WAYLAND is a heartland, country-rock duo hailing from the town of the same name in West Michigan. Frontman Mitchel Arnold and lead guitar player Phillip Vilenski met when touring the world teaching children music with Bill and Robyn Brawley of Heart Global. They left the UK with their first batch of songs and set off to build a fanbase that nobody could take away from them.
They toured the country independently for seven years selling out venues as a headliner all over the midwest, opening for crossover acts like Shinedown, Lifehouse, Colt Ford, Blackberry Smoke, and Buckcherry, securing slots on major, national rock festivals, and building relationships with radio stations all over the country by singing three part harmony at seven am live on air on radio and television. The band won two official Sixthman Cruise competitions which landed them slots on the Kiss Kruise and Bon Jovi Cruise.
WAYLAND’s Welcome To My Head hit #32 on the active rock charts followed by Reno which reached #54. They followed up these successes with Get A Little, which debuted at #6 on the iTunes rock charts while simultaneously hitting #49 on media base active rock charts with a viral music video to match. Bloody Sunrise reached #30 and was followed by their single, Through The Fire which reached #29 on the Billboard Music Charts. Ghost, co-written by Brent Smith and Zach Meyers of Shinedown reached #28 on BDS active rock.
The band came off the road for the first time in seven years and began developing their sound and future in Burbank, California with Keith Nelson at Benji and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte’s MDDN Studios. With EP in hand, the band followed their calling to the Mojave Desert in Joshua Tree, CA where they built a studio from the ground up and Vilenski produced the band’s record for the very first time. With the sound and direction of WAYLAND clearly defined, they relocated to Nashville, TN where they spent their weekdays at Apple Music Studios co-writing and Spotify Noteable Studios recording where they caught the attention of Guy Fieri.
After multiple appearances on Guy’s All American Road Trip and Diner’s Drive In’s and Dives, Guy and Hunter Fieri joined WAYLAND in their music video for Summer To Me. After being named Cumulus Spotlight Artist Of The Month for four months in a row, the band released their full length album, On The Way everywhere on March 16.
