Career
During live performances, Tatum is joined by additional musicians, currently Nathan Goodman (guitar), Jeff Haley (bass), Kevin Knight (keyboards) and Jeremiah Johnson (drums). To date, Wild Nothing has released three studio albums, Gemini (2010), Nocturne (2012) and Life of Pause (2016), and two EPs, Golden Haze (2010) and Empty Estate (2013). Jack Tatum (whose full name is John Alexander Tatum) previously played in bands Jack and the Whale and FACEPAINT in the college town of Blacksburg.
He began recording under the name Wild Nothing in the summer of 2009.
Emerging at a time when a handful of C86-esque groups were in vogue, Tatum"s demos garnered attention in indie music circles with a cover of Kate Bush"s "Cloudbusting." Tatum signed with the Captured Tracks record label after the success of these demos, and began touring with Haley, Goodman and drummer Max Brooks. Wild Nothing"s first single, "Summer Holiday," was released on Captured Tracks in 2009, followed by "Cloudbusting." The band"s debut full-length, Gemini, was released in the spring of 2010.
Gemini was ranked the 49th best album of 2010 by Pitchfork Media and 36th best album of 2010 by Amazon.com music editors. Blogcritics wrote, "While I wasn"t totally convinced with Gemini as a whole, I adored it in chunks".
Follow-up European Parliament Golden Haze was released in October 2010.
Wild Nothing released their second album, Nocturne, on August 28, 2012, via Captured Tracks. The album was well received critically and commercially, debuting at Number. 1 on both the Billboard New Artist & Alternative New Artist charts, receiving "Best New Music" from Pitchfork, and receiving top slots on the year-end lists of Under the Radar and iTunes Alternative.
Wild Nothing"s next European Parliament, Empty Estate, was released on May 14, 2013.
On October 7, 2014, Wild Nothing announced the production of their third studio album. On January 6, 2015, Tatum announced that he was en route to Stockholm to begin recording.
On November 24, 2015, Wild Nothing announced their third studio album, Life of Pause, would be released on February 19, 2016 on Captured Tracks. A double-sided single "To Know You"/"television Queen", was released the same day, with accompanying music videos for both tracks.
Founding member and songwriter Tatum records Wild Nothing"s albums and EPs alone, and is subsequently joined by the other members for live performances.
In 2013, he stated: "I’m not really sure what we are at this point. lieutenant’s a weird grey area. On the road, it definitely feels like a band.
The live show’s all about how we individually interpret the songs I made – there’s five different takes on them.
But the records are all medical Gemini was all me, and so was Nocturne, save for the drums."
Current
Jeff Haley - bass guitar
Nathan Goodman - guitar
Jeremiah Johnson - drums
Kevin Knight - keyboards
Former
Michael Skattum - drums
Max Brooks - drums
Clay Violand - bass guitar
Pete Chudzick - drums.
