Dalmatian
The Wildwoods Interview
by Owen Tighe Mahoney
7 October 2026
Noah
Chloe
Andrew
Is there a place that you all played that no one is likely to have heard about but you enjoy?
You know, there's a lot of unique, quirky places all throughout the country. There's a place in Maquoketa, Iowa called Codfish Hollow. We saw The Milk Carton Kids there. Dawes has played there. Norah Jones has played there. It's a barn in the middle of nowhere, though.
A really cool vibe.
Rare Bird Farms in Hot Springs, North Carolina. It's like this farm up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and takes a while to drive up there. It was a pretty decent crowd we had, and then all of a sudden this tricked-out bus rolled up and all these people in steampunk gear got off. In fact, they had a couple pots of soup. It was really cold that night. Pretty sure I was playing my bass with gloves on.Then, these people just rolled up while eating soup together and it tasted so good with how cold it was outside. The warm soup was just so life-giving.
Has playful banter in between songs always been a part of your live shows?
We've always kind of done it. I think when we first started touring full-time, we've always talked in between songs, but I don't know if the joking is just naturally 'cause that's how the three of us are or what. It makes us feel more comfortable on stage talking to the crowd or just kind of joking with each other how we normally would.
Early on, we did a lot of shows where we were just background music and would kind of talk between songs just to pass the time. Our early tours were three, four, or even five-hour-long brewery shows or winery shows, where there might be some people listening, or there might be nobody listening. We had a lot of good practice talking to ourselves on stage. But now that we tour mainly ticketed shows, some of our stuff is planned out, and some of it's not. You know, a lot of it is just kind of on a whim. People come to the shows expecting us to just be, be serious. We're very much not serious people. We're serious about the music, but get off track and goof around and whatnot. I think that catches people off guard a little bit, which makes the shows more interesting.
Is there an artist you have been listening to recently that your fans would find unexpected?
A Tribe Called Quest.
Like '90s and early 2000s hip hop.
People probably wouldn't expect that.
The Wildwoods by Ben Collins
How did growing up and staying in Lincoln, Nebraska influence your music?
Nebraska's very flat. There's parts of Nebraska that are more hilly and not mountainous, but there's just a little bit more going on with the land. We live in Lincoln. In the smaller towns, as you drive through, it's a lot of farmland and slow-paced living. It's not a huge city, but it's a decent size. I feel like the reason why we come back here and we like calling it home is 'cause we're on the road a lot, so it's nice to come back to a place where everything's just very familiar
We didn't really fully appreciate our Nebraska roots until we started touring a lot. And early tours were east of Nebraska, where everything is close together. You can hit cities so easily within short drives. Just going to so many places where there was just an unbelievable amount of traffic and crazy amounts of people and things. We move so fast on tours, to be able to come back to Nebraska where it's familiar is nice. The way we write about Nebraska and sing about Nebraska is of course from a perspective of it being home. Not in like a Bruce Springsteen type of way. Anybody can write about their home because it's the most familiar thing, and it’s either the thing you're wanting to leave the most or the thing you're wanting to return to the most.
TV shows or movies?
Movies.
TV shows
I'm like YouTube, even more so than movies or shows.
Do you watch documentaries on YouTube?
Definitely. I got my algorithm all down to a T. Just how I like it. Get a plate of food and sit back.
Who are your style influences from how you dress to decorate your stages for the live shows?
We've never really been like, "Let's dress like this vibe." It just happens. Vintage or a whimsical aesthetic, I would say. That's what the flowers are for.
I tend to, for a specific run of shows, pick an outfit and keep it.
I think it's all just like our own personal taste and aesthetics that meet up and form our look.
The Wildwoods on Instagram
Listen to their new single Humble Mama on Spotify and Apple Music.