The eminently talented duo of Kendra Pierroz and Dimitri Saluk have been making beautiful music together for more than 7 years, first in a hard rockin’ band in Kingston as well as a jazz concoction in the Limestone City, and more recently have written and recorded under the banner of the new indie-rock project, Wildbloom.
Now based in Burlington, Ontario, the real-life couple began creating the music for this ambitious and powerfully compelling new group a little over a year ago, with the intention of making a bold and emphatic musical statement. It worked, as the result of their labour and energy is the album Wanderoot, comprised of eight dynamic, diverse and delightfully potent songs, that highlight not only the compositional excellence of the couple, but also Saluk’s deft, technically superior guitar playing and Pierroz’s remarkably engaging and versatile voice.
The singer, who’s joyful spirit, unwavering energy and omnipresent smile make her dynamo as a frontperson, laughed exuberantly when asked about the group’s name.
“I was at a music festival and had a couple too many beers and just came up with it and thought it would be a great idea. There certainly wasn’t a lot of thinking behind it – I just thought it was a cool name. It was definitely fueled by the excitement of seeing live music and seeing other performers. As for the name of the album, we try to travel as much as possible with our music and live together as a duo. It kind of gives us a way of seeing the world, and music gives us something in common wherever we go. We kind of see ourselves as wandering gypsies. But the problem with that is, we are also nesters. We like to put roots down and be homebodies a lot. So, we’re sort of the worst gypsies ever. We have to have a place to put down roots wherever we go, and we always love coming home again,” Pierroz explained.
The songs on Wanderoot cross many genres – and this is a good thing. There is a folk tinge to everything, but Pierroz’ training and experience in musical theatre gives the melodies and vocals a sophistication that goes beyond what one normally hears in the acoustic singer/songwriter style. What is undeniable, even in the quieter moments, is the rock edge and attitude and enthusiasm that infuses ever word and every note.
“I would say it’s indie folk rock, with an emphasis on the rock. We will always be a little bit classic rock with that chick singer edge. That always comes out wherever we go, whatever we do – even if we’re playing jazz with acoustic instruments or top 40 covers. We both have our own style that we bring with us for every project and even when we try to write full-on love songs, for some reason our little idiosyncrasies come through,” Pierroz explained, as she talked about how their differences in personality and songwriting styles compliment rather than clash, truly making the whole greater than the sum of its parts.
“I always brand myself as a storyteller because that is imbedded within me. We’re not just songwriters. He would be happy writing songs and recording music all day long. Whereas I am a performer and I have to take whatever we do together as a unit inside our home and our partnership and bring it outside to the stage. Without that element, I don’t see that there’s a reason to do it. There’s definitely a balance between our approaches. We are in total acknowledgement of the strengths of the other person and totally willing to share our gifts with each other. I will always be the songwriter with the storyteller’s heart and he will always be the rock out solo musician guy. But it works.
“I push him to get up on stage and really develop as a complete performer and continue to share what we’re creating with everyone so that we can develop too by getting that feedback. If you don’t share what you’re doing and get feedback and kind of continue to develop and progress to the next stage of your music with people, you’re never going to develop really as an artist. And he also makes sure that I learn things about recording and all the technical aspects that I just wouldn’t normally have too much interest in. But it’s a necessity for someone who is an indie artist like we are. We’re like a mom and pop shop – and all-in-one venture so you have to have all the bases covered and skills checked off the list within the band. Or else you will have to always been taking your gig money and hiring other people to do stuff.”
Saluk truly is a young musician with an old-school rocker’s heart, having been influenced by the likes of AC/DC and Deep Purple. As mentioned earlier, Pierroz grew up in musical theatre, a way that gave an outlet for her creative spirit, impressively powerful and dynamic singing voice and her truly ebullient and infectiously upbeat personality. Saluk is the prototypical serious, studious musician, while Pierroz is the born performer.
“I did a lot of theatre productions growing up, so I spent a lot of time learning repertoire as opposed to just listening to music. So, basically anything in musical form from old-school pantomimes to your typical Andrew Lloyd Webber shows. I not only was in them, but also knew everybody else’s parts. I was totally saturated in the musical theatre life, but I also loved bands like Our Lady Peace. I still love them, and they definitely influenced me even though you don’t really heart it in my own writing,” she said, adding that the musical partnership and their different approaches and temperaments come to a real apotheosis during the songwriting process.
“Ninety per cent of the time, when we sit down together he will have a riff or I will have a lyric line that is really, really ear worming for us. We will jam it out and develop the song either around his riff or my melodic idea. He is always riff based and he will sometimes also give me a theme to run with. So, for the song Redemption, which is one of my favourite songs on the album and is the only story song on the album, he came through with the main riff and said, ‘I want to tall a story and I want it to be about something with a saloon.’ So, the story of a gunfight in an old west saloon started with that one riff. Very, very seldomly will one of us flesh something out fully without the other person involved.
“I will write a couple of lines and then bring it to him, or he will write one riff, but he won’t write the whole song before basically knowing where I am going to put lyrics and what the gist of the song is going to be about. I guess it’s like when you’re a couple and you know each other so well that you finish each other’s sentences. That’s kind of how it is for Dimitri and I. Once we get nearly finished we will tweak it around because maybe he won’t like a word and I agree and change it, or I will love a solo but there might be one bend in it that’s not sitting right with me. We will just continue to hone it and bounce ideas off each other until we are both satisfied that we have the song that we’re trying to write.”
Returning to the song Redemption, it’s meant not as an homage or glorification of the Hollywood version of the Wild West, but in a way is a commentary on modern gun violence and the senseless ness of it.
“There was a lot of violence and lawlessness back in those days and you see that in Western movies and obviously there’s a lot of violence today. All of it is pointless. It always makes for a sensational news story when there’s a gun battle, but at the end of the day, nothing is accomplished. What the song is really saying is that in a gunfight we lost two good fathers. There’s no actual redemption in the song, so it’s ironic in that way,” Pierroz explained, adding that she and Saluk worked hard to make sure the songs on Wanderoot were entertaining, mostly upbeat, but relevant to the times.
In a similar vein is one of the most rock-oriented tracks, State of Affairs, which again is commenting on some of the big issues that continue to confound, frustrate and negatively impact so many millions of people around the world.
“This was the first song we wrote for this album and it’s my favourite song to perform, especially with a full band. It’s a lot more aggressive that a lot of the other songs on the album. It’s definitely more old-school rock. It sounds a bit like our older stuff and that’s probably because it’s the first one we wrote after coming out of our old band in Kingston, before moving here to Burlington,” she said.
“There were tons going on politically at the time when I was writing it and you can definitely hear that in the lyrics. I think it’s kind of a call to awareness. We must be more mindful of other people, of other culture. It’s not only being angry at the state of the world, but a lot of people don’t try to make the best out of every situation. We don’t have control over everything that happens to us in our every day lives. There is a lyric in the song that says, ‘our bodies aren’t even good for warmth if our cold blood isn’t kind.’ And that’s such a true statement, especially for me personally in my beliefs and how I live my life. So, I am just offering a call to arms to be better, to be kinder and more understanding.”
Look Both Ways sees Pierroz in all her glory as a strong, powerful, insightful and empowering individual.
“The intro to that song was the first thing that Dimitri and I ever wrote together, way back in the day. So, the intro to that song is six and a half years old, but we never did anything with it at the time. When we started to play around with this song one day, he kept playing that intro over and over again, and then it started to click. We kept both the guitar and lyrics for that intro and developed the rest of the song around it,” she said.
“It’s really just a personal, fun song. It’s Kendra being silly. It’s a pump-up song for me. It’s when I need to believe in myself a little more; it’s a reminder that I, as a woman, am unstoppable, and so are all other women in my life.”
Wildbloom performed as a five-piece for their album launch show in Hamilton in early September, to great acclaim from fans. Now that the album is out in physical form and various digital platforms, Pierroz said she and Saluk will essentially tour as an acoustic duo throughout the fall and next spring.
“We are going to be doing a couple of mini tours around Ontario to share as many of the songs as possible, and then in the spring we will be going to British Columbia to do a whole bunch of concerts to keep our fans going out there. We have been getting an awesome fan base out west because of doing the VIA rail train tours. We will be announcing all these tour dates later in September, and we can’t wait to get out there. We are so excited,” she said.
For more information on Wildbloom, the new album Wanderoot and upcoming tour dates, visit https://www.wildbloommusic.com, or https://www.facebook.com/wildbloommusic.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
