Chances are high that if you’ve been on TikTok lately, you’ll have heard a clip of a song with an ear-catchingly memorable cough right before a brutal breakdown. The song you’re hearing is Sleepwalker, and the creators of said earworm tune are The Pretty Wild, a Las Vegas-based duo made up of sisters Jyl and Jude Wylde. But while the “mosh-cough” might’ve made them TikTok famous, they insist it wasn’t just a clever marketing ploy.
“Honestly, I do weird shit,” Jyl admits with a smile. “I make weird noises. It wasn’t intentional like, ‘This is going to be the thing’. It’s my authentic weirdness. I just do these things, and then they end up in songs. Sometimes Jules has to say, ‘No, we’ve got to can that’ when I go too far, haha.”
Jules chimes in: “Those moments are when you get to know our personalities a little bit.”
Originally from Indiana, Jules and Jyl haved played music together since they were kids. In 2011 they moved to Vegas for a fresh start. There, they started performing together in public for the first time – albeit as a pop duo.
“We started playing three or four-hour pop cover sets in casinos,” Jules says. “Eventually, we got bored of playing other people’s music, so we snuck a few of our own songs in. That’s how we started writing our own originals. It all went from there.”
The Pretty Wild officially formed in 2022. Blending the pair’s backgrounds in pop as well as a love for nu metal, metalcore and even deathcore breakout stars Lorna Shore, they describe their songs as “pop-metal requiems”.
I love seeing when a woman in the crowd has connected with what we’re singing
Jules Wylde
They’re also possibly the first band to proudly embrace the baddiecore label – a term to describe sexy, heavy music from Sleep Token to Bad Omens and OG “baddies” Deftones. But for all baddiecore’s sultry associations, The Pretty Wild say there’s plenty of empowerment to be found too.
“When you’re a girl, the industry tries to make you into what they want and a certain sound, and I didn’t want that,” Jyl says. “We have a lot of feminine rage in our shows. We’re tapping into this raw energy, our music is about making space for all of your emotions.”
“I love seeing when a woman in the crowd has connected with what we’re singing,” Jules chips in. “Of course, I love it when everyone does but it really means something when it’s a woman and you know she’s been through the same stuff.”
Although Jules and Jyl performed together before The Pretty Wild, the band didn’t make their live debut until May 2025 at US festival Welcome To Rockville.
“We were first on,” Jules recalls. “We expected a few hundred people to be there, and it was several thousand. We were terrified, but it was incredible. Performing live is so empowering. That very first scream that you do on stage during a live show is euphoric. It’s a top-five feeling for me!”
Since that trial by fire live debut, they’ve toured the US with In This Moment and played Inkcarceration Festival. The sisters will support Sleep Theory on their sold-out UK tour in February, as well as playing Download Festival. To say they’re excited is an understatement.
That first scream that you do on stage during a live show is euphoric
Jules Wylde
“I’ve been to the UK a lot, but it’s Jyl’s first time,” Jules tells us. “I’m actually quite jealous that her first experience will be touring there, and I can’t wait to show her.”
Many bands claim to be like family, but The Pretty Wild really are – even beyond the obvious. The pair’s older sister Jax works as their tour manager too.
“Being family, I feel like you have the ability to be a lot more honest and deep with the people that you’re around,” Jules says. “Walking away is not an option. You’re able to have these really tough conversations, deeper than you can have as just regular band members, because at the end of the day you’re blood.”
Jyl nods: “There’s an unconditional bond. The only time we ever butt heads really anyway is when I want something in a song and she doesn’t!”
You do have to wonder exactly what they wouldn’t put in a song. Sleepwalker may be The Pretty Wild's biggest hit, but it isn’t the only track on debut album zero.point.genesis to feature odd breakout moments. Button Eyes makes use of some slicing scissors, while Omens has a robotic Sat-Nav voice. Jyl admits a lot of their magpie-approach to music comes from their dad, who ensured they grew up in a musical household.
“Our dad sings a bit, and he also plays the trumpet,” Jyl says. “He was always playing us musical scores growing up; he fostered the appreciation for music at a young age.”
So, any chance of a trumpet breakdown in a song?
“Honestly, that could happen!” Jules says delightedly. “I love the merging of genres.”
Despite their unique and scattergun approach to making music, Jyl admits people have still tried to lazily pigeonhole The Pretty Wild into the dreaded and nebulous ‘female- fronted’ non-genre.
“People definitely want to simplify stuff in their minds,” she says. “I’m sorry, boys and girls, but The Pretty Wild isn’t that easy to categorise. We write what we want and from a place of rage and passion. Women have been called irrational, too much, unsafe, too wild… [But] baddiecore is channelling the divine feminine.’”
“People might think they’ve figured us out because of viral clips,” she adds. “But this is just the start.”
Zero.point.genesis is out now via Sumerian. The Pretty Wild support Sleep Theory in the UK from February 6 and play Sonic Temple Festival in May and Download Festival in June
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