kid_Wy is Wyatt Corder in his most powerful form yet.
At least, that’s the idea behind the project name. Inspired by Dragon Ball Z’s Majin Buu’s mighty alter ego, Kid Buu, Corder says his feel-good rock-pop trio is inspired by friendship, new challenges, and childlike creativity.
“The most powerful version of yourself is tapping into your inner child,” Corder asserts. “And letting your creativity lead.”
Having taken a group of his Westlake High bandmates from school marching band to Austin Music Award-winning touring outfit Big Wy’s Brass Band, Corder knows a thing or two about leading creative projects. For nearly a decade, Corder and his so-called “brass boy band” have reinterpreted traditional New Orleans standards and arranged funk-fusion tracks of their own across Austin and the world.
When the pandemic pushed many musicians to imagine new directions for their output, Corder answered that call in his own way. Alone in his room, as so many of us were, he started oscillating between making beats and strumming an acoustic guitar, trying to write sing-along melodies.
“Having a brass band, you’re not singing a lot,” Corder explains with a chuckle. “I’ve always loved psych rock, [that] kind of craggy, classic rock sound, but also love indie rock as well.”
Leaning into his previously overlooked rock-based roots, Corder started composing bare-bones demos inspired by a love of imagery-driven, simple lyricism and an eagerness to experiment with different musical forms.
In time, the trumpeter recruited occasional collaborator KindKeith, aka Keith Galloway, to help him build the songs out alongside Mamalarky drummer Dylan Hill and Nané bassist Scott McIntyre. The quartet leaned on a shared jazz background to compose through playing, letting the songs take shape over a stretch of time.
“We play the songs for a really long time before we record them,” Galloway says. “When we record them, it’s a living, breathing thing already.”
The laid-back, patient ethos of the project is evident in their outgoing, whimsically layered songs. Corder and Galloway compare each song’s evolution to a lifetime, laughing about raising their songs from diapers to young adulthood.
“I’m so grateful for my band for being down to hear these wacky songs and being my arrangers and, it’s like, my band’s my producers too. They see the song through puberty,” Corder says.
Armed with a solid education and lots of nurturance, “Good 2 u” is ready to leave home. Full of sprightly harmonies and classic rock-infused guitar licks, the single – officially out August 22 but available to stream below for Chronicle readers – boasts pop sensibilities with a sun-soaked feel. The easygoing love song’s childhood, spent being played live for kid_Wy’s friends and fans, is evident in its infectious rhythm and dance-ready keys. Reminiscing on his sonic child as it prepares to leave the nest, Corder says to him, the track sounds like a party, emblematic of the backyard gatherings it grew up in.
“It’s like a party that’s a great party, but you feel that people [are] gonna look out for each other there,” he describes. “It’s also gonna be kind of kooky, kind of hippie, kind of hipster, kind of country, soulful. We just want people to have a good time. We want to share that time with them.”
kid_Wy plays a “Good 2 u” single release show on August 22 at C-Boy’s with Nakia and the Never Not Now.