Kiwi musician Faith Wilde joined country music legend Noah Kahan on stage at the Hinterland Music Festival in Iowa. Photo / Instagram
When Faith Wilde was born, her father Jesse Wilde brought her home from the hospital, sat her beside his favourite guitar and snapped a picture. Twenty-one years later, she’s more in love with music than ever before.
It’s no stretch to say music runs in the New Zealand singer-songwriter’s blood. Her dad has been making music since before she was born, she’s appeared on stage with him since she was a toddler, and got her first guitar when she was only 3.
And with more than 1600 voice memos in her phone of song ideas, it’s clear she’s followed in his writing and performing footsteps. Now, her recent success has proved she’s a Kiwi musician to watch.
Last week, Wilde was pulled on stage by folk-pop musician Noah Kahan to perform his hit song Dial Drunk in front of 25,000 people. Speaking to the Herald from the US, where she’s living and working, she admits the moment was “amazing”.
“My heart just died. I was like ‘Oh my God’,” she says, laughing. “I was in the place that I’d been dying to be for the past 21 years and I just remember I wanted to say something to him, but I just said thank you and went straight to logistics because I was so nervous.”
@fxithwilde if y’all wanna hear the whole girls pov comment recorded below and i’ll make it happen! also seriously thank you again to noah and hinterland, noah is just the most beautiful soul and hes seriously changed my life. #hinterland #noahkahan #faithwilde #dialdrunk #dialdrunkcover #original #folk #singersongwriter
♬ original sound - Faith Wilde
Despite the experience being one most can only dream of, it wasn’t exactly a random twist of fate. Wilde’s journey to the stage with the star began in May when Kahan shared a snippet of the then-unreleased song on TikTok.
Noticing that the song was about an abusive alcoholic who has been caught drink driving and expected his ex-girlfriend to bail him out, Faith was provoked to flip the script and write an empowering second verse from the female perspective.
“There are so many people who have been through that, who have been through abusive relationships where they’ve had to look like the bad guy because they had to put themselves first for once,” she says, adding, “The ex-partner didn’t appreciate all of the times that they were there and now that they’re not there, it’s a problem and I’m just so over it.”
Sharing the intentions behind her own version of the verse, Wilde confesses she wanted people to be able to listen to it and “feel understood”, which is exactly what happened. Shortly after writing, recording and sharing her version on the video-sharing platform, it went viral.
“I went to bed and it had like 800 likes and I was like, that’s a lot of likes for a song, and I woke up and it had 14,000, and then suddenly it has 100,000,” she grins sharing what came next, “Then suddenly Noah Kahan himself has dueted it and that video has 300,000 likes.”
Gathering more than 1.9 million views on the video, she used the recognition to her advantage and when she saw he was performing at the Hinterland Music Festival in Iowa, so she bought tickets, gathered her friends in a car for a six-hour drive, bought a massive poster and Crayola pens and got to work.
“The day that he was going to go on, we went to go stand and wait out the mosh to get quite close to the front and I wrote ‘You duetted my TikTok, can I sing Dial Drunk with you?’ on a sign,” she recalls, adding once she was in the crowd she met a group of women who had seen her TikTok and were determined to get Kahan to notice her.
“They said ‘the next break that he has, we’re going to put you on our shoulders’ and that’s how he saw it,” Wilde smiles.
What came next was the inspiring moment the 21-year-old was called on stage where she proudly stated “I’m from New Zealand”, before going on to sing her song. It would be an incredibly nerve-racking experience for most, and Wilde says it probably would have been for her as well if it weren’t for one tiny detail.
“I didn’t have my glasses on, so I couldn’t see too well,” she laughs. “If I could have seen people’s actual expressions, I probably would have panicked, but I didn’t.”
The ambitious Kiwi is yet to hear from the legendary country music star since her big moment, but she’s not discouraged. After her stage debut, she has landed herself a mentor who is working towards a collaboration between the pair and with the help of a few “friends in the music industry” and a lot of “persistence” she says things are looking “really good”.
“In the music industry, you go up and then you go down and you go up and there’s a lot to get through, but I have a lot of faith,” she cheekily quips.
As for where she plans to go next, the rising star has already released her debut single Midland, and is about to release her second single, Nashville State of Mind as she continues to pursue one major goal.
“All I want is to be able to live every day doing what I love, and sharing it with people, and meeting new people that all have the same appreciation for lyrics that I do,” she says, adding, “New Zealand is definitely an underappreciated country and it’s beautiful.
“I’m very grateful to be from here, and it’s time for me to branch out and show them what the Kiwis can do.”
Nashville State of Mind is available on Spotify on August 23.
Lillie Rohan is an Auckland-based reporter covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2020. She specialises in all things relationships and dating, great Taylor Swift ticket wars and TV shows you simply cannot miss.