Las Vegas’s 98.5 KLUC morning co-host Mikalah Gordon recently sat down to chat with 3X-platinum Alt-rock trio Wallows, currently on their first global tour that just kicked off last week in support of their third album, Model.

It’s an exciting time for Wallows, who have been playing some major venues this time out like NYC’s Madison Square Garden and L.A.’s Kia Forum, the latter of which happens to be the first place Dylan Minnette had ever been for a concert at just 13.

“Kings of Leon… I was in the second to last row. I was so excited for that show, just counting down the days” he tells us. “We were already playing music at that time, all of us together. We were very young, I mean, not in a realistic way. It was just like a ‘wow’ childhood dream kind of thing, you know, and I just remember it was a really, really big deal for me to be at that show.”

“We will be playing the same venue, and there'll be someone in that seat in the back that hopefully it's a really big deal for them too,” Dylan adds.

Discussing the band’s latest single, their first off of 2024’s Model, “Calling After Me,” Cole Preston recalls meeting with their friend Blake Slatkin at his house with the plan that day to write a song and see what happens, “And that's exactly what we did. We had been at that time inspired by bands like Phoenix who just like, every part is so precise. Even though it doesn't really sound intricate or complicated, when you go to learn the songs, you're like, ‘Oh, it's weird shapes on the guitar and stuff.’ That was sort of the jumping off point for that song,” he says, “a lighter on its feet Wallows song than we normally have. Less going on, which makes it kind of sound bigger and more energetic.”

The album track “Bad Dream,” the band has said before, was inspired by some of the boy bands of the past. “Technically speaking,” Cole says *NSYNC is his favorite of them all, “Because I just remember listening to a lot of Max Martin *NSYNC songs and just loving the melodies. What's funny, Dylan and I, we were hearing Linkin Park the other day and we're like, ‘Oh, that could just be an *NSYNC song, or *NSYNC could just be Linkin Park -- or vice versa.”

“Linkin Park songs are just *NSYNC songs with heavy guitar,” Dylan adds. “For some reason, I wanted to try to write a song like that,” Cole continues. “Luckily enough, because it doesn't always work out where you make the song you're trying to go for. I think we landed on the right version because obviously, we didn't want to make it like an *NSYNC song, so we made it maybe a little more like [The] Beatles, or Beach Boys-y, or something in the end.”

Words by Joe Cingrana Interview by Mikalah Gordon