Artist Spotlight is a segment that we started to introduce our listeners to some deserving up and coming artists/bands. They have made an impact on us for all of the right reasons. We think they kick ass and we hope you do too! Today we’d like to shine the spotlight on Washington, D.C. rockers Wings Denied.
Wings Denied emerged from the melting pot of Washington, D.C., swiftly making their mark with a unique blend of diverse influences, threading a fine line between metal and alternative rock. Drawing atmospheric elements from Deftones, grungy and blues-filled vocals reminiscent of Alice in Chains, and the experimental edge of progressive rock champions of the ’70s, the band has recently emerged from a brief hiatus.
Fate brought together four students who, despite hailing from different cities and even countries, found themselves living in the same dormitory. Just three months after becoming a cohesive united Wings Denied self-released their debut EP, Awake, which garnered over two thousand downloads within the first twenty-four hours. This unexpected accomplishment provided the encouragement to set off on a journey that gave them a taste for basement shows, debauchery, and sleeping on kitchen floors across the USA and, as of recent, on festival grounds all across Europe and UK.
Honing their craft on the road and touring constantly, in 2014 the band released their first full-length LP, Mirrors for a Prince. The record remained in Bandcamp’s metal “Top 10 Chart” for several weeks while Wings Denied embarked on a two-month national headlining summer tour and a three-week winter tour supporting the album.
The release of the Voyager EP in 2016 showcased the band’s evolving sound across five compelling tracks. The following years were marked by relentless touring, including nationwide support for Native Construct (Metal Blade) and The Convalescence (Unique Leader), along with several headlining tours.
In 2019, Wings Denied made their European debut, performing on the mainstage at Euroblast Festival and touring extensively across the continent. Through their extensive touring, Wings Denied began crafting a new record, enlisting renowned producer Joel Hamilton (Highly Suspect, Bonobo) to bring their genre-defying vision to life. Tracked in 2018, the newest album sat in the drawers as the band battled the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges, Wings Denied picked up where they left off, releasing the critically acclaimed single Plastic Tears in 2022, which was featured on the in-game radio of Fortnite.
Following an appearance at the 2022 UK Tech Fest, Wings Denied steadily released singles, including Black Legend (2022), Pariah (2023), and Saudade (2024). These tracks build anticipation for their forthcoming album, Just The Basics, set for release in September 2024. This record takes a bold, non-traditional approach to progressive music, featuring nine unique songs across nine different genres, reflecting the band’s ever-changing musical interests, and desire to create art outside of traditional genre labels.
We had the chance to sit down with with Wings Denied vocalist Luka Kerecin for a short, but fun Q&A session:
Every superhero or villain has an origin and a band is no different minus the radioactive spiders and secret government experiments. What is the origin of Wings Denied.
The Wings Denied origin story? It’s a mix of fate and a dash of college dorm magic! Here’s how it goes: four college students from different cities and even countries all ended up in the same dorm in Washington, D.C. It sounds like the start of a bad sitcom, right? But what are the chances? The only four people in our year who, as far as I know, played or listened to progressive metal, ended up living in the same building, separated by just a few floors and Zach and Paul were randomly assigned roomates!
I met Alec Kossoff during one of the shows at D.C.’s legendary venue 9:30 Club—I think it was a Bullet for My Valentine show. I lived most of my teenage years in the Middle East without any access to live shows since big artists never toured there back in the 2000s. When I first moved to D.C., I was devouring whatever music I could find. Totally mesmerized by the number of shows in the city, I spent all my free time going to concerts and meeting people. One of those people was Alec, our drummer.
When I first met him, I thought he was annoying, but oh boy, was I wrong—because then I ended up meeting Zach Dresher shortly after. Alec mentioned that he and two other mates were looking for a singer. If I thought Alec was annoying, meeting Zach was like discovering a whole new level of annoyance! But hey, who knew that something that started as irritation would lead to almost 10 years of touring all over the US and Europe and writing a bunch of awesome music?
Alec, Zach, and I remained the founders of Wings Denied, while the fourth guy from the beginning of the story, Paul, left the band while we were still in uni. Wes Good, our bassist, joined us as a guitarist in 2014, and us four are now what you call Wings Denied.
Band names can have a meaning or it can be a name pulled out of a hat. What’s the story behind Wings Denied?
Our first band name was terrible, and I mean just terrible. Aeviternity… Of course Zach came up with it. See what I mean when I said he was annoying? It was a name for his bedroom-internet project with a good friend of ours Michael Rumple. Slowly Zach gathered people around him and once we formed and there were three of us who could outvote him, we had to change the name because it was just too embarrassing.
I remember sitting in a dorm and we worked “hard” on this task, chugging beers and spitting out random names. One of my ideas for a band name was the Mastodon lyric from Oblivion “Breaking all the fingers and the nails from my hands”. I don’t know why I thought this was a good idea, I was super into post-rock at the time and they always had long, weird names. Another one was Mrak, which means “Darkenss” in a bunch of Slavic languages, including Croatian where I’m from. Pretentious stuff right? Anyhow I ended up humming “Down in a Hole” by Alice in Chains during this hours-long excruciating band-naming process and came up with Wings Denied from the lyric “but my wings have been so denied” and we all liked it, shook hands on it and proceeded to do whatever four stoned college freshmen do.
What are you currently working on?
As we speak, we’re gearing up for the release of our new full-length album, Just the Basics, which drops on September 20th. The fourth and final single from the record, Saudade, is set to come out on August 16th.
Right now, all our efforts are focused on making sure people hear this record. It’s been 10 years since our debut album, and I know our longtime fans who have stuck with us for over a decade will be excited to hear nine new tracks that are totally unconstrained by genre or expectations. Plus, Just the Basics is our most collaborative record to date!
It’s funny because this album almost didn’t see the light of day. Circumstances around COVID-19 pandemic hit the band hard just as we were about to release it. We recorded it back in 2018 at Studio G in Brooklyn with Joel Hamilton and his crew. We were all set to release the record in 2020, play SXSW, and go on a US tour. But on the day of my flight to the US, all incoming flights were canceled. Scary stuff. It took us a few years to get our ducks in order, and we’re incredibly happy that this record will finally see the light of day after being stored away for so long.
In addition to this record, last summer, Wings Denied cooped up together for a few weeks in West Virginia and we started writing a brand new album. It’s coming along nicely, but that’s a story for another interview.
What was the first CD/album that you bought and what was your most recent CD/album purchase?
I remember begging my dad to buy Crazy Town’s The Gift of Game, which had “Butterfly” on it, so I guess that was my first purchase. My most recent purchase was Disillusion’s Back To Times Of Splendor, a vinyl 20th anniversary reissue I bought at their show in Vienna, Austria. It’s a fantastic, criminally underrated record released in 2004 that had a massive impact on me. Beautiful progressive death metal with a huge range of emotion and such a unique sound… it’s hard to describe, but trust me, you’re in for a wild ride if you give it a chance.
Who was your first celebrity crush?
Catherine Zeta Jones, after I saw Entrapment!
https://www.instagram.com/wingsdenied
https://www.facebook.com/WingsDenied
WINGS DENIED are:
Vocals – Luka Kerecin
Guitars – Zach Dresher
Bass – Wes Good
Drums – Alec Kossoff
