Little Wings has big plans

Ross Raihala, The Olympian

Originally published Friday, March 29, 2002

When Kyle Field decided to make a record under the band name Little Wings, just one album wasn't good enough.

Instead, the 29-year-old Field mapped out the "Wonder" trilogy, a series of discs that will be completed with next week's release of "Wonderue," his first for Olympia's K Records.

"It was this idea I had in 1998," explains Field during a phone interview from his current home in Portland. "And I knew it would take quite a while to do. (The trilogy) was a place to put my ideas, a structure that would help me make some sort of running theme.

"Plus, I liked the idea of a big body that spanned three separate things. And three is my favorite number."

"Wonderue" will likely be the first music many people hear from Field's Little Wings, but it serves as a fine introduction.

Recorded in large part with the Microphones' Phil Elvrum, the album brings to mind the hazy, country-styled leanings of acts such as Mercury Rev and Grandaddy filtered through the intimacy of Will Oldham (for whom Little Wings will open on Saturday night in downtown Olympia).

Field's friendship with Elvrum led to his relationship with K Records, which is selling the first two albums of the "Wonder" trilogy, "Wonder City" and "Discover Worlds of Wonder," on its Web site, www.kpunk.com.

The constant that runs through all of the Little Wings albums is Field himself, who writes and plays the bulk of the material and works with a loose collection of friends to flesh out the sound.

"It's not like I'm in total control," says Field. "I don't really direct anyone. They know what they're good at and if I let people play what they want to, it's going to sound the best."

One of those people is the Microphones' Elvrum, who has found a writing partner in Field unlike any other.

"Kyle and I have this thing where we collaborate and borrow from each other over and over," says Elvrum. "It's sort of this weird exchange program. We sort of plagiarize each other. Everything we have each done recently is a sort of reference to the other."

As for Field, he's already finished his next trilogy. He hopes to release the project, titled "Light Green Leaves," on K this fall.

"It'll be three different versions of the record, each format-specific," Field says. "The first (on vinyl) will be me playing the songs when they were brand new. The CD is the version of the songs when I knew them really well, and they've got more instrumentation. The third version (on cassette) is like a campfire-style sing-along with a bunch of people sitting in a room singing all these songs together.

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