#4 in our series features the duo that came in at #2 in our Top 5 Local Artists of 2017 as voted on by our listeners:
Radio 94/5 Artist 10 Questions
1) What is the name of the band?
Keenwild
2) What are all the members names?
Jeney Kingsbury and Bill Gould
3) What previous bands were any members in?
Jeney: Only my school choir in Wilson Kansas.
Bill was in the bands Superdank, Lance Bugle and Funk Projekt
4) What bands or artists influenced you?
Jeney:
As a kid I grew up listening to classic rock like The Doors, The Beatles, Janis Joplin and Tom Petty. When I started choosing my own music as a teenager, I diversified. Listening to hard rock like Stone Temple Pilots and Nirvana; female pop and softer stuff like Jewel, Joan Osborne and Alanis Morrisette; Pop Punk anthems from Green Day and Good Charlotte; and some Rap and R&B like Destiny’s Child, Bone Thugs N Harmony and Tupac. I still love all those genres and have expanded my list to include Foo Fighters, The Killers, Jason Mraz, Saves the Day, Adele, J. Cole, Bruno Mars, Taylor Swift and some Pop Country like Sam Hunt, Maren Morris and Lady Antebellum. I really love anything that is dancy and will put me in a good mood or something slow and melodic with poignant lyrics.
Bill: My songwriting is heavily influenced by The Beatles, The Killers, Green Day, Linkin Park, Third Eye Blind and more recently Shane McAnally. While I don’t consider myself as good as these folks, my guitar playing is influenced by Izzy Stradlin, Billie Joe Armstrong, Willie Nelson and Jim Croce.
5) What was your first ever gig?
Our first gig as a band was with some thrash and metal type bands (Meat Grinder and Toys That Kill). We were the opener. It was an ’interesting’ experience to say the least. Good part is the bands girlfriends and a few of their female fans were into our songs!
6) What was your best ever gig?
While on a tour, we played a sold-out theater show in St George UT with A Thorn For Every Heart and Brown Eye Deception – that was fantastic. A thousand people vibing to your music at once gives you a feeling that is so incredible it is hard to describe.
7) What is best song you have ever written?
Jeney: Bill writes most of the music since I do not play an instrument, but we share the lyrical duty. I would have to say for me it is between Shadows, which I was able to unload a lot of emotions into or Seventeen, because it tells a story, my story.
Bill: Rivers is a song I wrote all the music and lyrics to, as well a song called Somedays off of our last EP. I would say I am most happy with them, however I think that my change after we are done with this new record.
8) What do you hope to accomplish in the next year?
We will be putting out our new album Memories. It will be a double album, titled ‘Now’ ‘& Then’ and will feature our newest songs written specifically for this record and remastered old tracks that are now out of print. We plan on releasing our new single to radio in a few weeks and hope to tour as much as possible.
9) What artist would you most like to collaborate with?
Jeney: The list is way too long! I would love to work with Jack Antanoff. His band Steel Train played shows for us a decade ago and I have always loved his song writing. Taylor Swift and Ryan Tedder really know how to write a good pop song, that would be fun as well.
Bill: I would love to colab with Pharrell, I think he is amazing and brings so much to each artist he works with, second to him would be Ryan Tedder – again, he is a guy who seems to bring out the best in every artist, no matter the genre.
10) How would you describe your music.
Jeney: Pieces of my soul put into music. I really don’t know how to describe it as a genre. A lot of our songs are so different from each other. Our combined musical diversity has us bouncing from one end of the spectrum to the other.
Bill: It sounds like all our influences and our life experience, put in a bag, shook up, and spilled out as fresh music.