Three women and a banjo? Any band fitting those specifications must be a carbon copy of the Dixie Chicks, right?
That’s just one of the eye-roll-inducing comparisons The Wild Reeds has had to contend with since releasing its folk-inspired full-length, “Blind and Brave,” in 2014. Filled with Americana essentials like harmonium and fervent, shimmering harmonies from the trio of lead singers and songwriters — Kinsey Lee, Sharon Silva and Mackenzie Howe — the album bears only minor resemblance to country music’s once-scorned Grammy winners. But, that doesn’t stop others from inventing parallels between the two.
“People listen with their eyes,” Silva, 26, reasoned by telephone a half hour outside of Los Angeles.
In the band’s early days, around 2010, when live shows consisted of open mic nights, and before drummer Nick Jones, 26, and bassist Nick Phakpiseth, 28, solidified the lineup, Silva would get aligned with husky-voiced actress Zooey Deschanel, who also moonlights as a singer in the pop duo She &Him.
“Is it ‘cause I have bangs?” she asked, referring to the “New Girl” star’s distinctive hairstyle.
Silva hopes the tendency to lump girl groups together as interchangeable entities cools now that a feminist movement, re-energized by the current political climate, emerges from coast to coast. “Even though it’s been such a gnarly year for our country, it’s been great because people are looking for female-fronted bands and they are looking to support bands with minorities,” she said.
The Wild Reeds’ vivid major-label debut, “The World We Built” (Dualtone), will also help set the band apart. Recorded in Connecticut with producer Peter Katis (The National, Local Natives), the album lasers in on the women’s precise harmonies while expanding the sound palette to include spaced-out guitars, beefy drums and whimsical strings.
Silva doesn’t know what held her back from embracing the electric guitar, but “now it’s kind of hard to prevent myself from buying another fuzz pedal.”
She also eliminates any speculation that her vocal connection to Lee, 26, and Howe, 27, is intuitive or the result of some shared sixth sense. Credit the stunning melding of their voices to an intensive rehearsal schedule, fueled by Silva’s nitpicking.
Although the album’s 11 tracks were written before the election, many have taken on new meaning with Donald Trump in the White House. “We’ve got this song ‘Capable,’ and every night I have to resist saying, ‘I’m so much more capable than the president gives me credit for,’” she said. “We were never a political band and I don’t think that we aim to be, but as a woman, I feel very convicted to tell mostly other women — and other people — ‘Hey, we’ve got each other’s backs, we can do this.’ ”
Even a crushing song like “Everything Looks Better (In Hindsight),” which deals with a cowardly lover bailing on a relationship without so much as a goodbye, transcends its original state of grief. “I think someone could sing the song in a really, really troubled way, and I think that’s the way I sang it when I first wrote it,” Silva said. Yet now it takes on an air of empowerment in a live setting. “We’ve been getting the occasional person that’s at the back of the room that holds up their fist. It’s the coolest thing.”
Silva believes these songs rise above the person singing them. She, along with her bandmates, often doesn’t want to even take credit for writing them. “We’re vessels for the songs,” she said. “We don’t claim ownership.” The album’s catchy first single, “Only Songs,” is a jangly ode to the redemptive magic of music and the higher power directing their steps.
“We don’t want to use a particular word or religion to classify our band, of course, but we are very spiritual and we do feel very bonded in that way,” she said. “We all pray and we pray together and hope for the best.”
Divine intervention took a holiday when the Wild Reeds shot a video for “Only Songs.” In the script of the clip, Silva’s guitar is stolen from her car the night before a show and conveniently ends up among her neighbor’s garage sale items with a $500 price tag attached. Determined to retrieve her prized possession, Silva enlists the rest of the band to help hustle up the cash.
In a twisted turn of events, Howe’s car was actually broken into after the first day of filming. The real thief got away with a saxophone and a pair of roller skates Howe’s kept since middle school. “It was such a bummer,” Silva said.
The band decided to put the car, now sporting a smashed-up tiny back window, to good use and gave it a star turn in the made-up criminal act. Silva is happy to report however, “there was no guitar actually stolen in the filming of this music video.”
Listen with your ears
The Wild Reeds are set to play The Tractor Tavern at 8 p.m. May 15, 5213 Ballard Ave. NW, Seattle. Tickets are $13 at www.tractortavern.com or 206-789-3599. Must be 21 or older. Doors open at 7 p.m.
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