Travis Wyrick is the band Wyrick. Some have accused him of just remaking the song "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter ten times on his debut. I disagree-he only did that twice. ;^) Sorry, Travis-I couldn't resist. But there is definitely a vibe along the lines of Filter and early Nine Inch Nails(And if I still had that part...we had a nice casual chat about the great talent of Trent Reznor:Producer). This is pretty much the interview that was printed. It appeared in the May/June issue of 7ball.
One of the first things that you are likely find with Travis Wyrick right away is his love for producers. "I have certain CDs, I go out and buy producers now as much as I go out and buy a CD that I know I'll listen to for fun. Y'know, I go out and buy Lenny Kravitz because I want to listen to it. But I go out and buy Garbage because of the production. " It's an enjoyment he believes we all share. "Me and my friend the other day, we were flippin' through all his CDs and there were a couple CDs where I just really liked the mix. I started lookin who the credits were, and a lot of the producers and mixing guys were the same on each record. And I said,'Have you ever thought we follow producers more than we think?' Y'know, I'm a big Rob Rock fan, a big Mutt Lag fan. I'm not a fan of country, but I can actually listen to a Shania Twain record because Mutt did it. He's just a genius. Even what he turned Def Leppard into, of course now a days it's kinda cheesy, but for it's day it was cool as can be."
Of course, this may have a bit to do with Travis's own role as a producer, a role he has found it to be a true blessing Travis was in a secular band for near eight years, but shortly after his becoming a Christian, he felt the desire to not " tour in some sleaze band or nothin'," so Travis just went with the production/studio side of it. "With the production side of it, oh gosh, you create." And you can hear the excitement in Travis's voice growing as he continues, "A band walks in the door and you really don't know what their gonna sound like. You start to hear someone and you think, 'wow-let me pull em this way.' And then it's all said and done, and it's really cool, or it's really not," Wyrick says with a chuckle. "But I enjoy that challenge now."
Since then Wyrick has done a lot with Rugged, quite a
bit of independent stuff, as well as some stuff for Warner/Reprise with Disciple(who
have since signed to Rugged). But all this led up to Travis missing creating
his OWN work. "You know what? I hear this stuff in my head, and instead
of trying to get someone to do it, I'm just gonna do it. I just wanted to try
and put this whole thing together and see what happens." And Travis found
the his playing field wide open for creation. " So that was the beauty
of it, since there wasn't a band, there were no boundaries. You know, if i wanted
to play kazoo and xylophone, I could, because I wasn't going to have anyone
upset that they weren't playin' on it. It was a great opportunity to do whatever
I felt like doin'."
And what did he end up with? A creation that wandered between the mechanical and the organic. "There's a lot of real guitar, and real bass and of course, real vocals and stuff. But there is a lot of programming and loops and all that, too." All that aside, Travis has a firm belief in WHERE these songs that were in his head. "I just really feel that those songs were gifts from God. I just hope that when it comes time, He's gonna give me some stuff again. If He wants to take it a step this way or a step that way, y'know, I'm just gonna let Him do whatever he wants to do."