Wander Wildner

Wander Wildner is an obligatory name in any brazilian rock virtual encyclopedia since he started as lead vocal in the 1980’s with Os Replicantes – the most influential punk rock band in Brazil. Wander is a passionate and visceral guy living in permanent conflict (but who doesn’t today…). What makes of him a true pop artist is certainly the gift of transforming and delivering his own interior conflicts in music and lyrics in a straight forward way. Wander creates music easily because his music comes right from the heart. With six albums released until 2008, he launched his solo career in 1996 with Baladas Sangrentas (Bloody Ballads) produced by Tom Capone, a very well known and respected brazilian producer. Baladas Sangrentas established a style self-nominated “punk brega”, a mix of punk rock influences with the very popular brazilian music – the so called “brega music”. In addition some songs were sung in a language Wander defined as “español selvagem” (something like ‘wild spanish’). With Buenos Dias (1999), his second album, the punk influences ruled over all tracks. The third coming, with the unbelievable title “Eu Sou Feio… Mas Sou Bonito” (I Am Ugly… But I Am Gorgeous) (2001), the punk brega style appears in a still more diluted form resulting in an album of straight and simple songs. In 2004, Wander released “Paraquedas do Coração” (freely translated, Heart Parachutes), also produced by the great late Tom Capone (he died in a motorcycle crash at Los Angeles, in ….., soon after receiving a Grammy Award for his work as a producer for brazilian singer Maria Rita). In 2005, Wander divided the CD/DVD “Acústico MTV Bandas Gauchas” with other three artists from his native state, Rio Grande do Sul. Towards the end of that same year, he released the compilation album “10 Anos Bebendo Vinho” (10 Years Drinking Wine, a title that is a reference do “Bebendo Vinho” (Drinking Wine), one of his first and biggest hit as a solo artist). In 2008, he came with “La Cancion Inesperada” (The Unexpected Song), produced by Kassin and Berna Cepas, a team of highly saluted contemporary producers in Brazil. The new record has a bunch of surprising new songs and a lots of invited artists as Rodrigo Barba (drums, from the now extinct brazilian band Los Hermanos), Moreno Veloso (cello, son of Caetano Veloso, one of the greatest brazilian composers), Jorge Mautner (violin, a legendary name in brazilian music since the 1950’s), Flu (bass, from the seminal brazilian band DeFalla), João Vicente (accordion, from the very successful group Nenhum de Nós), Gabriel Musak and the long time partner Jimi Joe (guitars and harmonica). Wander has been putting typical guitar rock riffs to the so called “brega music”, but never achieved an album so complex in its simplicity, so accordingly with the concept of the artist that sails between naiveté and thoroughness in one single lyric.