Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The woman singing in the kitchen

Acoustic duo Triumph of the Wild chase big dreams out of their little town

Triumph of the Wild misses their jeep, but they love the record it paid for.
Triumph of the Wild misses their jeep, but they love the record it paid for.

“[Anza] is a tiny town at the top of the mountain in between Temecula and Palm Springs,” says Christy Barrett. “There’s a Dairy Queen when you pass through, there’s a Mobil, there’s a Circle K, and a Texaco, and then you’re out of town. My graduating class was about 69 kids. I grew up with those people my whole life, and there wasn’t a whole lot to do unless you rode horses.”

Barrett is one half of the duo Triumph of the Wild. Her bandmate and boyfriend, Ryan Schilling, grew up in a similarly remote fashion. He was raised in Palm Desert. The two met one night when Schilling was awakened by the sound of a woman singing in his kitchen.

Video:

"Sugar"

Triumph of the Wild covers Maroon 5

Triumph of the Wild covers Maroon 5

“It was actually really good, so I got up and went to the kitchen and saw it was Christy. From that point on, I just kind of viewed her as a girlfriend and as a singer [laughs]. I started having her sing on some of my recordings, and she was just too good — so we ended up starting a new project. Now we’re just creative equals.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

The band is a throwback to the Laurel Canyon sound coming out of L.A. in the 1970s. Songs are boiled down to their essence and are basically just the pair’s voices accompanied by Schilling’s acoustic guitar. Barrett occasionally provides extra percussion, even though she is reluctant to dive too deep into the rhythm waters. Early on, the band lucked out and had a drum kit donated to their cause. Schilling handled kick-drum duties onstage, while Barrett manned the low tom, snare, ride cymbal, and tambourine.

“At one point she just kind of lost it,” Schilling explained. “She was just, like, ‘I’m a singer!’ At that point, we kinda cut some stuff out. The snare/tambourine thing took off from there....”

Like many groups these days, the duo crowd-sourced their debut album, We Come with the Dust, via Kickstarter. They surpassed their goal of $4500 and used the money to pay for vinyl and CD production costs. Schilling sold his jeep to pay for the recording of the album.

Place

Merrow

1271 University Avenue, San Diego

“I miss that jeep, but I love my record,” a rather forlorn Schilling said.

Like many Kickstarter projects, the duo created some unique packages to entice donations. For $300, a backer received the “YouTube, WeTube package” — a cover song, of the backer’s choice, performed by the band on YouTube.

“We had one person pick that up,” Schilling said. “We saw that it was Maroon 5 and thought, Whaaaaaat...? So [we] just got crazy with it and put on the slide and just rolled with it. It came out pretty good.”

Triumph of the Wild play a Radio Halloran showcase at the Merrow in Hillcrest next Tuesday, September 1.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

"Christmas Berry" is decorating our landscape, Longest meteor shower of the year

Full "cold moon," extremely high tides
Triumph of the Wild misses their jeep, but they love the record it paid for.
Triumph of the Wild misses their jeep, but they love the record it paid for.

“[Anza] is a tiny town at the top of the mountain in between Temecula and Palm Springs,” says Christy Barrett. “There’s a Dairy Queen when you pass through, there’s a Mobil, there’s a Circle K, and a Texaco, and then you’re out of town. My graduating class was about 69 kids. I grew up with those people my whole life, and there wasn’t a whole lot to do unless you rode horses.”

Barrett is one half of the duo Triumph of the Wild. Her bandmate and boyfriend, Ryan Schilling, grew up in a similarly remote fashion. He was raised in Palm Desert. The two met one night when Schilling was awakened by the sound of a woman singing in his kitchen.

Video:

"Sugar"

Triumph of the Wild covers Maroon 5

Triumph of the Wild covers Maroon 5

“It was actually really good, so I got up and went to the kitchen and saw it was Christy. From that point on, I just kind of viewed her as a girlfriend and as a singer [laughs]. I started having her sing on some of my recordings, and she was just too good — so we ended up starting a new project. Now we’re just creative equals.”

Sponsored
Sponsored

The band is a throwback to the Laurel Canyon sound coming out of L.A. in the 1970s. Songs are boiled down to their essence and are basically just the pair’s voices accompanied by Schilling’s acoustic guitar. Barrett occasionally provides extra percussion, even though she is reluctant to dive too deep into the rhythm waters. Early on, the band lucked out and had a drum kit donated to their cause. Schilling handled kick-drum duties onstage, while Barrett manned the low tom, snare, ride cymbal, and tambourine.

“At one point she just kind of lost it,” Schilling explained. “She was just, like, ‘I’m a singer!’ At that point, we kinda cut some stuff out. The snare/tambourine thing took off from there....”

Like many groups these days, the duo crowd-sourced their debut album, We Come with the Dust, via Kickstarter. They surpassed their goal of $4500 and used the money to pay for vinyl and CD production costs. Schilling sold his jeep to pay for the recording of the album.

Place

Merrow

1271 University Avenue, San Diego

“I miss that jeep, but I love my record,” a rather forlorn Schilling said.

Like many Kickstarter projects, the duo created some unique packages to entice donations. For $300, a backer received the “YouTube, WeTube package” — a cover song, of the backer’s choice, performed by the band on YouTube.

“We had one person pick that up,” Schilling said. “We saw that it was Maroon 5 and thought, Whaaaaaat...? So [we] just got crazy with it and put on the slide and just rolled with it. It came out pretty good.”

Triumph of the Wild play a Radio Halloran showcase at the Merrow in Hillcrest next Tuesday, September 1.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

San Diego Fix it Clinic, Gaslamp Holiday Pet Parade

Events December 14-December 18, 2024
Next Article

How Much Time Do I Get With My BetterHelp Therapist?

Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader