Episode 32, the Talking South Carolina Podcast Interview with Stephen Russell Wilson of Trolls of Amsterdam

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett – “Steven Wilson 3 to 1. Hey, guys. And welcome back to top in South Carolina. Do that again.”

Angela Barrett – 3 to 1.

Angela Barrett – “Thanks for joining me for another episode of Talking South Carolina. Now today, guys, I have Steven Wilson with the trolls of Amsterdam band. Now, guys, this. He’s a hoot. I just can’t wait. So y’all hang on one side and I bring you in.”

Angela Barrett – Let’s.

Angela Barrett – “All right. Three. Two. One. Well. Hey, Steven, how are you today?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Hey, Angela. I’m doing great. Thanks for having me.”

Angela Barrett – “Thanks for being here. How exciting. So, first of all, half Moon Bay. That had to be like heaven to live.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh, man. Absolutely. Still, over 18 years of my life there, it was pretty, pretty magical. And, good. Good part of my good part of my history for sure.”

Angela Barrett – “Absolutely. My son lived in California. Not in Half Moon Bay for a while, and I was kind of sad when he moved home, because now I didn’t have an excuse to go over there. It was kind of more in the San Francisco area, but I was like, darn. So Trolls of Amsterdam first. Where did the name come from?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh. You mean he would I like it. So me and my my buddies, the original founding members, Armand and Stephane and myself were sitting in my garage, and, I know Grenada right there and hopping back, and we’ve been playing music together for quite a while, and we’re about to release something. You know, finally going to do like an EP, which came out in 2016.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Well, I guess we need a name of this, of this chaos or whatever. Y’all got. And we shot back a few ideas and then we kind of came up with that. And then somebody said, I think Stefan came up with it because he was he grew up in Germany and, had had some experiences in Amsterdam and, but then our minds as well, how we’re going to call ourselves trolls of Amsterdam, we’re all from California.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “I’m like, who cares? It’s just a name. It’s just a name, you know? Right. He’s not a it just kind of stuck in it. There’s some. It gets a little deeper. I think, Stefan might have had some type of, psychedelic experience in Amsterdam where the troll party started chasing him and thought they were going to kill him.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And, that’s that’s the real deep meaning behind the story. But, yeah, that’s kind of where it came from.”

Angela Barrett – “Wow. And so, hallelujah, we were playing together.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh, man. Oh, well, that’s interesting because, like, right now I’m the only original member. But we started making music together, probably in 2014, 15. And I really only been touring with the band for the last 3 to 4 years. Off and on.”

Angela Barrett – “Gotcha. Yeah. And. Well, I know you off tour. You’ve been back to California. I know that I saw that you had done some shows there, and certainly around in this area. What is your what would you say your biggest, platform has been? Where? I mean, where you played.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh, man. That’s a good question. We’ve done some, like, outdoor festivals in California. Not been two huge yet. With this project. We.”

Angela Barrett – “Did, what’s your favorite.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Man? You know, there’s a couple other little gems out there. Honestly, one of my favorite places to see or play a show right now in is actually. Oh, and, in South Carolina.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, yeah.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – Have you been.

Angela Barrett – “To a show there? No, but I have heard people say.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “It is epic and it’s, really encourage any and all bands to to reach out to Eddy. They’re super, warm and welcoming or not, they’re easy to work with is kind of how it should be for a, for a venue. I mean, it’s I can’t say enough good things about it and it’s not too big. It’s not too small, it’s family friendly.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “The shows are on Wednesday nights and the vibe there is just unbelievable. People are there to have fun. It’s, So that’s one of my favorite places to play in the, you know, in the Carolinas. For sure.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Now, what would you say? Where would your general be for the band? I mean, because I’ve listened to some of it and, you know, I get a little bluesy feel maybe, we’ll. And then I get a little, what I call shag music kind of feel. And then there’s some horror stuff. So where when you sing along.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh, man, it’s, you know, it’s it’s tough to put a genre on it. When people ask me what kind of music is I like, it’s eclectic, you know, it’s, there’s a bit of everything. Just kind of a representative of of, of who I am. I say, you know, and my experiences and just, I think it comes out in the music.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “So it’s all over the place. I mean, it’s rock and roll, it’s fog. It’s a little. Some of the songs are country leaning. There’s even some reggae vibes in there. Yeah. America, I kind of came up in the late 80s and 90s, and I think that’s reflected in the music.”

Angela Barrett – “So tell me, I understand that you played a birthday bash for James Brown. Yes.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – That’s a true story. That’s a true story.

Angela Barrett – I had to be there. Had to be phenomenal.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “It was off the chain. It was one of the. I was so lucky to get to do that, in my late 20s at the time, probably. And that was back in 90 was in 97. We got to play with the band at the time was, one of my first, actually my first band. My first real bad is a band called mother of two, and we got to play, the James Brown Birthday Bash in Augusta, Georgia at the Bell Auditorium.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “You know, thousands and thousands of people. It was, surreal looking back on it, I didn’t realize how fortunate I was that y’all just didn’t realize what was happening. And, but, yeah, it was cool. Got that? Not only play. I’ve got to meet him a few times, and we’d see him in Augusta. Riding around in his Rolls-Royce or at a restaurant.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – It was pretty cool. And I got the birthday cake with them. So. Yeah. But now and I look at.

Angela Barrett – “You know, only I think I would ask this. What kind of birthday cake? Oh.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Yeah. What was it? I don’t know, is it.”

Angela Barrett – It’s long ago. Yeah.

Stephen Russell Wilson – I they go white like cake. Got a little.

Angela Barrett – So now what point was it. Troll of Amsterdam. That was managed by the same people that managed James Brown. Or was it a different brand?

Stephen Russell Wilson – “No. That was that was my earlier band. That was a mother of two. We, you know, one of the guys working with, Mr. Brown’s organization had found us somehow. And then really, how languorous have really launched our career and kind of catapulted us and that was, that whipped us into shape. Really learned to learned so much from being around that organization.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Sure, sure. Just an amazing.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah. Because I would say that’s not small town.

Stephen Russell Wilson – Great. It was great.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Now, how many, albums or records do you have published for right now? Okay. All the day, I guess.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Sure. I guess working backwards. I mean, my latest record was, came out in fall of 21. It’s been out about a little over three years. And that was, trolls of Amsterdam Wilson Drive. It’s a full length record, probably. You know, it’s it did good on the college charts there for a minute and, and back up before that.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “2016, we put out an EP, Trolls of Amsterdam. That’s like 4 or 5 songs and really, man, we just put it out, not even worry about anything. It was some of it’s just skits and banter. It’s really kind of quite ridiculous. But, it was fun, you know? That’s where it all began. And, that, that was that’s the only two records that band has out.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “I did some stuff out in California, like I helped produce some records. One of them was a reggae record. It was called culture. Culture Canute and the Rock Stone players. Yes. I got some credits on that one. I did like some background vocals, but it wasn’t really my band. And that’s the legendary artists. His name is Can You Davis.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And he’s from Montego Bay, Jamaica. And he would tell us stories of when he was younger kicking the ball with Bob Marley. So that was pretty, well, pretty cool. And the funny thing is about that band culture, Canute, those guys, fast forward to now. Some of them, actually, the majority of those guys will come out and play shows with me.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Or if I go to California, some of them will do shows with, oh, neat. It’s pretty. Who knows? Because back then I was kind of like managing them and running sound for those guys, and eventually I become their reggae. I’m sorry, their rhythm guitar player. And it’s just been you never know what these things are going to fall into place.”

Angela Barrett – “That’s right. Never know. That’s for sure. And so how. Yeah. So we’ll say go ahead, tell me about the records and I’ll go about that. And oh that’s.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Not because it never was. That was fun. It was kind of like getting to do some reggae stuff for a while. We did some shows out West and a little bit of Trail of West Coast of that project. But the, the guitar player from that band, Matt Gilbert, who’s actually now my producer out in San Francisco, is the one I produced.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “My last record, Rolls of Amsterdam.”

Angela Barrett – “Nice, nice. And so how old were you? With the reggae band.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Did you do you probably, probably about 3 or 4 year chapter. Maybe a little longer? Yeah. No.”

Angela Barrett – And that’s nice.

Stephen Russell Wilson – Incarnations. Yeah.

Angela Barrett – “One of my favorites is reggae. And my sons, Omar, especially his, technique is a Bob Marley, you know, big done band. Yeah. In fact, we there is a there’s a joke after we saw the Bob Marley movie, we’re like, oh my God, we really did raise a Bob Marley because he is a very piece, you know, everybody just please go along and you know he.”

Angela Barrett – “Is he doing right? He just fits right into that whole thing. Oh my God, we really did reservoir Marley, which is not a bad thing at all. I think we could all use a little more of that.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh, yeah? You any more Bob Marley? You’d realize for.”

Angela Barrett – “Sure. That’s exactly right. So from. So let’s do a timeline. Maybe so your first name was way back. Name one you said, I think.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “I went, yeah, by 1991, I would. I got a little time I hear with the started USC Aiken in 91, I think I was in a band by 92, 93. Yeah, that’s kind of where it began. So in and out of bands for the better part of 30 years.”

Angela Barrett – Was the longest band stint you had?

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Probably this one probably. I mean, if you think about when we started Trials of Amsterdam, it’s going on. Wow, over ten years. I’ll get to, you know, quite a while. You think about that.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, absolutely. Now there is a, encounter or story you have that I can’t wait to hear. Bunny Wailer.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh, yeah. Speaking of reggae, right.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “That’s right. Okay. So, yeah, it was, man, it was is too surreal looking back on it too. I was playing a show at the House of Blues in Myrtle Beach. Yes. And we were opening up for The Wailers, which was, you know, out of this world in its own right. Again, just had no idea how amazing back then, you know?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “You know, just too young and dumb and full of bubblegum to realize what was really happening. And we were, I’m backstage in the in the green room and, or, like, walking to a bathroom, water and in a serious do. Then there’s reggae guy in there. I realized, oh, man, this is this is one of the Wailers, and it’s Bunny Wells.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And he comes up to me and I say, how’s it going with the all good man? And then he starts asking me if me and my boys had any had any weed. Like, let me get this straight. I said, you’re the you’re you’re in the Wailers, you’re legendary member of the band. And you’re asking me I’m like, oh my God.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “So, I said, let me see what I can do. You def. And so.”

Angela Barrett – That’s very.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Yeah, it was crazy. It’s just crazy. That’s my Bunny Wailer story. I couldn’t believe it. Wow. You know.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Well, that’s big down there, too. I like it again. I love those guys for sure. So how did where did you start playing music? And then you learned as a child. Were you live by yourself or were you taught?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Not really taught. Not classically trained. I made it in college. I took maybe a piano class or two, took a couple of voice classes. And I just kind of had always been into singing and stuff and started singing very. I remember being at USC Aiken in my dorm, and I was so nervous at first. I go in the bathroom and close the door.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “It had the microphone, but then my guitar player and some other, you know, people be out in the living room with, I would be singing, but you could even see me. Then eventually, take I did. My first ever show was at the Fremont Club in, Aiken, South Carolina, probably 1993, and probably stood there were my eyes closed the whole time, but there was, you know, hundreds of people there, and they were pure.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “So no classical training, really just. And mostly I had been a singer and then I, I don’t know, somewhere along the line, I started picking up the guitar just to try to write songs, and I would describe myself as a, a decent rhythm guitar player. Maybe, you know, a not enough to get myself in trouble.”

Angela Barrett – So I ask every musician that I talk with and every answer is different. What comes first? The music or the lyrics?

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh, man, it just depends. I think it just depends.”

Angela Barrett – I get that a lot.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Yeah, it just depends. Sometimes. Sometimes all of it. Sometimes it just depends on how it comes flowing down. You know, a lot of times it’s just like a guitar riff, maybe. And then you just try to put something on top of it. I find for me it’s usually the best stuff is the stuff that comes first, you know, just go try to overthink it.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “So maybe, maybe lyrics, mostly, maybe words, lyrics, melodies and then try to work it out on the guitar. Sometimes a piano.”

Angela Barrett – “Is I know you have like you’ve written lyrics and they stay buried. You know what is more down somewhere down the line. And then you come across some lyric or, you know, I even put something to this, or are you one of those that you kind of write the lyrics and let’s go ahead and think of some, well, how the music’s going to play lyrics.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Yeah, probably have more lyrics laying around than I’ll ever deal with. You know? It’s like I’m probably lost so many stacks of boxes and stuff. But, you know, one good thing about technology, I feel like with the iPhone, you can just put them in there or make the notes and do a quick little. So that’s been that’s kind of cool.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And I’ll do it. Yeah. I probably got dozens of songs on there that haven’t been released yet and just like ideas and stuff, but, not to mention on my refrigerator, I’ve got probably eight, ten songs that have been up there for about a year, and I want to try to cut somewhere this year. And, that’ll probably be more like my own project.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “I just do Steve and Russell Wilson and, finally be myself all these years later.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, yeah, I get it. So, somewhere along the way, I heard about you have these crazy dreams. And maybe that’s where song music comes from, but did you actually dream up above Beyonce at one point?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Yeah, that’s a true story. That’s that’s crazy. You’re asking me that right on. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Power of dreams, man. Don’t underestimate him. I’m not. Yeah. I’m not. Only have I got them like, songs kind of downloaded that way, but, Wow. And moved back to North Augusta from California. Was it? I guess they moved here July 2021.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And I remember I’d spent 14 days on the road by myself, drive across the country, and I stopped in Nashville to see my album was makes. It hadn’t come out yet. And, I met a songwriter guy there. And next thing you know, on the 5th of July, I’m on stage playing songs off the record before it even came out.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And, I couldn’t believe how wide open Nashville was in the middle of the pandemic because it way different than the West Coast in their part, you know? So it’s too cool. So that was kind of like my trek across the country, like, well, I could I was like, I could stay on the road forever. But I had to get back to Carolina cause my son Waylon was about to have his, it was his 10th birthday.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – 11th birthday? What are you.

Angela Barrett – Doing?

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Yeah. Thank you. Right. As it is a good neck. Anyway, I, I got to Carolina and I’m sitting in my house out in the country, and I’m kind of like, wow, major changes had happened in my life, and I kind of surrendered and left everything I knew and love kind of behind in California. Kind of let the surfing, living at the beach and following my divorce and the pandemic.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And it’s July, August, September comes around and I’m just kind of like, still get my bearings. And I had this dream about this woman, and I’m sitting in this classroom like this old school classroom, and there’s this teacher writing on a blackboard. I’m sitting in the classroom and to my left is one of my best friends and the teacher.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “You can’t see her face. And she turns and looks for the first time, and I see her face, and she looks at the class and she looks at me. She says, so which one of you is coming home with me? And I look at my buddy Jamie and I raise my hand. I’m like, I’ll do it. And and I woke up and so I woke up.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “I’m like, Holy, holy moly, what was that? I couldn’t believe it. And I knew immediately who it was. It was, a woman named Marla Gibson, who I hadn’t seen in about 28 years how to talk to her. No contact whatsoever. And I just couldn’t believe it was such a powerful, powerful dream. And I said, man, I gotta find this woman.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “I gotta find her, and I, I like making my coffee, and I’m trying to, like, remember the dream in my head making my coffee. And I finally I get a light and I try to search her up. And I almost gave up because I couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find it. And I said, you know what? You can’t give up.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Let me just try one more time. That I remember. Someone had said she was in the yoga like a yoga instructor. So I type her name in yoga and boom, she pops up, but she’s got like a different last name. I’m like, oh, I’m on zoom in. Like, man, that’s her. I’m oh my God. She’s she’s she’s like more beautiful now than I remember us as crazy as it.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh well she’s got a different last name. She’s probably married, but I’m just gonna say hello. We’re old friends, you know, so I find her on, like, Instagram. Two days later, she responds. Long story short, we have talked or zoom every single day sets a year. I’ve been down the matter for our first date in Panama. We just found out an amazing time and proposed to her a year after I found her.”

Angela Barrett – Wow. All from her dream.

Stephen Russell Wilson – Of her dream.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, yeah. Dreams can be powerful. And in both ways good. And sometimes not so. But, my dad and I have this, through dreams a lot of times, sort of an ESB. And we’ll both wake up, we’ll call each other and go, and I’m like, I know what you’re gonna say. Or he’ll say, I know what you’re right.”

Angela Barrett – “But it’s just one of those weird things between dad and I. So I do know the power of great words. Yeah. It’s like, yeah, it is crazy. So now what do we have? Where are you going next? What’s what’s our next steps?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Gotcha, gotcha. Right now I’m waiting to hear back for some folks. Looks like we’re for all shakes out. We might have a nice gig right around Masters here in Augusta.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Yeah, that would be. Yeah. I’m kind of waiting to take some meetings and have some sit down with some folks, but I don’t want to say too much about that. I’m at. It is in development. That that would be. That’d be very exciting and pretty. Pretty big time if, if at all transit, you know, comes to fruition, which I think it will.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Other than that, I’ve got a little, like a Lowcountry run, shaping up in April, April 30th. I could I think we got one on the books and all wind up, and the boys have told me they looks like they can come out from, Louisville, Kentucky and Kansas City. My rhythm section, who I used to play with in California.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And if they can come, we’re going to try to stitch a 5 or 6 shows together, maybe do all in, Charleston, maybe hit. I would love to hit Hampton where I grew up, but there’s not there’s really no venues there. And probably so that will stop by Columbia, who knows? Waiting to hear from some folks in North Augusta and then probably wrap it up with a Sunday.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “There’s a festival in Augusta called the Somerville Porch Festival, which we played last year. It was it was one of the coolest things I did all year. I couldn’t believe it. You know, people open up their homes and it was just an amazing turnout. And I was like, wow, I just couldn’t believe it.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. That is that’s that’s pretty cool. So now that you mention your band, they’re not obviously in Augusta with you or.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “No, I’m the only one here. I’m the. Yes. That’s, that’s kind of a trip. You know, that’s like my my ATM. My guitar and I reached out. I always usually games with crazy enough. Speaking of dreams, I mean, it’s like I will if I’m doing myself. I’ll book the shows and not have any idea how I’m going to pull it off.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “You know, either get to get the gig, so don’t worry about the details. You know?”

Angela Barrett – “And so where the rest of the band, where do they live?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “My guitar player and my producer, who was in San Francisco. So that’s.”

Angela Barrett – The whole.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Yeah, he’s he more or less the other main part of my band. It is a hall and he’s got obligations and you can’t always get away, but, Oh, we we’ll probably go back out in the fall in California. We try to do like five cities out there. Waiting to hear back from there. So he with Matt Gilbert, Rock Stone records, Caesar, phenomenal producer.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “If you know anything out in California, anybody needs a record out there, he can help you. And then we’ve got, one of my bass players. Diego. Rumor also is in San Francisco. And so, guys, we have a drummer. They Wilmer who helps us out. And also Frannie, they’re all San Francisco bass. So that’s kind of my crew out there.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And then if it’s east of the Mississippi, I’ll do it, of course. And then, my bass player, Rob, Rob Freeland, is in Kansas City, and then Phil Brown lives in Louisville, Kentucky.”

Angela Barrett – “And get a gardens there. So, you know, we are spread out.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “There, spread out. And those guys are bad. Those two are better known as the Blues Brothers. We earned the nickname The Last Tour of the Blues Brothers in the better, for better or for worse, one of them ran into a waffle House neighbor backing up and had a little too much fun.”

Angela Barrett – Oh yeah. Waffle House I was always a good late night place to go.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh yeah, you play. So yeah, the band is scattered. I’m starting to do a few more like solo shows just for the sake of doing shows and, put put myself a little more out of my comfort zone to do stuff like that.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, well, that’s cool, that’s cool. So you didn’t you mentioned Matt Gilbert and, Rock Stone records. How long have you been working with them?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh, man, I’ve been working with Matt off and on for fantasy, probably 15, 16, 17 years. We used to work together. Matt and I, we did audiovisual and, like, production work and some high end resorts sell the West Coast. And we did union work in San Francisco. We were always musicians and, you know, I, you know, I used to manage his bands and help him.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And then he offered, after building a recording studio, he said, hey, man, if you ever to record your stuff, you know, you help me build my studio so you can gave me a screaming deal I couldn’t refuse. And sure enough, the pandemic. We worked on my record and he kind of pulled me through and I came out. It just far exceeded my expectations, you know?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “So I’m so grateful for the time and energy you put into it. So yeah, we’re pretty tight. We’re it’s nice to work with your wood, your friends, you know.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. All right. So I want to know Wilson a Scott Wilson Boulevard. Right.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – What’s his drive.

Angela Barrett – Wilson drive okay. Yeah. So tell me where that song came from.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Well, Wilson drives the name of the album.”

Angela Barrett – Okay.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “It’s. No, no, there is no song. That’s that’s not the name.”

Angela Barrett – “It’s not the song of sound, okay, I gotcha. I thought that was the name. That was one that I think, didn’t get to listen to. Hey, going on on Instagram, YouTube, listening to some of the others, but I go, oh, that’s interesting. So what is the meaning behind the Wilson drive?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Okay. So that, you know, and that’s a great question. Let’s see. So the record trolls of Amsterdam Wilson Drive was fully recorded, fully mastered. But I’m sitting around waiting on artwork right. Oh I reached I had artist and at this point, you know recorded everything at West and had it recorded and mixed and mastered in California and mastered and, and at Los Angeles, Burbank.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “So the record is done essentially about a waiting on artwork, waiting on artwork. And I had artists, a couple of artists in California waiting to hear back from a couple of artists in either Atlanta or here in Augusta that I was trying to work with and hoping to work with and, some of them did help me out indirectly, but I didn’t exactly get the full art from the, and I’m talking to a buddy here in here in the CsrA who’s also a musician.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Billy is a very prominent artist and musician in his own right. He’s like, man, you cannot sit around waiting on this. He goes, your record is done, man. You got to get it. You got to let the give it to the people. And it kind of, it kind of stuck with us. Yeah. He’s right. You know what on what am I going to do?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Wait month and I kid you not like not even a few days later. Bing, bing. I get a text from a buddy down in New Orleans. And what it is is this picture of this wolf dog, his dog who looks like a wolf from, on Wilson drive down in New Orleans. You are honest. And for me, you were like, oh my God, that’s it.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Because I have history with this dog. This very dog actually bit me on the beach in Half Moon Bay, California, running down the beach and bit my jacket, shredded my jacket like a mama was like, literally bleeding. I’m a Jim. You’re dog. You. What’s up? So me and this dog had this relationship and I’m like, you know what?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – I’m putting I’m putting magic on the record. That’s my. That’s it. I’m tired of waiting on art. It’s a really cool picture. So I had that picture that you see actually.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, it’s black and white right behind.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – Oh yeah. So this dog is a new update. So this is out all this is the picture. The only thing over the logos overlaid troll’s out.

Angela Barrett – “Well it caught my attention. For one it was black and white photography. And I love black and white photography. I used to fool around with it back in the day. It was film. So I called my attention. That was the first thing that caught my attention eyes. But yeah, so that is so that that became the name of the album, the Wilts and Drop.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s funny and I actually scrapped the name of my working title for the record, wasn’t it? That was not even it, that just came out on a whim, last minute. The working title for the record was like a real, I didn’t even know if I was going to call it Trolls of Amsterdam before I was going to call Steven Russell Wilson.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “That’s a whole nother debacle. And the working title for the record, was actually EEG by the sea, EEG by the sea, because I used to live in L Grenada where, where the bass were the band started and I’m like, man, no, I’m to I’m and I just grabbed that last minute and went with this.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. Yeah. So, last question. You’re any film or TV hitting your direction? Okay. Yes. Yes, yes. Very. Tell me about that.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Well, we’ve been working for a while, to try to get some play some songs and some, you know, film and TV. And I have been talking to music supervisors and so a few writer directors, just a matter of time, trying to sort it all out. But, definitely, if you’re out there listening to this podcast, I could, I could use a little help.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “And, you know, those side, the business side is always so much you can do it. I mean, I prefer I’m more enjoy, like, writing the music, performing the music and concentrating on that. But, you know, that is kind of the business side, but it would definitely be cool and kind of a dream come true to do that.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “So if you’re listening and you got any, you know, projects you’re working on, do you want to source some authentic original material? Give me a holler. Let’s do it.”

Angela Barrett – “Absolutely. And when you say to play in the film or TV,”

Angela Barrett – Just sort of the music in the background of a scene or a beginning or an indie. Gotcha.

Stephen Russell Wilson – “That’s kind of what I have in mind. But I mean, certainly there’s other ways to do it, but, you know, like soundtrack essentially supper. Yeah, yeah. Or maybe it’s opening scene or somewhere in the movie or the series. You, you know, you hear you hear my song drinking problem in the background or in the bar, I’ll be like that or backroads or, I think it’s I think it’s, calling for that, you know, and certainly there’s a few, series that are filmed here in South Carolina to me.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Be cool to work with some people, you know, like here. Really boots on the ground. Maybe Charleston area. Augusta, Atlanta, but certainly whatever. You know, a lot of has done in California and New York and Canada, actually, a lot of it was done in Canada.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Well, that is pretty cool. Yeah. So hopefully that will come to fruition soon.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – That’s right. Thank you.

Angela Barrett – “Well, thank you so much for being here today. And this has been a great pleasure and honor. I certainly appreciate it.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Thank you, Angela, for having me.”

Angela Barrett – “Absolutely, absolutely. So, what do you think you’re headed back to? California?”

Stephen Russell Wilson – “Oh, probably going to be. Actually, I’m definitely heading back to California. I’m heading back in last week of March, first week of April to take away land out there for spring break.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, nice.”

Stephen Russell Wilson – Now to go see grandpa.