Article Written & Interview Conducted By Dot Smith
Ever since my dad put on his Woody Guthrie CD for the first time when I was five, I knew I loved folk music. Since then, every playlist I’ve ever had has included at least one folk song. I’ve heard more folk music than I can remember, all because of a CD my dad played in the other room 15 years ago.
So when I found the Wildwoods, a folk band from Lincoln, Nebraska, late in 2024, I was taken aback, to say the least. Their music felt new, in a way. The way that their voices sounded together was hauntingly beautiful. It was as if they had taken the dew from a tree after a rainy night and completely imbued their sound with it. It was amazing. I felt just like I had when I fell in love the first time at five years old.
On the very first day of 2025, I sent an email to their press contact, asking if I could interview them about their new album.
On January 20th, I actually got to sit down and interview the band.
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Q: Do you think you guys could introduce yourselves and the band, tell us a little about what you do, and how you came to do what you do now?
Chloe: I am Chloe Gose, I play violin and I sing.
Noah: I’m Noah Gose, I sing and play guitar.
Andy: I’m Andy Vaggalis, I sing and play bass.
Chloe: And we’re The Wildwoods, a folk band from Lincoln, Nebraska. We write folk music and tour around the country playing our songs.
Noah: We started [the band] back in 2012 when Chloe and I were in 8th grade.[We] met and we both realised that we both played and had a love for music. We played locally all throughout high school, where we met Andy and then shortly after graduating, he joined. We’ve had a lot of different line-ups and we toured regionally up until around 2021 or 2022 [when] Andy joined us full-time and we re-formed as a trio. Around summer of 2022, we began to post little one minute [videos] of us covering other people’s songs on our social media pages and those videos started to… take off quite well. We thought of it sort of as an opportunity to share our music as much as we possibly could in the world outside of social media. We love connecting with people, we love building relationships with people from all walks of life. So that’s where we’ve been at for the past few years.
Q: I got the chance to listen to the album for this interview, and as I listened through it, all that I could think of was how wonderful your voices sound together. How are you able to come up with those chords and melodies to make them sound so pleasant?
Noah: I think that sometimes our musical brains are like shovels and y’know, we don’t stop digging until we’re satisfied with the smoothness of things. Whether it be voicings that flow real nicely to pair with harmonies that we try to make them flow as nicely and as smoothly as possible just to kind of make the songs flow like a river, I guess.
Chloe: I feel like, sometimes, and I can’t speak for it because Noah does a lot of the writing, like you’re also listening to other artists that inspire your sound, whether or not you’re realizing that it happens.
Noah: 100%.
Chloe: So it also kinda just depends on the music that we’re listening to at the time of writing.
Andy: With Sweet Niobrara, it kinda showcases something where the chord progression is very classic and isn’t too flashy or showy and then when you least expect it, it’ll take a left turn, leading you to this cool place that ultimately we got to this very classic feel to where it feels vintage but fresh in its own kind of way.
Q: Chloe mentioned a bit ago about listening to artists that inspire you, and I’ve seen a lot of people (including myself) compare what you do to Peter, Paul and Mary. Are they a source of inspiration? Are there any other artists that come to mind with this album?
Chloe: I think it’s time to clear the air. ‘Cus I think a lot of people associate us with Peter Paul and Mary because we sing three part harmonies and there’s two guys and a gal. Although their music is beautiful and we love their stuff, they’ve never really been an inspiration or a thought as we’ve done this project. It’s cool to see people associating our songs with that nostalgic three-part harmony ‘cause that’s kind of what we’re going for but in a different way. But some of our other influences that we listen to a lot are– like with Sweet Niobrara specifically, that song, I feel like it’s very ‘Milk Carton Kids’. They’re a folk duo, two guys, both of them play the guitar and they sing. One of the guitarists, he always does these floaty melodies on the guitar while he’s singing and it’s just very beautiful. They’re very depression-era type harmonies, I guess? Like– I don’t know. (Laughs) That sounds really sad, but y’know, uses stuff like World War II and stuff.
Noah: I feel like our music is maybe a little bit more poppy-sounding than their music, where I feel like less on the traditional side and more on the– not poppy like Doja Cat or something, I don’t know. I don’t know many pop stars nowadays. When we were making these bars, we were listening to a whole lot of Milk Carton Kids, but also people like Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell – some of these masterful songwriters who have songs and albums that are sort of like textbooks for songwriting and arranging.
Andy: And throughout the whole album, there’s a whole lot of genre-bending going on, I feel like, where like on [I Will Follow You to] Willow, the violin part isn’t y’know, inherently bluegrass, it’s just a great hook. So in that way, it being a great hook, you get this sort of poppy feeling. [That’s one] of my favorite parts with the sort of interweaving of genres.
Q: What piece of advice that you’ve been given do you still carry with you today?
Noah: Don’t make music because you think other people will like it. Make music because you like it. I can’t remember who said that or who told me that, but I think a lot of musicians get lost in the world of trying to be impressive versus trying to dig deep into your own soul, which is what art is all about. I think when the big picture is lost when musicians try to be impressive– of course there are a lot of musicians out there who are impressive with ease, but I think there’s more for the heart to make music that you feel good about and [to] not worry about what anybody else says.
Andy: Yeah, I think that most people, rather than enjoying a specific style or sound, enjoy watching an artist being up there and authentically playing something that they believe in, and I feel like a lot of people get lost in their interpretation of what it is that people want.
Chloe: Amen… I don’t really have a set piece of advice, that I distinctly remember someone telling us, but the biggest thing for musicians or for anyone who’s trying to make a career out of being a musician is to keep pursuing what you love. The three of us have the greatest support system at home with our families and our friends and we’re very blessed to be able to do this. We’re living, we’re just following our dreams and that’s why it’s working out because we’re doing what we love.
Q: A few years ago, you talked about this question of “what if”– “What if I had done something different, what if I didn’t pursue this?” Does that advice that you just talked about help alleviate any of those concerns? Do you even still ask yourself what if?
Chloe: We did feel like that, Noah and I, of course, for a little while, just as a duo, and those feelings came right after we graduated college and… I do remember, we stayed at the house of one of our friend’s parents in Georgia and their mom was so supportive of art, even though she was not necessarily an artist herself – for a living she was a college professor – she was just so impressed that we were out there, trying to make it doing what we love. Even if there were 5 people coming out to our shows, she inspired us, at that time, to keep pushing forward. The feeling of “oh, did we make a mistake?” was very short-lived. Right after we graduated, I think just the shock of ending school, “we’re on our own now and making our own decisions” and “hopefully this works out”, that was very shocking. But now we’ve sort of settled into it a bit. Like, it doesn’t matter, we’re just living our life.
Q: And last question for you guys, not even a question really, but if there’s anything at all that you want to say or get out, feel free to just go ahead and do it here.
Chloe: I think I would tell people to keep supporting live music and artists playing shows, because in the age of social media, it’s very easy to just fall in love with someone online and listen to them that way, which is totally fine! But the way that a lot of artists make their living is seeing the fans out at shows. So that’s, like, the biggest thing.
Noah: If you find an artist you love, immerse yourself in the culture.
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The Wildwoods are currently on tour, where they are about to have four shows back to back in Texas. If you find yourself in Galveston, Houston, Austin, or Dallas between Feb. 19 and Feb. 22, go ahead and catch a show! In the meantime, though, they can be found at thewildwoodsband.com or @thewildwoods on Instagram.