How Wild Rivers found the joy in discipline

There were learnings too, with human connection emphasised and personal freedoms valued. It’s these experiences that informed the making of Wild Rivers new third record, Never Better.

“For this album, we wanted to make it more concentrated,” says vocalist Devan Glover. “Because Sidelines was interrupted by the pandemic, it just was such a drawn-out process and there were so many files being sent around. By the time the songs came out, we had actually written them a long time ago and we felt like different versions of ourselves. So the idea behind the writing and recording of this record was to capture a moment in time.”

Calling in from three different time zones across the US and Canada, they’re relaxed at home, a marked difference from the last time the band spoke to Best Fit. In the run up to releasing Sidelines, all three members including guitarist Andrew Oliver and guitarist/vocalist Khalid Yassein, were in the midst of a heavy run of tour dates. “I think right after the pandemic we went as hard as we possibly could trying to make up for lost time and then your body just starts to rebel against you and you just can't do it anymore,” says Glover. “I would say playing live never wears off, but playing live ends up being 2% of the whole touring experience. But now that it's been a few years post-pandemic, we figured out a good system for touring and we've put in measures to make sure that it's more sustainable for us.”

Formed in 2015 in Kingston, Ontario, Yassein and Glover met while studying at Queen’s University. Oliver was introduced to them by their drummer at the time, an old friend of his from home. They released their debut self-titled album a year later and follow up EPEighty-Eight in 2018, before signing with indie-folk stable Nettwerk for 2022’s Sidelines.

The band began recording their second album in 2020 with esteemed producer Peter Katis (The National, Sharon Van Etten) at his home studio in Connecticut, but after just a few days it was obvious that their plans were compromised. As the onset of covid accelerated, they cut their three-week session short, packed up the car, and drove back to Toronto. What followed was an eighteen-month recording slog between different studios and houses, working remotely, or together when restrictions allowed.

The result was a mature and meticulous album that glowed with confidence and care, but for the band it had taken a toll. Excited to breathe life back into their recordings, they hit the road for a relentless run of live shows, including career-high support slots for The Chicks and Noah Kahan. “We could tour like that forever,” laughs Glover. “It was a blessing and a curse, because once you see that type of touring you're like, I just want to do that now. I just want to play massive arenas and have catering every night. So now it's actually very motivating for us where like, we’ve got to get to that level.”

Alongside the exhaustion and euphoria, the band felt the freedom of playing live and connecting with each other. The holistic experience of touring, of taking in everything that happens in the moment, was a key influence onNever Better. “It is always a complete spectrum of emotions. I think you can feel there's kind of a duality of that, where it can be the best thing and the worst thing in the world and everything in between, and that by its nature is why it's the best thing. It's such a life enriching thing, we always feel like we've packed so much life into little periods of time, which is also why it's exhausting, because you've got a billion stimulus things at you and zero sleep,” says Yassein. “But that sensibility is what I feel like the music is kind of about, where it's everything in between.

The writing of Never Better was just as transient, with sessions between London, LA, Nashville and Toronto. Both Glover and Yassein spun their constant travelling into an opportunity to relocate. “We've spread a little throughout the music cities,” she smiles. “I'm in LA, Khalid’s in Nashville, Andrew’s still our Tortono head office, but we kind of joke that we have headquarters all around the world and we just travel to each other and we all get a taste of each city. It's been working well so far.”

With so much touring and travelling, the group also felt that the context of home had changed, alongside what they needed from their chosen city. “We were a little hungry for more when we came home,” says Yassein. “We're from Toronto, but I don't think we've ever felt so ingrained in the music community there. I think we all wanted to spend more time in the music cities anyways, and when your home time is limited, it's hard to do trips somewhere. Because Toronto and Canada is still home for all of us, all our families are there, all the friends we grew up with they're there, our live band is there, I never really feel like I'm missing home. It's always around the corner that we're going back to Canada to do something.”

It’s a big leap for a band who just three years ago released the single “Amsterdam” despite having never been to the Dutch capital. “There's a lot of angry people saying, ‘This isn’t Amsterdam, it’s the GO train’ in the comments,” laughs Glover in reference to the Ontario transit vehicle which features in the song’s video.

Wild Rivers have since played Amsterdam several times. “We've gone hard on Europe touring, which has been amazing,” says Yassein. “That's always a fun moment to play ‘Amsterdam’ in Amsterdam and everyone’s like, ‘Woah, that’s the name of the song!’ There's a nice moment where it's about Dev's cousin who lives in Amsterdam and she's usually at the shows, so she gets a nice personal shout out every time, and the feuding couple in the relationship is now a happy couple. So it's a nice full circle moment.”

Despite the international nature of the album’s writing sessions, when it came to the recording Wild Rivers decided to hunker down in one spot, bringing in producer Gabe Wax (Soccer Mommy, Adrianne Lenker) to help facilitate the immersive session. Capitalising on the energy of their touring and immediacy of their writing sessions, they rented out an Airbnb in Joshua Tree and isolated themselves for three weeks of in-depth creativity. “We felt like the momentum was important for us to still feel really excited about the songs,” says Glover. “Gabe came, and our drummer Julian came, and it was a big wooden barn, big high roofs and it had been built in the 60s and renovated and converted into an Airbnb. It was just honestly so magical; the mountains surrounding it and little fairy lights and hammocks.”

After years on the road, flying between different cities and constantly moving, the enforcement of a period of stasis worked to bond the band further together, combining their focus on the task at hand. “Every morning we'd wake up, we'd have a little meeting outside on the picnic table and talk about the day, try and narrow down the songs, and then just have the freedom to record whenever we wanted,” says Glover. “We liked the idea of not being on the clock at the studio, and also being physically in the little bubble, so that we were just focused and able to divide and conquer and keep it a fluid process and cook dinners together. It was a really special time.”

The location too, an isolated barn free from the distractions of everyday life, only heightened the experience. “It was a very magical place and it was very peaceful and the desert is just so quiet and there’s really no one around. There were a few houses around us and you would hear the coyotes at night,” continues Glover.

As magical as it was, the practicalities of recording in an Airbnb presented both their own unique benefits and challenges. “It was good timing,” says Oliver. “Gabe was in between studios. He had just signed a lease on another one and was getting out of the one he was in, so he just had all this music gear floating. So we had a full studio setup there.”

“It was also a logistical nightmare, but that's the engineer’s problem, not our problem,” laughs Yassein. “We kind of rolled with it. That's always how we like to make music. It's like going to a cabin up north and bringing a couple of things and it being rough and tumble. So this is like an elevated version of that.”

Alongside their previous experiences from recording, their time touring and playing live greatly informed the process of creating Never Better. Embracing the spontaneity and joyful chaos of a live show, they made a rule that at least two elements had to be recorded at the same time, to keep the songs feeling as human and instant as possible. “It seems like a novelty in this day and age, but for a band to get together in one space and just make a record in a month is amazing,” says Yassein. “So much of this album was about instinctual stuff and doing what felt good in the moment. We didn't have to pour over decisions and really intellectualise the record. We just did what was fun. I think we all just really wanted to have fun making this record and be a band, be a real group that could play around. The recording process was born out of that idea and I think we smashed that goal. It was definitely all of our favourite recording and music making experience, and I think it made for the best record we've ever made. I think it reflects in the music. With shows, it sometimes feels like, the more fun we have, the better it's gonna be. Following that compass, turns out it's really fun to just make music and not overthink it.”

Alongside not overthinking, Wild Rivers tried to avoid over-producing the album, setting clear deadlines and forcing themselves to stop when the songs were finished. “I think sometimes, it feels like you have to work on something for a really long time for it to be great. But I think it's not always, ‘things get better as you work on them more,’” says Yassein. “We definitely had a desire to go in and make a record in a three-week period and just not overthink things, not have multiple versions of the album, not have multiple studios we had to go to.”

The result is a record that stands as its own body of work. The album feels coherent, the energy and sentiment holding constant throughout. While the songs aren’t lyrically linked, they echo the same emotional references, tackling relationships, distance and loss. “We didn't set out to do a concept thing. We just made it in this period and we had all the same instruments and it does feel like an album and we're really proud of being an album band,” says Yassein. “All of our favourite records are like a world that you can put headphones on and live in. I think that's the biggest compliment and one of the biggest points of pride is that the work as an entirety is one thing and feels like a world.”

Never Better is a bold and bright record that balances instant, warm pop production and hooks with emotional weight and introspective lyricism. Across the album, Yassein and Glover’s rich vocal lines weave and spar with each other, like distant lovers who are still on the same page. Both melodically and lyrically, it’s a gripping partnership.

Album opener and title track “Never Better” is a rush of nostalgic imagery, lucious guitars and unrelenting energy. Kicking things off with intention and bright musicality, their words have an underlying nudge of insecurity. “We don't know how to do pure happy,” says Glover. “We have to cut the happiness with something sad. This is us trying to be happy.”

The track is one of a few collaborations with British writing and production duo MyRiot (London Grammar, Aurora), written in London in a quickfire of inspiration. “We just latched onto something that we liked and we tried to roll quickly and use momentum,” says Yassein. “We made the song probably in three hours. It's nice when it's easy. The demo that day honestly sounds awesome. We were chasing the feel of that day making music when we were writing it. It all felt like we wanted to capture something quickly with that one, and that's indicative of the larger album. That felt like a tent pole song for that reason. That was always one of our favourites.”

It’s also a bold statement as an album title. “It's our cocky era,” Yassein jokes.

“I feel like there's a lot of ways you could take it,” says Glover. “There's a little bit of a wink to it where each way you take it is true to us as well. It's like us convincing ourselves. I think there's a lot of themes within us and within the way that we're approaching the band these days, of just choosing optimism and choosing hope and joy. We're at a stage in our lives where we're really trying to prioritise the things that make us feel good and the same with the band. It's us saying that we've never been better as musicians, maybe, but it's more an attitude than us purely just being cocky.”

“We're still writing heartbreak songs and break up songs, so it's like, we will never be better,” Oliver laughs.

That undertone of despondency continues on “Cave” with its power-riff attitude and heartache delivery. With six layers of guitars driving the track, it makes for an unlikely rocker. “We wanted ones that we could play live and just like jam,” says Yassein. “That was kind of a Frankenstein song between a couple songs. We had a session here (Nashville) and then had a session with MyRiot. We put the songs together because of that idea where, what feels good next? Forget all the rules of songwriting, what do we want to hear here? Which also felt representative of the album.”

Inside the record, the dynamics between songs balance out the tracklist, creating the holistic feel of a world within itself. Just as “Cave” is a big sonic moment, early single “Everywhere I Go” offers tender respite as its growing pulse explodes into a dream-pop wave of synth. “I think that song-wise feels very Wild Rivers in a way, even though production-wise we made it one of our more poppy modern moments of the record,” says Yassein. “That felt like an honest story, that's what it felt like to write it. That kind of fell out and was not the intention to write something serious and heartfelt, but it all felt honest. In the same way that the other fun ones felt really natural and not too thought out, this one felt like it too, but just from a different emotional place.”

Written by Yassein with writers Alex Hope and Brett Truitt, he reflects on his enduring relationship with his grandfather after his passing in a deeply personal but widely accessible confessional. “I think a lot of people would think it's like a break-up song, because that's what they're accustomed to hearing from Wild Rivers, but it's a song about my grandpa who passed. I think about him all the time,” he says. “We like that it could mean a couple things to different people, and it just felt the emotional heart of it was a positivity, an optimism about holding someone who is no longer with you, and the heart of what that emotion feels like. That was a piano ballad when we brought it to the band and then we threw everything at it and wanted to make it feel like an anthemic, dancey thing too. So that was super fun to make.”

Spanning just eight tracks and twenty-two minutes, the album’s brevity also serves its impact. Reflecting the immediate nature of their recording process, the record delivers that sense of everything happening in the moment. “Long albums are freaking boring,” says Yassein. “In the same breath that I could say, ‘We love albums,’ I don't want to listen to over twelve songs. That was a conscious decision. It is a lot to ask and you just want to give people, here's what you want to hear.”

“We all love albums, but when a big album comes out, it almost feels intimidating,” Glover continues. “It's a barrier because you're like, I want to be able to really dive into this but I don't have time right now.”

Recent single “Backfire” is a delicate and direct ballad that grows into a slow jam of anthemic indie-pop. Drawing on the regret that comes with hindsight, it was written by Glover as a straight piano lament, but when she brought it to the band, they saw a different direction. “We had been covering some Avril Lavigne on tour and I think someone suggested trying to take it in an Avril Lavigne direction and it sounded so cool,” she says. “I never envisioned the song going that way, but I loved where it brought it. It was really fun.”

When it comes to that sentiment, of bringing the past with you into the future, she sighs and jokes, “I know it too well. We're not actually ‘never better,’ we're just trying.”