Wisher – Local Shots Artist of the Month
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“They are blending all their influences and going back to their roots, with epic songwriting, melodic guitar riffing, and raw and in-your-face vocal delivery to fill our lives with music. I am excited for the future of Wisher and how they can carry the flag for rock and roll.” -Cesar Gueikian, Gibson Guitars Brand President
Mark Nygard & Jeff Campbell have been making rock music together since 1994 while growing up in and around the Philadelphia music scene, inspired by the likes of mid 90s bands Hum, Failure, Sunny Day Real Estate, Quicksand & Shiner. Mark wrote riffs, Jeff wrote counter guitar parts and vocals. After several mostly failed attempts at getting bands off the ground, Jeff moved to CA in 2005 to pursue a career traipsing around the country with an acoustic guitar, which garnered him some success. Mark entered into a life in trades, selling off his music gear to fund the needed training and equipment.
Jaxon’s Local Shots Artist of the Month – October 2022
2012 saw the return of Shiner & Quicksand, and Failure followed suit in 2014. A highly re-inspired Jeff caught many shows from these bands at various places around the country and met Branden King, a fellow lover of them all, at Shiner show in NYC in 2015. They stayed in close touch as King was from Jeff’s native Philadelphia. Jeff’s want to start playing loud music again grew rapidly.
When life on the road (mostly solo) had worn him down, Jeff and his new wife decided to move back home. While helping him unload the van, lifelong friend Mark asked what was to become of “all these guitars, amps and pedals” that had come back from CA with him, and he was happy to let Mark utilize anything he wanted. A month or so later (and during the thick of the COVID lockdowns) Mark started sending demo after demo of new guitar ideas to Jeff, who immediately picked up where they had left off nearly 2 decades before and started writing complimenting guitar parts. Realizing that most of the ideas he was coming up with were single note melodies, Jeff picked up a bass guitar and it was immediately clear that’s was what his role was to be in this budding project. Remembering that Branden was a local (incredible) drummer that had a flare for all the same music he and Mark had grown up with, demos of the guitar and bass parts were sent to King with an offer that he quickly accepted to add some drum parts.
When COVID protocols finally allowed, the 3 new friends got together at local Philly rehearsal studios to work these new ideas into new songs, and eventually joined with local Philly stalwart producer Steve LaFashia to lay down a debut 4 song EP, self titled with the band name ‘Wisher’. Released in April 2022, the EP immediately captured the attention of Gibson Guitars brand president Cesar Gueikian and Wisher began it’s existence as a Gibson endorsed band. More rehearsals and more songs came fast, and the band will began hitting the road over the summer.
Keep up with Wisher: Official Site | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter
See the band LIVE on 11/4 at the Grape Room and on 12/3 at the Khyber!
Listen to “The Well”
Listen to “Already Inside Out”
Listen to “Fairweather Enemy”
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