By any metric, Keith Wadsworth is a jack-of-all-trades guitarist; his personally defined style chameleons between funk-rock fusion and neoclassicism, and his current body of collaborative Wax Future works showcase his songwriting and performance talents across several iterations of broken-beat electronic music. In many ways, his foray into electronic music has shaped his contemporary sound, but that’s just the most recent injection of influence. The long arc of his lifetime thus far has been a step-by-step march towards a cumulative display of musicianship. That display of musical immersion and education takes the form of his Adirondacks EP, released through his new solo moniker Wadsworth Music; With a completely distinct sonic profile from the Wax Future project, Wadsworth has refined his own definitive image, introducing the majority of his friends and fandom to his musical confluence for the first time.
Adirondacks is a guitar-driven record composed by a compositionally-driven guitarist, showcasing a stunning array of musical hues and instrumental finesse. “Climbing” opens the record with soft, major crescendos taking flight, contrasting wonderfully with the meandering minor note relationships in the closing track “Back at the Trailhead”. Sandwiched between the two subdued ballads are a trio of anthems that move the needle closer towards the Wadsworth musings we’ve grown so fond of; “Summit Nap” explores the power and the impact of harmony in notation, where “Dream Sequence A: Upload” and “Dream Sequence B: Error” place rhythmic syncopation and pure shred-head energy into the spotlight. It’s not just the complete package for appreciators of six-string prowess, but a stylistically unique and emotive collection for any discerning soundhead.
Having been so immediately drawn to the raw passion behind the record, we at The Rust felt compelled to reach out to Keith for a conversation about his new music, and the journey that led him here in the first place.
The Rust: Let's start with the necessary and obvious topic: can you talk about your origins as a guitarist and a songwriter?
Wadsworth: I got my start as a rhythm guitar player for my dad at 8 years old, great gig, residency was in my living room. Made the jump to lead guitarist for the band around 9 years old after a gig in the guitar room of Sam Ash. Never looked back. My first compositions started around 2004 in a program called “Cakewalk”. I would take the drum sample tracks and write tunes around them. Bought a Dr. Rhythm drum machine and became enamored with drum programming. By 2006 I had written (a very poorly recorded) album of guitar music that I sold at my high school talent show for 5 dollars a pop, sold about a dozen. Out of high school played in a metal band, toured around the east coast a bunch. After that I bounced around in many projects, pop punk, singer songwriter, eventually meeting Connor and starting Wax around 2014.
The Rust: What are some of the stylistic influences you pulled from as you progressed as a musician?
Wadsworth: [I] started out following and emulating as my of my guitar idols as I could. Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai - I was a big Van Halen fan as well, and would always spend time attempting to master EVH’s solos and impeccable rhythm work. RIP to the absolute legend. As we dove deeper into Wax and started to play shows alongside cats I really looked up to I think I made a conscious decision to think about songwriting and the impact of the guitar in our songs. I think that helped my playing, kinda slowed down and serviced the song more. Obviously live I would still go off and have some fun though.
The Rust: The Wax Future project has been your collaborative brainchild for quite a while now, pocketing you into a powerful electro-soul-rock fusion; what was the preamble to exploring different motifs on this debut Wadsworth release?
Wadsworth: This solo release is kind of a full circle piece. I familiarized myself with recording and production in the beginning of my musical journey. With Wax it was like leveling up, you can’t be near Connor Hansell and not learn via osmosis or some shit. It’s real. So this record was a lot of revisiting where I was musically all those years ago with a broader grasp on production and creative tools.
The Rust: Can you dive into the songwriting process for this EP? Was it a conscious project, or a serendipitous assortment of tracks?
Wadsworth: I wrote the song summit nap first. It’s definitely an ode to my guitar hero roots, very droney ballad’y (those aren’t words I guess) But I didn’t really think I had a chance to create a small collection of music until I wrote Dream Sequence A. When that song came together I knew I had the nucleus of something. It was like a eureka moment. Very exciting. From there I kind of had an idea of where I wanted to the concept of the tunes to go. I enjoy creating a loose journey through collections of songs, it helps keep me focused.
The Rust: You've been keeping busy with an assortment of live looping gear and live production; Can you talk about your experience translating solo performances through technology?
Wadsworth: Speaking of eureka moments. Live looping is a giant prolonged eureka moment. Improvisation is that core of who I am as a musician, I have a hard time conjuring up as much joy as I do musically than from pulling concepts from the depths of my brain off the cuff. With live looping its just that non-stop. I want to establish a schedule of streams and just share. I miss the stage with my entire being, being able to look out into the crowd and share energy. The looping streams manufacture some of that energy.
The Rust: As one of the foremost instrumentalists in our slice of music culture, you're given a fairly constant opportunity to collaborate on other live performances. Would you care to open up a bit about this dynamic? What are the major hurdles to surmount when sitting in, especially in the context of improvisation?
Wadsworth: As I said, improvisation is at the core of who I am as a musician. I’ve been really lucky to sit in with and collaborate with a fuck ton of artists I look up to. With some minimal prep, you can create this unique shared experience between you and an artist that’s able to be watched live, it's really special. Countless times I can remember just laughing on stage because something went perfectly and everyone on stage knows that we pulled it from the ether at that moment right there, it’s one of the downright best things about music.
Regarding hurdles or prep, there really isn’t hurdles, there are house rules for each artist. Some are particular, some are free form. Entering each artist's‘ house’ and learning their rules before a performance is part of the fun. When I sit in with Freddy Todd, he is such a guru with the onboard fx of the DJ mixer that he lets me kinda high fly through the tunes and mixes me in the moment, ie. Cutting my fader in the drop sections and adding delays in break sections. That collaboration is unique to our sit-ins and I’m not convinced Freddy isn’t an actual wizard sometimes after we play haha.
The Rust: With this first batch of Wadsworth tunes minted for release, where is your head with regards to future projects, both with Wax Future and as Wadsworth?
Wadsworth: I’m gonna let these tunes go, dive headfirst into the holiday season and then I would like for the Wadsworth stuff to maybe release a song a month through 2021. Wax is sitting on a GRIP of tunes, some really exciting stuff in the works over at that camp. I’m also just gonna drop it here, I made mention of one of my earliest projects being a metal band. Through quarantine, I’ve actually collaborated with my best friend Donovan remotely and we’ve started a metal project, hype to get the details of that off the ground. I didn’t expect to start two new projects during quarantine but this has all kind of progressed naturally.
The Rust: Can we expect to see some Wadsworth performances when stages become our lifeblood again?
Wadsworth: Most certainly, I want to pick these songs apart live and add some improvisational elements. I want to hit the stage with the live looping stuff too. Zone Drums and I were able to step out in a limited capacity but I want to grow that medium and share more.
With this first solo release out of the gate, the path is wide open for Wadsworth to continue exploring the wide berth of his musical territory. In the time between now and the eventual return to traditional concerts, there's no question that he’ll be hard at work in the lab putting together a host of fresh material for the inevitable in-state debut of Wadsworth Music.
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