If you’re from Charlottesville or visit the area often, then you’re more than familiar with soulful/folksy/funk combo Erin & The Wildfire.
If you’re from Charlottesville or visit the area often, then you’re more than familiar with soulful/folksy/funk combo Erin & The Wildfire.
The group lit up the stage at Cary St. Café Saturday and since forming in 2012 and releasing their self-titled EP last year, Erin & The Wildfire have been making a name for themselves up and down the East Coast.
Erin Lunsford leads the group with her sultry, powerhouse vocals and RVA Magazine chatted with her and the rest of the gang Saturday before the show about building a fan base, upcoming projects and the story behind “The Wildfire.”
Lunsford started singing in high school, but while attending The University of Virginia, she met bassist Matt Wood, guitarist Ryan Lipps and drummer Nick Quillen and formed Erin & The Wildfire.
“We all met at UVA, we were all undergrads together and we were in a student recording group called “O Records,” Lunsford said. “We were all in that organization and I was the president of it for a couple years and I asked these guys to be in my band and we started playing together at frat shows around UVA.”
To break into the local music scene, the quintet started hitting local bars, breweries and other venues in the area.
“We played a lot in Charlottesville, all the local bars we played some crappy bars like Coupe’s, couple places in the downtown mall and just kind of worked are way up and now we’re in some of the larger venues like The Southern and The Jefferson,” Lunsford said.
According to Quillen, they weren’t always known as Erin and The Wildfire.
“We used to be Erin Lunsford and The Smokey Bandits, then we decided it was so much of a mouthful,” he said. “Basically, it was us after every single show, two or three nights every weekend doing some drugs, and drinking a lot and playing word games and doing drum circles and just all we could think of to see what stuck,” he said.
It was bassist Matt Wood that finally found a name that fit the group.
“I was inspired by a Smokey The Bear commercial,” Wood said. “Only you can prevent wild fires.” “They changed the slogan because forests aren’t the only thing that can catch fire.”
Charlottesville is now their home, but all of them hail from different parts of Virginia. Lunsford is from Fincastle, White and Lipps are from Hampton Roads, and Quillen’s from Waynesboro.
The band plays two or three shows a week, building their fan base around Central Virginia.
“We’ve been doing mini-tours like week-long stints where we go up and down the east coast but we’re really trying to saturate a three-hour radius, so Richmond falls into that, D.C., Blacksburg, Harrisonburg,” Lunsford said.
And the band is no stranger to the Richmond scene.
“The first time we played here was this time last year at The Camel with The Northerners,” Lunsford said. “We’ve been there a few times since then. We were at Capital Ale House March 30.”
The close-knit group released their self-titled five-track debut album in 2014, but before forming the band, 24-year-old Lunsford was churning out music on her own. She released I Saw The Thread, a solo EP, in 2012.
“It was some of my singer/songwriter material stuff I’d been writing since the beginning of college,” she said. “It’s completely different genre-wise, it’s very melodic and light and the vocals are still kind of grandiose, but it’s not nearly as edgy as what we do, and it’s not as funky and soulful as the band is.”
The group’s success landed them spots on the festival circuit recently. They won their way into last year’s Lockn’ festival through the Rockn’ to Lockn’ competition this summer, their first major festival.
And this summer, the band will play Floydfest in July and The Festy at Devil’s Backbone Brewery this fall.
Lunsford does most of the songwriting, but Lipps said the song “Weeds or Wishes” was a joint effort and has been the best one yet.
“Our most successful song so far sort of happened in a moment of serendipity between Erin and I,” he said.” “I went over to hang out with Erin one day and she said hey, I have these really cool lyrics check it out, are these weeds or wishes and I was like hey, I have this really cool riff.” “Matt threw in this this super cool time change before the chorus.”
The band has put out mostly original content, but released a few covers including a funky, bluesy soulful version of The Bee Gees hit “Stayin’ Alive”, and I can personally tell you it gives the original a run for its money.
“Nick actually suggested that we do that one and slow it down, kind of funk it up a little bit,” Lunsford said.
Wood added the group has also covered the almighty Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and they just recorded a cover of “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” which they plan to release soon along with two other new songs.
“This summer all three will be released a month a part,” Lunsford said.
And don’t sleep on them this summer because this group has major plans.
“Tons of shows, we’ll be releasing these recordings,couple festivals here and there,” Lunsford said. “We’re doing a southern tour in August it might just be us, we might try and pair up with somebody too we’ll see.”
You can catch the band at their next show this Thursday at The Southern in Charlottesville.
