Willie Wisely

“I definitely still feel like a Minneapolis guy,” claims Wisely from the California home he shares with his wife and two children. “I grew up there and spent a long time making music there. The musical ties I made in Minneapolis and the things I learned there are still the formative experiences that have led to everything I’m doing now. In L.A. it’s harder to hook up with people; everyone is so busy working on their own thing.”

Be that as it may, Wisely managed to hook up with no shortage of A-list players for his album, including members of Paul McCartney and Dwight Yoakam’s touring bands and Swedish outfit The Soundtrack of Our Lives. The session men helped Wisely craft a lush record, with dollops of smooth keyboards and jazzy lead guitar fills buoying Wisely’s tuneful emotive tenor, providing spot on support whether churning out sparkling mid-tempo pop (album opener “On My Way”) or afoot in more languid melancholy terrain (the sublime “Unfamiliar” co-written with Minneapolis musician Brian Tighe of the Owls). Oddly enough, however, Wisely’s finest moment actually comes in its sparest musical expression, the acoustic ballad “Through Any Window,” an initially slight seeming song whose Beatles-level staying power gradually becomes apparent on multiple listens.

At this point no stranger to the world of celebrity, Wisely’s found a new high profile champion in the form of Jenna Fischer (better known as Pam on NBC’s hit show, The Office). Fischer’s apparently such a die-hard Wisely friend and fan that she volunteered her services to star in the music video for “Through Any Window.” It’s safe to say not too many Minnesota natives have Pam in their rolodex, but Wisely comes across as anything but starry-eyed about his Hollywood connections. “In L.A. you’re surrounded by ambitious people and you don’t have to apologize for it,” states Wisely, “in Minnesota it’s almost like people feel they have to apologize for being ambitious. People still give me attitude and talk shit about me behind my back about moving out here. I don’t worry about it, I’m too busy building new songs and moving forward to care.”

Busy would be an understatement, in addition to the just-released Wisely, there are two other records nearly in the can, one of which was recorded in Minneapolis at Ed Ackerson’s Flower Studios with the original members of the Willie Wisely trio (bassist James Voss, drummer Peter Anderson). Throw fatherhood into the mix and you’ve got a plenty full plate. And although many before him have had problems reconciling being a family man with life as a rock ‘n’ roller Wisely appears to suffer from no such identity crisis, going so far as to name his record label after his daughter, Ella, and penning a tasteful slice of Americana on the new album in her honor.

“Since having kids I think my writing has more clarity and more universality at the same time,” says Wisely. “The youngest person in the family is still me, I still kind of have the child role in our family. The dictum in my family is, ‘Willie follows his dreams,’ that’s not to say I’m a bad father, I definitely help around the house. I feel lucky that my metabolism makes it so I only need five hours of sleep a night. I do wonder how people who like to sleep pull it off. Balancing a family with a music career, particularly where you’re really trying to make it happen, it isn’t easy. But when the kids go to bed I can get down to the basement and work on music until two in the morning.”

Now that Wisely is being unveiled to the world it means plenty of touring in support, with a six week jaunt already planned that includes numerous informal and non-traditional concert venues. “The new record was such a personal statement for me that it made more sense to tour this way,” explains Wisely. “I wind up playing in art galleries and photo studios, in people’s living rooms, at bed and breakfasts. It sounds folky but that’s not what it is, they’re deep connects between me and the fans, particularly since touring with a band isn’t something I feel like doing right now. Not every recording artist’s personality is going to be built for those situations. Sometimes you’re performing to 14 year olds and 80 year olds and they're both in the front row. It doesn’t work for people that are sociopaths or fear their audience. Luckily I don’t have that problem.”