so our demo that had gotten made got passed to him. He heard we were looking
for a drummer, and he made a video tape of himself playing our songs. We flew him out to LA and he
joined the band. We made the record and immediately moved back to MI and started touring.
CW: Tell me about your childhood and early influences.