Wanderlust Past and Present

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Wanderlust Past and Present

by Melodie Cody Cheryl Gregory

Every band that has flirted with fame has that bright lights story, fast-tracked by the major label music business of 1995, but the soft landing happens when the lights dim and the A&R guy gets reassigned. Fast forward to 2021. Let’s get the band back together! The guys find an old cassette of great songs they never recorded and long forgotten when the soft landing turned into a fall from grace.

Wanderlust is that band who took its name from a McCartney tune and catamaran christened Wanderlust that Paul McCartney and Wings stayed on while recording in the Virgin Islands. Early reviews called Wanderlust “the new fab four”, power-pop songs with a hook. They even recorded the first album, “Prize” (1995) on original analog gear at Abbey Road Studios.

Wanna Feel New

Prize

I Walked

Troubled Man

Sundial

Coffee in the Kitchen

Before We Fade

Deepest Blue

Brand New Plan

Stage Name

Flash and Shadow

The foursome, originally from Philadelphia but now scattered from East Nashville to California, include the same guys who started the band twenty-six years ago: Scot Sax (vocals/guitar), Rob Bonfiglio (vocals/guitar), Mark Getten (Levin) (bass), and Jim Cavanaugh (drums).

This group of young Philly musicians came together in 1993. Within 16 months they signed with RCA and released their first album, Prize. They toured. They opened for Collective Soul. They opened for The Who at the US Air Arena. Then they struggled to get their second album released. Fourteen years later, they came back together for “Record Time” (2012).

Lou Reed

Pornographic Version of You

Blow Away

Friend Tonight

Fork in the Road

Easy Street

We Need a Drummer

Illuminate

You Make Me

Like Stars

Photographic Mind

I Walked (2012) bonus track

Official music video for “Lou Reed” by Wanderlust

Directed by Scot Sax

From the album “Record Time” available on Amazon and iTunes.

Wanderlust 2021

These talented musicians have been busy between albums.

Scot Sax has continued to write music, co-writing a Grammy-winning smash for Faith Hilll and Tim McGraw, “Like We Never Loved At All”. His song “I Am the Summertime” was featured in the blockbuster “American Pie”. He toured with Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, opening every show for three months. He produces documentaries for his company, Scot Sax Films. (scotsaxfilms.com)

Rob Bonfiglio is an accomplished solo artist and touring guitarist.

Mark Getten plays bass, writes and produces.

Jim Cavanaugh plays drums and produces.

Wanderlust is a hard driving guitars and drums band that grabs your attention and make you want to dance. Listen to the lyrics too as they are as relevant today as they were in the past.

And now the good news! The band has come together for a new album! Well…. as together as you can be in 2021.

There is, of course, a backstory. It starts with that lost and forgotten tape of songs, found again. There’s that desire to make a new album with the lost songs without the bright lights this time, there’s a new song, and another song pulled from a live show circa 1990’s. Phone calls back and forth between the band members, and the creation of a Kickstarter project.

Moving forward, the band members recorded their parts of the songs individually from California to East Nashville. They mixed the recordings, and they designed the layout of a booklet of lyrics-photos-stories-drawings, too.

To date, the Kickstarter funding goal has been successfully reached with a nice cushion. The project will include the new songs on vinyl, a 3-CD set of ‘Prize’ and ‘Record Time’ included, and a live show never released on CD. Depending on the donation level there will be a will zoom performance. Rumor has it there is a possibility of a future CD release of the new album and maybe even a live show or two post pandemic.