Editor’s Note: Julian Hernandez won the “Interview Your Favorite Band” item in CL’s 2012 Holiday Auction, and when The Wilson Van confirmed a gig in downtown St. Pete, it proved to be a perfect fit: The winner of an auction to benefit The Children’s Home uses his win to interview a St. Pete-bred actor playing with his family band to benefit the Gold Shield Foundation.
You likely recognize Patrick Wilson’s face from films like Hard Candy, Insidious, and The Watchmen, and most memorably from a recent steamy guest spot on HBO’s Girls. Music has always been a part of his life; mom Mary K. is a voice teacher and professional singer who performs around Tampa Bay with tuneful husband (and veteran Fox-13 news anchor) John Wilson, and he and his brothers grew up singing in the choir and playing. The past several years have seen the trio getting together to rock out and give back to the local community as The Wilson Van, with Patrick doing a little singing and a lot of drumming, Mark (a Fox anchorman like dad) shredding guitar solos, and Paul (CEO of Wilson Media) howling lead vocals. The Wilson Van only play for charity; this show’s beneficiary was set up to help the families of police officers who lost their lives in the line of duty. Rock the Shield is also among the first concerts to christen the newly re-opened Club Detroit after its soft opening festivities last month.
Patrick and Julian talked for over 30 minutes and touched on a huge range of topics not included here. Some interesting snippets below; read the entirety of the interview below. —Leilani Polk
So why the Gold Shield Foundation?
We’ve got a lot of family and friends who are cops, some dear friends, and so it’s a very personal organization. We’re going to have some of the widows there, not only to talk about it, but also express the importance of these things, of the long-term impact and care that Gold Shield provides.
Has The Wilson Van always performed for charity organizations?
A new charity each time, that’s sort of been our thing. Us playing together started out as a way to spend time with the family and it’s fun. I don’t live there so our rehearsals are usually limited to the day of/day before and the odd trip down there. We sort of slam it in when we can, Skype when we can, voice memo, all those things that makes it possible to send the music back and forth. Doing it for a charity each time really takes the pressure off.
We’re not out for our own glory, just to have a good time. So each time we’ve done it, it’s been something different, special, and this one, us being one of the first bands to play in Club Detroit, is very exciting.
Did you ever go to Club Detroit back when it was first open?
Oh, yes. There and Jannus Landing. I spent much of my high school and later years going to concerts there. In college, I’d come home and see bands there. For me, that was a way into the music world, because this was the 1980s, pre-Internet, so the only music you knew was the music on the radio. The only way to see live music was to go to these shows and certainly the ones at Jannus and right around the corner at Club Detroit were awesome. When I turned 18, I was very happy that I could go in there.
Who are you own musical influences?
The first answer is Van Halen, which obviously represents itself in the six songs we do. Because we grew up in a church choir, all of our musical tastes vary from church hymns that we sang twice a week to rock and Top 40 radio. I think from early on, when you’re influenced by church music you have an appreciation for melody and for singing, and singing together. But more than not it’s the musicality and singing that I gravitated towards. Like Steve Perry and the great singers and for me obviously male singers that inspired me.
Was it singing that drew you into musical theater?
When I was looking at colleges I wanted to be an actor and I didn’t know in what capacity — Broadway, TV, film or whatever, because I didn’t know how to do any of it, really. I just wanted to be an actor. So when I auditioned for my school, Carnegie Mellon, I didn’t have any sort of Broadway aspirations. I didn’t look down on it, I just wanted to do a lot of things in the acting field. I remember very specifically at the audition they asked, “Do you want to audition for musical theater?” I said “Uh, no.” “But you sing?” “Yeah I sang in choir, and I’ve kinda been singing my whole life.” “Well our musical theater program is the entire acting program, you just get to sing and dance as well.” So I literally went down the hall, sang for the voice teacher, and she talked to my mom and they were like, “Please, do musical theater,” and I said, “Okay!”
So it was sort of given to me, and then once I was there, I really gained an appreciation and love for musical theater. I wasn’t the guy in high school listening to cast recordings and things (barring Les Mis or something, which is huge).
Which is funny because I became that guy in college because the more I got into theater, the more I got into musical theater. So I never looked at it as something different, whether I was studying Chekhov or Rogers and Hammerstein. By the time I got out of school, I was on this track where I did musical theater and at the time there were very few men that did it (or at least young men). So I got hired right away. Like anything your goals and dreams shift with the opportunities that you’re given.
So you became the musical theater guy?
I did, and I loved it! It wasn’t like, “What am I doing?” I absolutely loved it, so I rode it out. In the musical theater world you gotta go for it and do tours and regional theater, regional cast albums, and eventually, if you can, Broadway. And I got to do all that and it was amazing. In the back of my mind, I always thought I wanted to do movies in my 30s, that was always my thing, and that’s how it thankfully worked out.
Is there any musical you’d like to see made into film now that Les mis and Phantom have been so successful?
I get asked this a lot. We haven’t seen anything like an old fashioned Carousel or Brigadoon, those kinds of shows with unabashed huge dance numbers (and I don’t mean like Hairspray dance numbers), I mean like full-on ballet, crazy. You watch old Gene Kelly style dancing, and you watch Jacques d'Amboise in Carousel as the fairground boy and you’re just like blown away.
People think, “oh gosh, ballet on film is not gonna work” but if you use it in the context of this world, because look, it’s a fantasy. People don’t walk around singing. It’s so weird, Hollywood always battles with this thing “Are people gonna believe it?” They believe you’re in space saving the world, of course they’ll believe it, the whole business is fake, of course, none of this is real!
I actually think if you aren’t afraid of that broadness, that would be awesome to me, because we haven’t seen that, because it takes a lot of time and money and all that good stuff. I think Hairspray or maybe Chicago (and in a sense Moulin Rouge, but I don’t count that), those are the closest to one of those big standard proper musicals. If you could hire somebody that could sing it and could act it – you don’t miss the acting, because that’s always the knock on the old musicals, you can really get the story across, but then you have that same commitment to real, proper dancing and singing, with a great orchestra – I think that would be killer.
Do you have any advice you’d give to aspiring actors or musicians? Whether they should be kept separate, or do you think musical theater is a good option?
Well that’s a loaded question with about 30 answers. I should start with acting because I know that more. I always looked at it like a career. I’m a big proponent of college, because I think it gives you a well-rounded understanding. I was able to transition into other films and genres within the acting world because of the training that I had, and the styles I learned, even just the little things.
For instance, I’m not a good dancer at all, however, the first job I got, which started a steamroll effect, was at a dancing audition. Now, had I not had any dance training, I wouldn’t have gotten that job at Miss Saigon, by the producers of Carousel. College gives you a well-rounded base. You have to look at it like a career. I always tell young actors, “You don’t hang out at a hospital if you want to become a doctor do you? No, go learn what you’re doing.” So I think that’s part of it. And music is not unlike acting, you don’t get better by not doing it, you have to just do it, just go out and play. I’m not in that world, I didn’t follow a musician’s track, and that’s a rough racket. It’s a lot more personal and I see that even when we do our five original songs that we’ve written. I remember doing the first one because it’s always the first time at the show where people don’t know what you’re doing, and you go, “Wow, I could really fail,” and sometimes you do. It becomes more of a visceral response if they actually enjoyed the song.
You seem to have done it all — husband, dad, actor, musician … and Trampoline Master?
Yes, I am. Someone’s read Twitter. (laughs) I wouldn’t say I’m a master, it just gets people’s attention. You don’t say, “I’m okay at a trampoline.”
Oh the skills of a trampoline. Well, it’s usually about preventing injury. If you can successfully bounce children without hurting them. (laughs) I have two boys and much like me and my brothers, we had a trampoline growing up, and we settled many fights on a trampoline, we got our energy out, and my guys do the same thing. My little guy will just sit out there all day if he could. In fact, the other day because he hurt his ankle — not on a trampoline — but he couldn’t jump and it made him so sad he just cried and cried because he had this desire to jump because it’s something that he and I do together, but he just couldn’t. So he just had to sit there with his legs folded, crying as I bounced him. He was very sad.
So I was wondering if you would be down to play a little word association game?
Sure! I’ll try to keep it clean, because usually I’m not.
Superhero?
Nite Owl. I have to.
Harrison Ford?
I’d say Indiana.
Chimney Sweep?
Christian Borle, my buddy who was in Mary Poppins and won a Tony.
I know your brother Mark is an anchorman here because I see him all the time, and your brother Paul, he’s a singer?
He is a singer, but not professionally. He runs Wilson Media, an advertising company in St. Pete. He was always the one who, when Mark and I plugged in, would come in and start screaming. He also sings sometimes with my parents too; he’s got a Frank Sinatra bit that he’s probably done for 15 years. So he’s got a pretty wide range of musical taste as well.
Has it been nice to have your family as a musical influence?
We all took piano, my mom’s a big proponent of that even though I slogged through it and didn’t like it. I started playing drums when I was 11 or 12, Mark played violin and then moved into guitar. So playing and singing haven’t always been passion, it’s just what we do. Yes we’re very passionate about it, but playing the drums became, for me, a feeling I missed while living in New York. I try to play everyday when I’m at home, and it’s my way of vegging out, music has always been an outlet – listening to it, playing to it, singing to it, it keeps me musically sharp. I don’t get to sing a lot so it keeps me on top of my game.
So did you listen to any Genesis, Phil Collins?
Oh my God, I love Phil Collins, I’m a huge Phil fan. I actually got to know him. He is one of the most foremost Alamo historians in the world. The first movie I did was The Alamo, which, unless you’re an Alamo fan you don’t know it, because it didn’t do very well at all. I was doing a show and got a note at my stage door from his girlfriend, Dana Tyler, an anchor at CBS who I knew from interviews. She said, “My boyfriend, Phil Collins, is coming into town and is a huge fan and would love to take you to dinner.” And I was like, “Phil Collins? Like Phil Collins, Phil Collins?” I’m also weirdly a Def Leppard fan and the guitarist for Def Leppard is Phil Collen, so I was like “Phil Collen, Phil Collins? What’s happening here? Or is this just some dude who’s like a banker who wants to take me to dinner?” So then I did my little recon and sure enough, it was Phil Collins.
So me and Dag and Phil Collins and Dana Tyler go out to dinner and he had just stepped off a plane. He was a die-hard Alamo historian, only would refer to me as Col. Travis. Then I actually ran into about six months later I was at the counter at a Café Pacific in Vancouver, flying home from a movie, and I hear, “Colonel Travis!” so naturally I turned around. Mind you this was like 8 years after doing The Alamo so it’s not like it’s in people’s memory. So I hear “Colonel Travis?” in this British accent and I turn around and it’s Phil Collins and I’m like “Hey how are you?” And then we ended up spending the whole flight together talking coming back from New York from Vancouver. So, I got to know him a bit. I love all Genesis stuff, I love all the weird proggy rock stuff, I became a Dream Theater fan, too, I love all that weird stuff like 9-minute songs and tempo changes. And I really, really love his solo stuff in the 80s too, it’s hard to dispute. So of course when I think of drummers there’s only a handful of them, really him. My other huge influence is Levon Helm, Don Henley, Kelly Keagy of Night Ranger, he’s another one. That was actually my first concert that I went to, Night Ranger [in Lakeland], to see that drummer sit there and sing was part of it, too.
That’s actually pretty funny. For a drummer that sings, Night Ranger was my first show. Huh.
So what’s next?
I’m done here [New Orleans] and my wife has a novel coming out, so I’ll be with her doing promotional stuff for that in June. Then I’m doing this action-comedy with Joe Carnahan who I did A-Team with, called Stretch, about a limo driver in LA and all the crazy stars that he drives and gets involved in a battle with other limo drivers. It’s very funny, it’s very ridiculous. Joe’s directing it, wrote it, and Jason Blum, who I did both Insidious movies with, is producing it.
Tell me a little about the charity auction. What’s being auctioned off?
It’s growing everyday but right now we’ve got a resort in Key West, the Sandpearl in Clearwater. We also have two tickets to the premiere of The Conjuring, in LA — I will not be able to fly you there. And then there will be all these silent auction items and we’re going to get 2 tickets to either Fallon or LIVE with Kelly and Michael, also two tickets to Rock of Ages, the show on Broadway, that’s all paid for. And then I have a guitar signed by the whole band of Trace Atkins, Wynonna Judd, Bon Jovi. Richie Sambora isn’t even playing in the band right now it’s even more cool because he’s on there.
And of course, it’s for a good cause.
You know, that’s always been our thing. Try to use whatever avenues and whoever we know, exploit our semi-fame, call out favors, do what you can to get some cool stuff. Just so people that come there can listen to some fun music, everything from rock to country to pop, stuff spanning several generations. We’ve got some current stuff, and some stuff that we wrote. We always try to do one original at each show. This one is going to be great because not only is it a great organization but we’ve actually have some really amazing things we’re giving away (I don’t say this every time). Even if you don’t like us you should just come to get some cool stuff.
This article appears in May 16-22, 2013.