By Abigail Davidson
Big Wild is Jackson Stell, a producer, sound engineer, and vocalist. In 2019 he released his debut album as Big Wild, Superdream, and last year he released a second album, The Efferusphere. He performed Saturday at FORMAT Festival.
Abby
I’m really interested in your new album. I want to know what it was like; the creative process for you. The difference between The Efferusphere and Superdream.
Jackson Stell
Yeah, probably the biggest difference is it was more driven by lyrics and the idea of what I was writing about. Whereas before, I always was basing it more off from, really, a production standpoint, letting the words kind of follow after that. And I just want to try a different approach, a more lyric forward approach to just see what would happen to my songwriting and that just led to like totally different results. Also, like it’s a reflection of just where I was at during the time. Which was mostly written during the pandemic and, Yeah, that’sprobably the biggest difference in the process.
Abby
So are you saying the pandemic was a big influence on it?
Jackson Stell
It was in the sense of, like, just where my head was at, then. I was just more introspective and just kind oflooking more inward, I guess.
Abby
So, you’ve performed at bigger festivals like Coachella and Lalapalooza as well, is that a similar experience to FORMAT?
Jackson Stell
Yeah. I mean, festivals in general are, I think. Most of them are similar experiences and it’s like it’s just so much fun to it’s fun to just be an artist, show up on the stage and everything’s there and you can just go out and play in front of a bunch of people. It’s hard to beat how awesome that is. But I feel like with things, festivals like Coachella, Wild Blues, there’s such a reputation behind it and like impose like importance because of that and they’re important for sure, but it’s also super cool to just play something like FORMAT and play people that I wouldn’t normally play for. Like think of how many shows go through Chicago or Los Angeles versus like Northwest Arkansas, like it’s pretty different and that’s just I grew up in. A rural place and I know what it’s like not to have, like all the biggest artists all the time. When somebody does come through, you really, like, go all out for it, which is cool. So, I love playing festivals that just get me out to places that are usually hard to actually tour.
Abby
I heard that it was a whole situation getting over here.
Jackson Stell
Ohh, it was wild, like we haven’t slept for. Yikes. Over, I guess probably 36 hours at this point.
Abby
Earlier this year our university hosted this thing called Springtime of Youth and we had GROUPLOVE come,among a couple of other artists. You did that most recent remix of “HELLO”. Is the remix process very different for you than your normal creative process when you’re working on your own stuff?
Jackson Stell
Definitely I feel like I can let go a little bit of trying to make something, like, I put a little less pressure on myself when it’s a remix. I also just love being able to work with somebody else’s vocals and chop them up and just have fun with it. When it’s my own, I’m a little more attached to it. Like “it needs to sound like this, or I need to represent myself this way” and that’s just something I need to deal with, but it’s easier to like, let go on a remix. With that remix in particular, I had a couple of other ideas and they all sounded like they just weren’t it. And then finally I just was messing around with just weird sounds in the studio, just having a lot of fun. And all the ideas started to pour out. And I was like, OK, I’m just gonna have a really good time making this song, focus on just having fun. And it just happened like that [snaps].
Abby
I’ve been listening to GROUPLOVE forever, so I know that song through and through. But the thing I think is really underappreciated with remixing is the experience of getting to hear a song for the first time again, because it’s the same song but it’s not.
Jackson Stell
Yeah, and it could be hard sometimes to reimagine something that’s already really good.
Abby
Because you already know it in a way.
Jackson Stell
Yeah, like you heard the original song and it’s like how can I reimagine this? You know, sometimes. It’seasier just to start something from scratch, right? Because I already have an idea of what the song is and that can get in the way of like being creative. Yeah, making remixes can be hard, it’s just hard to reimagine something.
Abby
Spontaneous question, but do you think you identify more as a producer?
Jackson Stell
I think so, yeah.