The Collection’s David Wimbish Celebrates The Times When We “Get Lost” (INTERVIEW)

North Carolina-based alternative band The Collection has been releasing a steady stream of singles in the past year and building towards a new album with more Pop directions woven into their Roots-inspired background. Their summer 2021 single, “Loud,” took a careful look at why and how we should be motivated to speak up and get involved in the world around us, and now, their latest single, “Get Lost”, which arrived on October 15^th, is challenging in its own way, reframing the idea of being “lost” as a positive place where new personal adventures might begin.

We recently spoke with songwriter David Wimbish from The Collection about how their very active seven-piece band works on stage and in recording processes and what led to the creation of songs like “Loud” and “Lost” within the context of social and personal experiences that have impacted Wimbish. 

Hannah Means-Shannon: You must get this question a lot, but how did The Collection end up with seven people? It’s almost a lost art to work with a larger group of people these days. Do you have seven people on stage during concerts, too?

David Wimbish: We do have seven people on stage. In some ways, that makes for a more consistent live show because it’s a continuous energy between friends on stage. From night to night, your energy with the crowd can change, but no matter what that feels like, there’s consistent energy from bandmates. 

The biggest complication with that is scheduling, but we’ve always focused so hard upon the relationship aspect of the band, since it’s always been important to me that it’s not a bunch of strangers playing music. We work really hard on ways of directing encouragement and we have a “no sarcasm” rule on tour. That doesn’t always work, but when you get two weeks into tour, that sarcasm starts feeling really personal. That stuff has helped us make a seven-piece work.

HMS: I love that rule! I may implement that on road trips in future. Were there larger groups you were looking at that encouraged you to build a larger band?

DW: Back when I was getting into music, I listened to Arcade Fire and that was when they had a ton of people. One of my favorite bands was Anathallo, and they have a lot of members. I love the spectacle of it, being able to have different people doing a little bit of the larger whole. When we first started, we were playing as a 15 piece or an 18 piece with crazy, giant shows. It was super fun but not manageable. But having seven people doesn’t feel stressful to me because of having done those earlier shows.

HMS: The Collection is described as having a “raucous live show”. What do you think has led to that reputation?

DW: [Laughs] I think a lot of the band members grew up listening to a lot of heavier music, Hardcore Music, and Punk music. The earliest concerts I went to were Metal and Punk concerts. Those have been an inspiration. Back then, seeing a band standing perfectly still, even if the music was beautiful, always seemed like a waste of a live show. I always wanted to see something happen. That has always pushed us to try to feel the music and do things that we’re inspired to do. 

Now, I’m constantly turning around, and something is happening. Someone has flipped the bass behind their back and somebody has thrown the guitar twenty feet in the air. Or they’re jumping off into the crowd. There’s just always something going on. It keeps it really fun for us every night to let loose on stage. 

HMS: How does having a lot of members translate when it comes to the recording process on new songs or albums?

DW: I’ve always had an interest in big sounds. When I was getting into recording by myself in my teens, I was into artists like Bright Eyes. I loved that every single song on a Bright Eyes album could have totally different instrumentation than the other songs. There seemed to be this intention of asking, “What does the song need?” Does the song need just a piano, or a full orchestra? I think one of the reasons we started out having a lot of members was truly thinking about the studio and how to build up the songs the way they needed to be. Some of those early arrangements would have twenty people on them. We were recording a lot of that ourselves, and to some extent that still happens. I play violin and cello, so often if we need strings on a record, I’ll just play it. 

HMS: That suggests that you’re writing all the instrumentation for a song well before you set about recording.

DW: It’s different for every song, but a lot of stuff comes to me pretty quickly. A lot of times, I’ll have the shell of a song, and I’ll create a demo with bad-sounding MIDI instruments. But by the time the band is in the studio, I already know where the strings or added instruments will go. As the band works together, either in rehearsals, or digitally due to Covid, some of that can morph and change, but I usually have a pretty good idea of how many pieces an intro will have, for instance.

HMS: It’s great that you have been continuing to write and release new songs during this period. I can really relate to the new song, “Get Lost”. I come from a very strict background, and I think it expresses a lot for people who have heard from friends, family, or society at large, “You’re off the path.” Just using the phrase “get lost” in a neutral or positive way in the song is helpful, I think. What led up to the song for you?

DW: That’s awesome. It feels like a lifetime led up to it, honestly. I also grew up in a very strict environment and for some reason, I’ve always been someone who understood my environment, but has always wanted to push boundaries. I’ve felt that at each stage of my life, or each new measure of freedom. I think it’s that I can’t ignore the feelings that I have deep inside. So as soon as I start having that feeling, that I need to leave a group of people, or I need to leave a set of beliefs, it just gnaws at me, and it doesn’t take long until I do it. 

That’s happened almost continuously, in a lot of situations, like when getting divorced, and still being around a lot of conservative community members. They were all thinking I had totally lost my way. Then there was when I came out of the closet as bi and starting to understand that part of myself. It was a continuous conversation where people want to see you come back to whatever they feel is a safe belief structure. Then I realized that each time where I thought I had truly lost my way, I discovered myself much better. 

It feels like it’s been a lifetime of those experience that made me want to encourage people and say, “Maybe getting lost is the best place to find yourself. Maybe that’s where we should want to be.” That’s part of it, then the other part of it is that in shedding part of yourself or leaving a community can be incredibly isolating and you can lose a lot of friends and connections. That may be for the better, but it still hurts. When the song started coming to me, it very quickly became a goal to make the song a community builder. I wanted people to hear it and know that that experience is one that a lot of people have. 

HMS: It sounds like you’ve had many people come to you, in a well-meaning way, to give you speeches about how you need to live. How do you keep from reacting in anger in those moments? I know from experience that it can get very wearing.

DW: Totally. I can’t say that I haven’t ever reacted in anger, but when I was getting divorced, I was getting a lot of e-mails, messages, and texts, saying “Hey, man, I just wanted to see how you’re doing!” I could tell from who the person was that they wanted to chat to tell me what I was doing wrong. I would just respond, saying, “Hey, it’s nice to hear from you! I’m very willing to chat if the topic has nothing to do with this divorce.” Not a single one of those people then responded to that message. I’ve started following that more. But luckily, now, at this stage of my life, I’ve pissed off enough of the communities around me that they don’t bother with me anymore. But it’s great because I’ve found very loving communities who are so supportive. It’s a better group of people to have around.

HMS: That is wonderful to hear. Another very direct song of yours is “Loud”, which came out over the summer. I like how this song makes complicated things less complicated and picks out the essential. I read that you were frustrated that seemingly progressive friends were arguing, during the protest period, over the value or rightness of protests.

DW: I wrestle back and forth a lot about being a person who has other people listening to their music, wondering what the level of responsibility is for what I was putting out. That specific conversation was wearing on me a lot, but I didn’t want to clog up the space with another white voice commenting on what was going on. I didn’t want to use it like that, so I was avoiding writing a song for a bit. 

But in seeing those conversations happening around me, I saw a space for a responsibility that I had to speak to other white people who were saying, “This doesn’t matter”. Or were arguing about how much it mattered. I went to several protests and saw cops straight-up terrorize people right in front. They were maceing people doing nothing, and I got maced on the first protest. It was hard to watch that and then come home to these online discussions saying that people should not be engaging that way. The song came out of that extreme frustration and anger. 

HMS: I remember seeing so many abstract conversations and debates online, I agree, and this song is the opposite of abstract. It’s visual, and almost tactile with the river imagery included. It also is really a call to action, speaking to others, asking them to speak up and do something. What has reaction to the song been like?

DW: So far, it’s been fairly positive. We’ve been pretty blessed, since I rarely see or hear negative comments from our fans. People are singing it at shows, which is fun. I haven’t heard a lot of debate around it, other than kind support, which is helpful. I was bracing myself before it came out for whatever could happen.

HMS: It’s also a song that doesn’t exactly feel focused on anger. Instead, it feels motivational and has a lot of positivity. Anger can create a lot of motivation, and I’m sure that in some cases it really should, but this seems like a different approach. 

DW: I felt, in this specific situation, like my personal anger was not the anger that needed to be heard. Instead, the song was about listening to other peoples’ anger and encouraging people to join in with it. I tried to mute my own as much as possible to give space to people who have big, real reasons behind their anger.

HMS: That’s a wonderful point. Thanks for commenting on that.