Tackling police violence, self-destructive clubbing and emotional codependency, Wilde channels sounds from the redlining Delta blues, sauced up for modern heavy rock fans and drenched with the sound of black Rock’n’Roll, informing his motto, “Make Rock ‘n’ Roll Black Again.” ”I am making rock music with groove and a ‘black’ sound that isn’t just funk or pop, but real, original rock ’n’ roll. We have essentially given it away because it doesn’t reflect or cater to us anymore” says Wilde. He continues, “I think it is important to insert black voices back into culture right now. It’s like making real “juice” again from the source. Right now we have Tang, I want to make real orange juice.”
On the album title, Wilde explains, “‘Sugar & Smoke’ is a metaphor for good and bad. You’ve gotta take the smoke with the sugar sometimes…I wanted to make songs that sound light and fun on the surface, but once you listen more and peel back a couple layers you see they’re all rooted in dark places. So this was me making sugar out of smoke.”
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