Andrew Caddick is Jeans Wilder, a San Diego-based disciple of California dream pop who’s recently released his sophomore, stoner-album, Totally. Oozing with hazy, lazy beach blanket fuzz-pop, resonating guitar and dulcet synths under high-as-kites harmonies, the 11-track work sounds like the seashore in summer, when the sun is warm and the sand is squishy.
Between deep inhalations, Jeans clicks away on his computer keys to share his thoughts on smoking bowls, beachy livin’, being sad, and (totally) being in love.
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Though I’m unsure I’d even know how, when I listen to your stuff, I get this crazy urge to smoke a bowl.
Ha! I’m smoking one right now!
If I did smoke, I imagine Totally would be my new favorite album to smoke to…What’s yours?
That’s really hard to say. Ultimately, I think Free Jazz by Ornette Coleman.
Do you smoke to write?
Not always, but mostly. It helps me concentrate, actually.
When and where do you write?
I’ll usually just write at home. I have a little workshop/office/laundry room that I spend a good chunk of time in every day. But sometimes, it’s wherever the mood strikes you, you know? It’s usually while I’m in the shower.
Do you hang at the beach a lot?
Ha! Not really… or not as much as it seems, I’m sure. I mean I live in San Diego, which is basically one giant beach. However, it’s getting very expensive to live here, so a lot of time, unfortunately, is spent indoors, working.
Do you tan or burn?
I burn most places, tan a few others, but mostly shine!
Have you ever surfed?
A few times, but I wasn’t ever really good at it. I wouldn’t call it surfing so much… I just enjoy being in the ocean.
Seen a shark?
I saw all the JAWS movies — even the fourth one. Does that count?
Speaking of beaches (well sort of), would you ever cover The Beach Boys?
Yes I would. I just can’t decide which one I would want to do. Maybe something from Holland.
Would you do a duet with the Beach Boys?
Ultimately, yes…but it’s not the same without Carl and Dennis.
Your music is often billed as ‘melancholic’ and ‘downer pop.’ Are you a sad man, Jeans Wilder?
Yes and no. Do I walk around moping all the time? No. Am I frustrated with life? Sure. Has it been easy? By no means. I’ve had to work my ass off to survive my whole life. But does that make me a sad man? No. Do I wish things were different? Who doesn’t? I still wake up every morning with a fresh start, and that’s fine. Sometimes the day gets me down. That’s life. It doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other times that life is fucking beautiful.
Wait a minute…Who is Jeans Wilder?
Jeans is ME… and now I have a back-up band.
What other names have you gone by?
Dude. Buddy. Dark joke.
Does giving yourself a new name give you an edge creatively?
I think so. I have a lot of projects in the works, on the side, and I feel like one of the reasons people have side projects to begin with is that they are using a name they like better. It’s like a fresh sheet of paper to start with.
I read that Nice Trash was the title of your first LP because that’s what you believed your ex-girlfriend thought of you. So why’d you call your second album, Totally?
It was a very self-deprecating joke between friends. That’s all I’m going to say about it. Nice Trash was a very different time of my life and I’m not looking back, for better or worse. I’m engaged to a wonderful, wonderful woman named Kelsey, and the new LP is called Totally because I am ‘totally’ in love with this woman. It’s basically a giant love letter to her.
If you had to review Totally in just one sentence, what would you say abut it?
Best work yet.
What’s the weirdest thing a reviewer has said about Totally?
That I ‘killed his buzz’ with songs like Sunroof and Dog Years — or maybe being compared to Neil Young’s On the Beach on Pitchfork.
What’s the totally weirdest thing anyone has ever said about you?
Something in French.
And what’s the weirdest question an interviewer’s ever asked you?
“Do you personally know the naked girls in your video?”
Being interviewed is weird, isn’t it?
Yuppa.
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Totally is out now on Everloving Records and can be streamed in its entirety immediately above. Try on some more Jeans Wilder over at Bandcamp and keep up on his news at Twitter.
