Alohop Indie Folk

“We never made a decision to write music together,” says Kelsey Wilson of Austin-based Wild Child. “It just accidentally happened.” In 2009, Wilson met Alexander Beggins on tour with Danish band The Migrant. Beggins was constantly playing a riff and one day, Wilson started singing a melody. “We wrote the whole song and immediately recorded it. Afterward, we wrote a second, and a third on the next day.” They play a ukulele in each song, but that wasn’t planned. “It was just there at the time we started writing,” Beggins says. “It became a staple of the band.” To round out their vocal harmonies they added members on drums, cello, keys and electric bass. “We are the weirdest group of people,” Wilson says. “None of us would hang out if it weren’t for this music.” The result is an eclectic indie-pop/gypsy-folk blend that Beggins calls “Alohop.” The duo took a different approach on their sophomore album The Runaround, including writing rowdier songs with live performances in mind and working with a producer, Grammy-nominated Ben Kweller. “He’s the nicest and happiest person,” Wilson says. “He’s incredibly professional and we’re the opposite. He was always excited about what we were doing even when we were tired of it. He would say, ‘That was so great. Here, take a shot of whiskey and run around the studio.’”