Notes from Vivace Features: NFV Song Spotlight: Hailey Wild's Wake Up

The USC Thornton School of Music senior Hailey Wild had the WFNM night at Hotel Ziggy rocking. It was a perfect blend of hard rock anthems and the Sunset Strip. She opened up the set with Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" that solidified her rocker bona fides from the start.

Hailey Wild at Hotel Ziggy

To the side of the stage, a handful of friends hung out on the venue's long couch. She waved them to hang-out at the front of the stage, but they had the casual Los Angeles music attitude and with smiles indicated they were sitting tight.

After her Nirvana cover, she sang her most recent release "Wake Up" (and the spotlight song of this post). It had her putting on that classic Sunset Strip performance. She let her guitarist Christopher Justin start off the catchy vibes of the music. When she joined on vocals, her lyrics immediately got to the point of the song, which highlights the seedy nature that the music business can be, "In the back room, that's where she goes to have some fun. Chasing dreams that will never fully come." Her backing vocalists Aden Black and Sophia Rae helped kick up the volume as the three belted out "Living in heaven but you're dancing with the devils."

Hailey Wild at Hotel Ziggy

She definitely has studied up on her Sunset Strip band history as she bent her knees, leaned back and brought that microphone up high to hit the high notes of the song. She also tossed in the class hair fling. Showing how relaxed she is at performing, she took a singing break and took a couple steps over to her other guitarist Manuel Martinez, "Manny, are you a wake. Are you awake? I need you f*cking awake!" Wake up, Manny." That was his clue to duck between the two backing vocalists and take his place at the front of the stage to show off his skills.

The song lyrics take us on the journey of a young woman who wants that dream of being a rock star. A person in the industry be it a music executive, a fellow musician, venue owner, media journalist, or anyone else associated with the scene promises her a short cut to that dream. That short cut involves drugs and sex and being just one of millions that this individual has manipulated for his own abusive pleasure. The song ends with a depressing ending, "She never woke up."

Hailey Wild at Hotel Ziggy

Did Wild's friends on the coach ever go to the front of the stage? Well, when keyboardist Eyén Paredes took to the stage to join in on some of the songs, a friend was convinced that this was the moment to take some iPhone music videos. There always has to be an impetus.

What is interesting is seeing how Wild's music style has changed over the years. You can see that via the songs that are up on Spotify. During her high school years, the music was pop and R&B in nature. Now in college, she has shifted to Sunset Strip hard rock. And it just has to be mentioned that a future song release could include a bit of kinky sex as there was a song with the title "S&M." Hmm, I wonder what that stands for . . .