The Pretty Wild: “When people can take you into this world and you feel like you’re there for 12, 14, 15 tracks, it’s really admirable…”

Sisters Jyl and Jules Wylde have spent their entire lives creating together, long before The Pretty Wild officially took shape. Raised on theatre, classical music, and a shared fascination with performance, their dynamic was forged early: creative disagreements, ambitious ideas, and an instinct to push one another further. What began as acoustic shows and songwriting experiments in Las Vegas eventually evolved into something heavier, more expansive, and unmistakably theirs, a project built on emotional honesty, genre fusion, and an unfiltered artistic bond.

Their new album, zero.point.genesis marks the clearest statement of that identity to date. Rooted in themes of collapse and resurrection, it blends metalcore, dark-pop, baroque aesthetics, and internet-age storytelling into a concept-driven journey. The Pretty Wild explore personal deprogramming, feminine power, mythology, and the strange push-pull of modern online culture, all while remaining committed to experimentation. For the duo, everything is art. The visuals, the choreography, the costumes, the narratives, and the sonic chaos they sculpt together. The result is a record that feels bold, multidimensional, and intensely personal.

In our latest Cover Story, V13 sat down with Jyl and Jules to discuss the making of the album, their creative partnership, and how they’re shaping The Pretty Wild into a fully immersive world. From blending their differing musical roots to navigating the internet’s intensity and envisioning a live show that feels more like an experience than a concert, the sisters offer a candid look at how the band continues to grow while staying true to the unique vision at its core.

Before we dig into the album, going way back, what was the dynamic like between you growing up together? Did you share similar creative and musical influences, or was it vastly different?

Jyl: “What’s funny is, growing up, Jules was really into theatre, and she would drag me along with her. She would coach me, and then I would get the callback; she would send me out on stuff. So we actually both grew up doing that. At an early age, she was already in creative director mode. When we were younger, we definitely fought more than we do now.”

Who was the rebellious one?

Jyl: “I think Julia was more together for sure.”

Jules: “I think that’s accurate. But, even as children, and this is the same way that we are today, all of our creative differences are the only kinds of squabbles we’ll get into. It’s never authentic problems, if that makes sense. It was even the same thing in our youth as well. Everything has always been centred around performance and music, so that’s always been our dynamic together. We just grew up wanting to be in performance arts basically.”

I know what took me towards the heavier side of music. What about you?

Jyl: “We both have different pulls of why that ended up becoming the home base in a way. For me personally, it’s the genre that allowed for the conversation on a lot of feminine rage. It just allows you to be mad, and it doesn’t get mad at you for being mad. It allows that space, and it also allows a multidimensional space as well, so you can explore concepts that you couldn’t necessarily do in other genres as smoothly. It felt nice, there was resonance in that for me personally.”

On those concepts, were they the things that you wrote about before?

Jyl: “Before we did our little country arc, we were always writing more in this multidimensional perspective of things, but there was no place where it really made sense or fit. We were always outcasts in that because the topics we were talking about, people didn’t necessarily relate to at that time. I think what’s cool is the genre now is ready to have more of those conversations and shed light on that stuff. It’s perfect timing for something we’ve been holding in for so many years.”

Was there a specific moment where you realised that The Pretty Wild needed to exist?

Jules: “I think so. We grew up playing music. We were introduced to lessons at the age of five. As we got older, music was always there for us. When we became teenagers, we started really cutting our teeth, playing live acoustic shows. After doing that for a significant amount of years, specifically in Las Vegas and the surrounding States, we just realised that, instead of playing cover shows and other people’s music, we wanted to hone in on our own songwriting craft, writing things that are important to us and being able to share those messages.

I think that was really the genesis of it when we started writing these acoustic, darker-themed songs. Eventually, with that transition and us starting to present ourselves as authentic artists, we realised we needed a name shift, because at the time we were literally going by Jill and Julia, and it was the least creative name we could have ever come up with.

We decided from that point on that if we’re presenting exclusively our own music, we want it to be this whole ethos, and that’s how The Pretty Wild was born.”

“We were always outcasts in that because the topics we were talking about, people didn’t necessarily relate to at that time.”

Going back to what you said about the creative differences being the source of your arguments, how quickly did you agree on the vision of how The Pretty Wild should sound?

Jules: “It’s always been very fused. There’s never been a time I think we thought this is too heavy or this isn’t heavy enough. It was really organic and agreed upon. I don’t think there was ever a time when we butt heads on that. Organically, Jyl’s more interested in like hyper pop and these pop elements, and I tend to come from more of the metalcore, heavier side of things. It really is this natural organic fusion. We love the juxtaposition of that from like horses to breakdowns.”

Jyl: “We’ve always been in agreement with classical music. Classical music is our home base, so we had to have that in there. That was a given. I love dark pop. I love dark pop melodies. I love dark pop structure. For me, alt dark pop is totally my vibe, and then Julia definitely is rooted in more of that metal scene. Everything just worked.”

In terms of bands or other artists, you share those ethos with, who were your inspirations?

Jyl: “I love Jack White in general. The Civil Wars were always a big influence for us. Sonically, they just really bring you in with minimal instrumentation. They suck you in. Their energy has a special quality to it that can do that. That’s definitely an inspiration. I listen to everything. I listen to a lot of rap to metal to, Julia was saying hyper-pop to EDM.”

Jules: “An obvious mainstream to point to is that Linkin Park aesthetic with nu metal, where they truly fused different genres and were pioneers of that alongside a few other bands crafting that nu-metalcore scene. Like Jyl said, we’re such an amalgamation of so many different bands and artists for different reasons that it’s hard to really just isolate it.”

V13 Cover Story #113 – The Pretty Wild

That’s a good thing in that it gives you plenty of options for touring. You could go out with a pop band, you could go out with somebody like Linkin Park, Bring Me The Horizon…

Jules: “One hundred percent.”

Jyl: “It’s not something you can force, though; it has to happen organically. That resonance has to be there organically, and who you are as a person at your core. That has to really be a reflection of you. I think we’re even surprised at that because it’s so amalgamated and crazy. It’s still something. It’s such a wide range of fans that we are really drawing on.”

What you said about theatre earlier, there’s a huge visual side to the band. How important is that in terms of the whole project, and where does that inspiration come from?

Jules: “It’s colossal how important it is. I don’t think we can emphasise how much that carries the same weight as the music carries for us. We still carry that same enthusiasm for the art form of set design, stage presence, costuming, even what eras you’re channelling in and bringing in for inspiration.”

Right now, we’re very much in this baroque phase, where we’re finding a lot of sonic inspiration from classical baroque music in the fashion. It’s huge for us and we’re really hoping that as the band continues to grow, we’re gonna be able to display that a lot more clearly of what we see clearly in our heads, publicly on stage for this 2026 unveiling of shows.”

“We still carry that same enthusiasm for the art form of set design, stage presence, costuming, even what eras you’re channelling in and bringing in for inspiration.”

Jyl: “There’s no boundary, everything is art. I go to the gym. How I move, I train at a circus gym. Everything is art in our minds. Fashion, art, we really want to bring people into our world and help them see the connections between everything that we do and show that you can use that thinking and apply it to different fields. It can be a tool to expand your thinking. You see, just everything can be art.”

Bringing that element into your music, it gives you the freedom to go absolutely anywhere…

Jyl: “A hundred percent.”

Where do you see it going from here then?

Jyl: “We’re working on the live show right now because we don’t belong to one scene. We’re really building out this whole experience. The show is going to be more experiential than just going to a rock show. We want people to get pulled in interdimensionally. All the components of what Julia, being a playwright and a creative director, is and seeing and putting together… the props and the stage and interweaving the flips and the transitions and the music, it will paint a bigger picture of an energy that we are trying to get people to feel.”

Some bands have a preference between studio and live, but I guess for you, that, as the process is open to anything, it must all really excite you. Is that the case?

Jules: “There are beautiful qualities to studio work as well as live work. You get much more energetic feedback, and it’s more just electrifying to perform live, so I’m always going to favour it to studio time, but there’s something really intimate and private about being able to test out new sonic concepts in this private space that you don’t have to worry about. You can play around more, and you don’t have to present it to anybody but yourself, really, so that’s really special there too. But I’m always gonna be Team Live Show. I love it so much.”

Jyl: “I think both are fun and both are unique, especially now that we have the opportunity to really work on the live show more. They both have different energies.”

You’ve obviously got a vision for how you want to sound. How hard is it, when writing with other songwriters, to keep out that external influence from the industry?

Jyl: “We go too fast for the industry when it comes to writing. We actually get pulled back right now… we gotta stay in this album, this album’s coming out, but my brain… I’m just on with writing…”

Jules: “We have been cutting so many other songs since we finished the album. We’re always gonna be onto the next thing. We deeply love this album, and we’re really excited for it to come out, but our brains don’t really turn off when it comes to these creative things. I think, because of that, and because of how busy we are, there’s no time to like absorb the external ideology or even ingest what it’s supposed to be.”

Jyl: “I don’t always understand. People are always saying how you can’t do that. No. The more you unlock things, it’s like being an artist for us, chipping away to get to more of the true centre of who you are. When you’re doing that, the outside world is not real in the weirdest way. I could be working on a new song and Julia’s sending me sketches of a costume or an outfit.”

The Pretty Wild ‘zero.point.genesis‘ Album Artwork

Who influences you then on that side? How does it work in terms of writing? Does one of you take the lyrical side and one take the visual side or is it just one big melting pot of ideas?

Jules: “It’s more like that. There are a lot of songs where one of us might be dead set on a concept, but everything from that point on is very collaborative. We really don’t veto anything. We just explore it and if it makes it on the album, hell yeah, if it doesn’t, then what a cool private demo we have that we can go back and listen to whenever we want.”

Jyl: “We’ll bring things to our producer, and I think we stress him out as he looks at how to fix it. For us, it’s puzzle pieces that we get really excited about, and we want to fit them together. It’s part of the story somehow, so if we’re excited about it, we want to fit it in. I think the audience can feel that too.”

Jules: “Sometimes it’s whimsy too, where we’ll need to insert weird parts of our cheeky personality. We really want a cat screaming here, so that goes in the album just to appease our own creative whimsy.”

“The more you unlock things, it’s like being an artist for us, chipping away to get to more of the true centre of who you are. When you’re doing that, the outside world is not real…”

You’ve described the album as an album of collapse and resurrection. Where did those themes manifest from, and do you see it as a concept album?

Jyl: “Totally. It’s a total concept album. A lot of it comes from a lot of systematic programming, social programming, and undoing. Realising you don’t realise when you’re programmed just how much was making you sick or miserable because that becomes your normal, you don’t realise until you start to realise, that wasn’t healthy, that wasn’t for me, until you get pulled out of it. There’s a part of it when you come out of it that you have this grief for that old version of you, and a lot of the album explores that. Especially your power as a woman, that’s not really something where, in my opinion, there weren’t a lot of role models for what that looks like, keeping your feminine essence intact.”

Jules: “A lot of it comes from this slightly more archaic but timeless space in literature. There are a lot of tragedies that we will touch on in a lot of the songs, or Greek or Roman mythology. Just these cool, timeless things that have been impactful for us. When it comes to actual concept albums, you mentioned Bring Me The Horizon, that’s an incredible album, Next Gen. We’re big fans of that album, and I think that, when people can take you into this world and suck you in and you feel like you’re there for 12, 14, 15 tracks, it’s really admirable. Our record comes from a few different places of inspiration.”

You’ve also described it as an album about battling fake ego structures forged in trauma. Was this a cathartic record to write?

Jyl: “Yes. Massively. I think what’s crazy is that’s why I’m saying album number two for The Pretty Wild is gonna get even crazier because, by the end of it, we unlocked this whole other different perceptual lens so that’s why, for me, I have to write every day right now because you’re so present with this energy that you just tapped into we gotta make this into something. The industry model right now, because everyone wants us to do stuff, we let the creative energy speak when it wants to first.”

What do you hope a fan gets out of listening to the record?

Jyl: “I hope they feel comforted. I hope they feel more seen, and I hope they feel more hopeful for the future. That’s what I really hope. When you listen to it, you feel that there’s someone who actually gets what you’re going through because that’s what it was for us. That’s why we wrote the music. There wasn’t really music that satisfied that itch for us personally.”

You said you wanted the music to be mythical yet memeable. Given there is obviously a deeper message behind the songs, how’d you get that balance of something that’s catchy and something that’s got a deeper meaning to it?

Jyl: “I personally love the internet because there are so many subcultures on it that make you feel validated and seen, and it forms these little micro communities. In those micro communities, you have little memes, sometimes it was a meme that kept me going that day. It does strike this balance of its contemporary, but it’s also something that outlasts that. A trend or a time. It’s bigger than just concepts that touch on bigger things than just contemporary things.”

Jules: “I one hundred per cent agree with that. First of all, I’m impressed that you did catch that it is memeable and not memorable because, when we did turn in those quotes, I feared that people would think it was a typo. We need to have one foot rooted in this contemporary world and in a relatable world in that sense, but also just being able to be our weird, authentic selves too.”

“I personally love the internet because there are so many subcultures on it that make you feel validated and seen, and it forms these little micro communities.”

You’ve said about really liking the internet, the subcultures, and I totally get that. On the flip side of that, there are a lot of people on the internet who really suck and take everything at face value. They don’t dig further. They’ll see it as it is. How do you deal with that, especially with social media and that toxic side of it?

Jyl: “I made a post on my personal page because I’m raw. I just keep it raw. I can’t be anything other than that because it’s not healthy for me personally. So, I made a post about this, and it got a lot of attention. The reality of it is, from my perspective, evolutionarily speaking, humans, their bodies, their nervous systems, weren’t built for that much input or to be bombarded with all these opinions that feel like threats to the body.

There’s a process in becoming grounded and rooted so that it doesn’t send an electrical zap to your body every time you read a comment. Not going through that process is really hard, and a lot of people struggle with that because anybody can make videos now. It’s not just a thing that well-known people deal with. I think it’s actually a very relatable thing that people are trying to figure out how they can be comfortable posting and being more vulnerable online in general. It’s hard.

Regardless, I’m really proud. I feel like, for me personally, the growth that I’ve had from when we started to getting more attention to now, it unlocks you to be more confident.”

Have people’s attitudes to the band changed, especially after the viral videos that came on TikTok, given that a lot of people outside the US and Las Vegas discovered you?

Jyl: “I feel like at first they just thought we were a TikTok band. This is just a girl trying to scream…Also, society is used to a quick consumption culture, so we’ve definitely had people who have been haters who have gone totally 180, but by that point, you don’t care anymore because it’s not about that necessarily anymore. We definitely have had people misjudge us and totally come back around to like our music, which is crazy.”

Just to wrap up, then could you talk us through what the album means overall and to you both as individuals?

Jules: “It’s almost like a big bang moment of this genesis of this intangible thing, essentially that is just coming into the ethos, and it’s the compulsive explosion of creativity that is happening. It’s a whole journey from start to finish, and there are a lot of different places that the album takes you. It’s chaotic and messy, but it is the genesis of the band.

The whole album is about reclaiming the parts of you that you were told to cut off yourself from. That’s why it’s so messy and raw and like screamy, but pretty at the same time, because there’s beauty once you do integrate those things again. I think a lot of people see the darkness and they’re scared of it, but for us, we run headfirst into the darkness because then you don’t become afraid of those things anymore. They lose control over you, and I think that it’s that birthing point of life and a new perceptual lens of operating and carrying yourself into the world.”