Pete Wilde, the flamboyant Californian rocker who likes his music risqué, has unleashed his second single, Savior.
“Savior is about the shedding away of archaic religious ‘superstition’ and patriarchal values, and finding ‘God’ in the divine feminine energy,” explains the singer, songwriter, and guitarist.
“Being baptised, in the biblical sense, is synonymous with being born again. Thus the lyric ‘Lead me to your waters and baptize me’ is the confession of a man turning away from his past patriarchal/misogynistic ways and accepting his new ‘Savior’: intersectional feminism.
“Savior is the story of a man taking accountability for his misdeeds and turning a new leaf. Recognising divinity in the creator and bearer of life: woman.”
Listening to him sing, and speak, Wilde is clearly a man who knows what he wants: to save rock ‘n’ roll.
“I think a lot of people have forgotten the history and roots of rock ’n’ roll, and now the genre has become murky and blurred,” declares the musician who made a big statement with his debut single, Lucy.
“I am making rock music with groove and a ‘black’ sound that isn’t just funk or pop, but real, original rock ’n’ roll,” he says, referring to rock’s roots in the music of pioneers like Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Willie Dixon.
“We have essentially given it away because it doesn’t reflect or represent us anymore” adds Wilde.
“I think it is important to insert black voices back into this pocket right now. It is like making real ‘juice’ again from real fruit. Right now we have Tang, I want to make real orange juice.”
Nicknamed “Rockstar” as a small child by his loving mother, Wilde seemed destined for success. But, like all the best stories, his has been one of hardships: a distant father, personal demons, witnessing the murder of his best friend, drugs, alcohol, and ultimately prison.
Finding solace in rock ‘n roll (a love nurtured by his stepdad, famed saxophonist Eddie Minifield), he feverishly wrote songs during his sentence. The music gave him purpose and, on his release, Wilde headed for Los Angeles to bring rock ‘n’ roll back to the masses.
Savior is out now on Caption Records/Sony.
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