Getting to know the man behind the larger than life hair: Big Wild, aka Jackson Stell. Big Wild is an up and coming producer, calling California his home, and has completely taken over the 2016 festival scene by storm. He began his musical career in high school, making music that revolved mainly around hip-hop beats. As his years progressed and musical knowledge grew, he evolved into the electronic remix making wizard that he is now. Under the Foreign Family Collective Label (created by electronic duo ODESZA), has given Big Wild some major ups in the game and has helped his music get more traffic. Getting to speak with one of my biggest inspirations in the music industry; simply because every time I see him perform, I can feel the passion oozing from him, was an awesome experience. If you have been sleeping on Big Wild, catch up before he releases some brand new music for the coming year!
EDM Assassin: Super stoked to be interviewing you right now! My name is Kelsey and I am a writer for EDM Assassin (huge fan). I follow you on Instagram and I feel like you’ve been going back to back a lot, you’re somewhere new every day.
Jackson: This summer has been kind of hectic with that. I’ll fly out on the weekend and do one or two shows. Lately I’ve been doing it a lot but now I have a couple of weeks off.
EDM Assassin: Opening up for Bassnectar in Atlanta is going to be amazing. How do you feel about it?
Jackson: I feel really pumped. I am super stoked to see his audience and his fans. I saw him briefly at Okeechobee Fest and he definitely has the most loyal fans. I am excited to see what he’s about.
EDM Assassin:Are you going to cater your set to the whole basshead mindset, or are you going to stick to your lower key songs?
Jackson: I think I’m probably going to make some changes to the set to make it a little heavier. I’m stoked for it.
EDM Assassin: Do you have any more possible show announcements for the year (maybe Hulaween)?
Jackson: I won’t be doing Hulaween; I think Zed’s Dead will be the last show of the year. I’m keeping a little quiet this winter because I’m working on a project. I’ll be a little more low key then next year I’ll be hitting the road.
EDM Assassin: I was really hoping you might be able to swing that one, but I’m excited to hear with what you release! Do you prefer the smaller intimate sets or the larger ones like Euphoria and Okeechobee?
Jackson: It kind of depends, I like both for different reasons. But, it just kind of depends. Doing all these festivals this summer and playing for huge crowds has been cool. It’s cool to, after a small show, meet some fans and be actually physically closer to people.
EDM Assassin: I would say in the past year you have definitely gotten more popular – what was the moment you knew you wanted to pursue a career in music?
Jackson: I’ve been wanting to do this since high school – I would make hip hop beats and sell them online. I realized that there was something here, and people were interested in my music. From there, I got more into electronic music as I got into college and that was when the Big Wild project started to form. I started to veer a little bit more from hip hop and more into electronic music. I’ve had my eye on music for a while.
EDM Assassin: Where did the name Big Wild come from?
Jackson: Couple things. It was inspired by California and it’s also a statement for my music project as a whole, to be adventurous. The type of music that you would dance to can be really narrow minded I feel like sometimes; and I just wanted to push boundaries and change music.
EDM Assassin: I can definitely see how you do that, you don’t have that typical electronic sound. You provide a unique feel for everything you produce and it’s definitely an awesome thing in the music industry to be different. You’ve been making music for a while, since high school and everything, is there a distinct time you felt where you were struggling and almost gave up?
Jackson: When I first started to get on Soundcloud and put my stuff out there, I didn’t get many views. It was totally discouraging and it was also when I was first starting to produce electronic music; it took me a while to hone in on a sound. There was a couple years there where I was messing around with different things and I was unsure if it was going to work or not. It wasn’t until I opened up to ODESZA that I started to regain confidence. I did get discouraged but I never stopped. I wouldn’t be here right now without them.
EDM Assassin: Would you consider ODESZA one of your influeneces and role models? Do you have any other people you look up to?
Jackson: They are definitely one of the top people that I admire, and I have been inspired by a lot of different musicians throughout my career. It really started with hip hop. I feel like I’m influenced by so many different things it’s hard to pinpoint it, but I am always inspired by someone that makes music that is unique to them; [someone] able to change their style and still keep it true to themselves. First name that comes to mind is David Bowie: he was always adventurous but stayed true to David Bowie.
EDM Assassin: That’s something that never really thought about (staying unique to yourself but still able to change your style). When you were talking about that, the first thing that came in my mind was when you played Rosa Parks by Outkast at Vertex.I had never heard you play that before and when I went home, I looked up the lyrics and was like “wow, that’s pretty neat” because I had never heard it live.
Jackson: Oh definitely, I like to use acapellas from Outkast because they were pioneers in hip-hop. I felt like it was fitting.
EDM Assassin: I know you’ve been doing a lot of festivals this summer, but do you still get nervous before you perform? Do you have any pre-show rituals ?
Jackson: I don’t have any pre-show rituals but I do still get nervous. I don’t have any rituals because I am always thinking about the show already and I don’t want to have to think of anything before the show, I just want to go out and do it. I just want to stop thinking and go do my thing. I totally still do get nervous though; I think what’s changed is that I’m not nervous a day before, I just get nervous about the show 5 minutes before. I think it’s good to get nervous about the show because it means you care about the show; you just have to make sure it doesn’t affect the show.
EDM Assassin: That’s pretty cool! To someone who is looking into producing music, what kind of advice would you give them?
Jackson: I would say the most important thing is to focus on your craft. Focus on making thebest thing you can but something people can’t hear from another artists. That might be good in the short term, but in the long term, you’re going to run away your crowd. It might leave an empty feeling especially if you want to have your own voice and you want to actually communicate but it’s definitely important to have your own sound. Whatever you do in the industry, you have to make sure you have good branding and good imagery and a good name and something that creates a full image of who you are so people can really get to know you.
EDM Assassin: I guess social media kind of helps with that too because we’re able to follow artists and get a glimpse into your life. Kind of silly, but what is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Jackson: Ooooh… have you ever had coconut ice cream? It’s not coconut flavored but it’s actually made with coconut cream. Chocolate ice cream made with coconut is amazing. Once you have it it’s going to be the only thing you want. It’s worth trying one time.
EDM Assassin: That sounds heavenly, I’m definitely going to have to look into getting some. Do you have any final things you’d like to leave your fans with?
Jackson: I just want to say I’m working on a lot of original music and some remixes. I am putting together a project right now; working on a lot of new music. There will definitely be a big push for 2017.
