The Viktor Wilt Show

The Artist Interrogations podcast. I'm Poppy. This is Viktor Wilt. Thank you for joining us. Kinda funny.

I've done hundreds of interviews, and for some reason this one, I got a little bit nervous about it. Oh, well, don't be nervous. Well, I'll do my best. Okay. Let's do it.

No. It should go well. Tour just kicked off a few days ago. Mhmm. How's everything going so far?

It's pretty exciting. I haven't done my own headline tour in many years, and I'm happy to be back. Well, I was really excited when the tour was announced because the last few tours you did were opening slots. And, you know, being such a huge fan, was stoked to be able to come out and hear a full set. And you just dropped this awesome new album, Negative Spaces.

So I would imagine we'll hear a few songs from that tonight. Yeah. Absolutely. Very exciting to perform new songs. Well, you did a killer job on Jimmy Kimmel the other night with the the current single getting pushed to radio.

What are some of your favorite songs off this new album? My favorite song is probably, Vital or Center's Falling Out. Center's Falling Out is excellent. Very brutal. Very brutal.

And, that one, I would imagine, is pretty fun to perform live. Yes. That one's up there for sure. Yeah. Twenty twenty four, you know, as a Poppy fan, was awesome.

How was 2024 for you with all of the different things that happened starting right at the beginning of the year with violence against nature with Bad Omens, one of the biggest rock slash metal tracks of the year? Last year was quite exciting, and I feel like it took me on a lot of winding adventures. I got to go to Europe and America many times. We passed through, in the summer and got to go to the Grammys at the beginning of this year for a song that was nominated with Knock Loose. And I feel like the adventures are just beginning.

Very excited to see whatever's going down in 2025 because, yeah, you know, the Bad Omens track you collaborated on was just great. Suffocate with Knocked Loose. I mean, that's probably the best metal track of 2024, and it was so cool to see the two artists nominated for a Grammy. You know, I was bummed you didn't win, but, I mean, how is anybody gonna take out Gojira with that Olympics performance? Gojira is excellent, so they're very deserving.

Oh, yeah. I don't know how many times I watched that video from the Olympics. It was just so good. They're so great. And the theatrics and it all.

Oh, yeah. So you've collaborated with a lot of artists over the years. What are what are some of your dream collabs if you could, you know, make a song with anybody? I would say Andre three thousand. That would be pretty sweet.

And with your diverse catalog, I could definitely see that happening. I like his flute album. I don't know if I've heard that one. It's wonderful. Any other good, newer album recommendations I should dig into?

I program, 12 different radio stations, so I'm always on the lookout for anything out of the box. Certainly. I could probably just send you things I've been listening to recently. I'd be down for sure. You know?

And aside from all the new music you put out, we can get back to negative spaces in a minute. I wanted to talk to you about Improbably Poppy. Mhmm. The YouTube well, you put it out a few months ago on Veeps, and it started popping up on YouTube, which I'll admit surprised me because some of the content's so wild. How do you sell that to some of your fans who haven't dove in and checked it out?

Because they're really missing out if they haven't checked out that series. It's one of the most insane things I've ever seen. It was so funny, so crazy. Thank you. I would just say you start, and then you work your way backwards and then forwards again.

It's definitely a multiple watch kinda thing. Some of the scenes just had me rolling. The guy trying to figure out what cake had human remains in it. Mhmm. I love our detective scene.

That was one of my favorites. That was ex I think that that was in the first episode. Or I'm not sure the order, but I do remember it was one of my favorites to film. It it had to be a lot of fun. It it was just so funny.

And kind of a, you know, throwback to when I first found out about you, which was when you were primarily doing YouTube stuff back in the day. It was funny. The first time I heard your music, I saw the video for x, some website metal injection or somebody who was like, check out the bloody new poppy video. So fired it up, didn't know what to expect. You go from this, you know, straight metal into, like, a psychedelic Beatles thing with the, the cult vibes in the video, kinda like Midsommar before that movie had even come out.

And I was all excited to go home and tell my daughters about it because, you know, they're I'm always trying to turn them on to good new music. And they're, you know, like, dad, we know Poppy. Okay? We've already we've watched Poppy for years on YouTube. So I love that.

They were ahead. They were ahead. They they turned me on to a lot of good music. My daughter went to the, Tyler the Creator show in Phoenix a couple nights ago, and it's another artist she turned me on to. Yeah.

He's excellent as well. So good. Yeah. So good. So, yeah, my daughters, Taryn and Maddie, huge fans.

They wanted me to tell you hi. Hello. And, my my girlfriend too, when I reconnected with her, we were talking music, and she had gone to see you just prior to that in, like, Hartford or, New Haven. She lives in Connecticut. I'm uniting the family.

Yeah. So I was like, oh my gosh. Alright. This is this is a sign. This is great.

Because, yeah, once I saw that video for x, I got way into your stuff, not too long after scary mask came out. Another just excellent song. And then the I disagree album came out, and that that concrete video, I I was just hooked by that song. Thank you. So You play that tonight.

Oh, I I can't wait to hear it live. You know, talking to, Jacobo at Sumerian over the years, I was at a radio convention with him in Vegas. I don't know. But it was around just after I Disagree came out, and, you know, he was telling me how how far ahead of the game we were because I played that album start to finish on my morning show. Oh, wow.

Thanks. I've done that with a few of of your albums. So Thank you. Definitely the first rock station playing you. That's what I heard.

Well So thank you for that. Absolutely. Huge fans, and we definitely play more poppy than anybody else at this point. Thank you so much. But it's it's been great to see with New Way Out finally getting some of that radio love you deserve.

Thanks. How how did, you know, the writing process with Jordan Fish work for that album? Well, I was in between a couple tours, but we wrote New Way Out together as the first song. We had two days together and we said, let's see what happens. And we came out with that song.

And then I went away on tour for almost two months, and then we resumed. And we finished the record. Well, it it turned out great. Thank you. And, you know, being a fan of Bring Me to Horizon, I assumed we'd hear a little bit of, you know, Jordan's influence in there.

But the album really has a little bit of of everything that I would come to expect from Poppy. You know, even right toward the middle of the album, you get into a crystalized and, pop it up. And, it's just such a fun song. The, live version you did of that when you also covered Sabrina Carpenter, it was just excellent. Thank you so much.

Yeah. I think Jordan Fish as a producer, he's very inspired by many different genres as am I, and that's what we really connected on. It was a great, great combination, I think, that the the two of you working together put out probably my favorite album since I disagree. I liked all this stuff in between. But Thank you.

It's just really cool to be able to sit here and talk to you because I know you don't do a lot of interviews. Yeah. Thanks for sitting here and talking to me. Absolutely. At this point, we were briefly interrupted by a forklift outside of the room that we were doing this interview in.

So, things went a little bit off kilter. Forklifts are kinda metal. I don't know. They they lift heavy stuff. Well, I guess while we wait for the forklift, we could talk about, cats, you know?

It's the longest fort life. Yeah. I know that, you post a lot of stuff about your cat, Pi. Yeah. It was his day the other day.

Yeah. Pi day. Do you have him on tour with you like he sometimes do? He's not here right now. He's at home.

Ah. But he was out with me in the summer for a couple of days. He he seems to like home a lot lately. We have a lot of windows now. So Nice.

To look out those and see the birds. Yeah. My my two are getting, very excited now that in Idaho, it's starting to warm up a little bit. Yes. Because they're primarily inside cats, but, you know, in and out of the yard.

And I I think I remember years ago, you had some kind of a scare with your cat with, like, it swallowed at hair tie or something like that. Yeah. That did happen. Oh. Yeah.

He's he, is a little bit too adventurous sometimes, and he likes to taste test everything. Hair ties? I I had to take, my cat, Koopa, in for a, hair tie incident one time as well. Mhmm. Thankfully, he just did his business and cleared things up.

But, Yeah. They're very, special creatures. He couldn't survive without me. I know that. I have a little kitten.

She's about 10 old, and she disappeared for a couple days, during a really bad winter weekend. And, it was just a disaster. Just a total disaster. That's sad. But, did the door to door thing, found her in a garage, and, she's been very happy to be at home recently.

So I'm glad she's okay. Yeah. Anyhow, tonight, the complex in Salt Lake City, Poppy with Kumho ninety nine. Anything you wanna say about the opening act? I wasn't familiar with them prior to the show.

I would say to check out Kumho ninety nine. I've been a fan of their music for quite some time, and we have some mutual friends in Los Angeles. I think they're really spectacular. Their music is really fun, and I think they're great performers. Well, from what I've seen online, it looks like, it's gonna be a fun show tonight.

Absolutely. You know, Salt Lake partying on a Sunday is a good time. So Yeah. They're at a church. They're ready for a poppy show.

That's right. That's right. And, hopefully, we should have a good amount of people coming down from Idaho. I know listeners were pretty pumped on the show. And, yeah, hopefully, we can get you up, you know, since you're blowing up, you know, get you up to our arena before we know it.

And, you know Yeah. Just right here. Tear down East Idaho. Heck, yeah. So any exclusive, twenty twenty five stuff you can tell me about, or is it all secret for now?

Lots of touring, lots of shows, and music. Alright. Are you gonna do any more in Probably Poppy? I hope to. That is on the wish list.

Awesome. I will definitely check it out. I've watched it, multiple times. It Oh, thank you. Just so unhinged and crazy that, yeah.

I'd love to see more of that. It was really cool to, see you get back to putting out some of that weird content, doing the almost Borat style stuff where you were the fortune teller in the booth. And, yeah, it was just so cool. Thank you. Thanks for watching.

Absolutely. And, again, negative spaces if, you know, anybody listening hasn't picked that album up yet. My favorite album of 2024. Thank you. For sure.

It means a lot. Just so good. I can't wait to hear many of those songs tonight. You have a great night tonight. We will.

Brought a few friends that are also fanatics. So, yeah, we're we're gonna have fun. And thank you again for giving me the opportunity to meet you and chat with you. Thank you for talking. Have a great day.

You too. The artist interrogations podcast is a production of Riverbend Media Group. For more information or to contact the show, visit riverbendmediagroup.com.