Wilderness will be holding it’s debut performance at Sam Bonds Garage on Thursday, July 24. In honor of the Eugene performance, band member and creator Jared Smith spoke to the Emerald in a phone interview.

Can you tell us a bit about Wilderness?

Our first record came out last August, Homeward From the Battle, and we’ve been together for about a year and a half. We started here in Bend, Oregon — I actually booked our first show before I had a band.

How did you and your other band members meet?

I have done other projects before, I’ve been doing it my whole life, so I just came up to Bend to see what it was all about. I was at home working on other music and writing songs, and there was this this snare drum on Craigslist that I wanted to check out. The guy who sold it to me ended up eventually becoming the drummer that I started playing with. When I met him I said “What kind of music do you play?” and he told me, “folk music,” I had never heard a drummer ever say that they played folk music. For the bassist I put out an ad on Craigslist, which I had never done before, and he responded to it.

How would you classify your music?

Some people have said it’s sort of like folk music, other people say it’s kind of like country music, but it was well described as a north-of-the-border version of Calexico which I thought was pretty interesting. But yeah, I leave that to the experts.

What makes Wilderness unique?

I guess … I don’t know how to answer that question. The music that I make is going to be what it’s going to be. We’re not trying to be artistic in any sort of scene or genre, although I’m sure some could say ‘these guys sound just like those other guys,’ for me it’s just its own authentic sound.

Before you started Wilderness, what were you up to?

Well I was in a band in Los Angeles that had some moderate success. We had shows everywhere, you know, and we were touring the country and that kind of fell apart — Los Angeles was never really my kind of place to live. So when I moved to Bend I had all these songs and it was just kind of the natural thing to do.

Have you ever played at Sam Bonds Garage before?

I personally have, but this band will be playing there for the first time. The crowd is always really responsive and kind and I think that the space itself is really cool — and they have really good pizza. Our live show is very energetic and dynamic and I think most people have a lot of fun.

Check out Wilderness Thursday, July 24 at Sam Bonds Garage located at 407 Blair Blvd. Tickets will be $5 at the door starting at 9 p.m.