From the heart of Michigan’s underground comes Wanted, a five-piece band fusing classic ‘80s metal grit with a modern hard rock edge. Hailing from the Charter Township of Oxford, the group has steadily carved their place in the Hard & Heavy revival scene with fiery riffs, anthemic choruses, and a commitment to authenticity. With their third album Cutting Edge on the horizon and a fresh lineup featuring new drummer Chris Rajt, Wanted joins TheNwothm to talk origins, evolving sounds, wild studio pranks, and what’s next for this rising force in American metal.

Interview

TheNwothm: Can you start by introducing the band and where you are from?

W: We are a 5 piece band from the southeast part of Michigan, we have Sterling Primeau on vocals, Alan Mares on lead guitar, Christian Shonts on second guitar, Paul Slezak on bass, and Chris Rajt on drums. Chris is our newest member, our upcoming album “Cutting Edge” will be his first appearance on a record. 

TheNwothm: How did the stars align for you all to form Wanted — was it a garage jam gone right, or something more calculated?

W: (Alan) Christian and I knew each other in high school, I reached out to him initially to see if he wanted to fill in on bass, and now he’s playing solos on some of the tracks of the new album which is crazy to me, but I totally encourage it. Christian knew Paul and I thought it would be great for him to take over bass duties, so we could have two guitars for a fuller sound. Sterling we met at one of his old band’s shows, and Chris we met at a Dokken concert back in 2022, but it wasn’t till after the departure of our former drummer that he would join in 2024.

TheNwothm: “Wanted” is a bold name. What’s the story behind choosing it — was it always the front-runner, or did it win out in a battle of band names?

W: (Alan) So we don’t ever really talk about this but we were actually called Haymaker before we decided to make the name switch over to WANTED. Our main reason for changing it over to our current name was because we felt like it just had more face value, and our first drummer was a big fan of western movies. Some of the contenders from what I remember were L.A.W and Trial, but we decided on WANTED. We love it and it holds up well with our sound. 

TheNwothm: You’re proudly from Charter Township of Oxford. What kind of energy or attitude does Michigan bring into your sound, if any?

W: Surprisingly not much, at least in the beginning. Our influences were always heavily derived from that mid 80s L.A club sound, but after we recorded the first album we discovered Seduce; a band that was pretty big in the Detroit area from around ‘85 to ‘90. They definitely had an impact on the second album in terms of how we approached our more melodic songs, like “Caged In”.

TheNwothm: I love your sound and musical direction! Did you always know which way you wanted to go with your sound?

W: When we first created the name and initial lineup, yes we definitely did. We were all huge Dokken and Ratt fans, and we always knew that was going to be the core of our music. As time went on though our former drummer was really pushing the idea of adapting a thrasher sound, and in some ways it worked but it also stripped us of a lot of our best traits. We almost released a full thrash EP in 2024 but we shelved it and then parted ways with our drummer. That was kind of what caused a big pause between 2023 and 2025, we had to kind of relatch ourselves on to our rails and start writing music that was more genuine to ourselves again. This upcoming album is our strongest, because of how ready we were to just start writing music we really loved. 

TheNwothm: Is there a local scene in Oxford or nearby cities that shaped your early shows or music identity?

W: There is a big music scene in Detroit, but nothing that really influences us musically. It is always super hard to put together a bill when we play in Detroit. Everything is either too core-y, too blues rock, or too indie/pop for us to smoothly layout a bill of bands, but we recently helped put together a band called Savetta, which captures that Hard & Heavy sound with loud riffs and melodic vocals, and is based out of Metro Detroit as well. We are starting to see more bands similar to ours in this area, but until now it was pretty rough. 

TheNwothm: Let us talk about the music! Your first single “Let Me” dropped in 2022. Looking back now, how do you feel about it? Was it a mission statement, an experiment, or something else?

W: We feel like that song fully sets the tone for what we’re all about. When we look back at it I think the general consensus is that we’re grateful that we were able to write something like that when we were all around 16-19 years old. We recently added it back into our setlist, and are excited to keep playing it at future shows.

TheNwothm: “RHRN” (Right Here, Right Now) followed shortly after — what was burning in your minds that needed to be said “Right Here, Right Now”?

W: (Alan) With that song being completely off of streaming services I’m surprised you were even able to find the track, that is awesome. That was the second song that I think the band ever wrote together, the first being “No Warning” off Chain Reaction. All I remember when writing that song was that we were trying to write something catchy and It just ended up being kind of a forced track lyrically, which is why we decided to take it down from streaming. I love the guitar solo in the song, I just wish I had connected with the actual song in the same way. 

TheNwothm: Then came “Chain Reaction,” your first full-length. How did it feel expanding your sound into a complete album — what themes or ideas anchored it for you?

W: We were all off the rocker when we finally released that album, none of us had ever been in the studio and we were all super excited to put out an album. The themes and ideas that anchored that album were definitely more heartfelt/post-relationship connotations but also lets take matters into our own hands and make the best out of lives. Those were some of the emotions that we were all going through at the time. 

TheNwothm: Moving away from the music for a moment who’s the biggest prankster in the band, and what’s the best prank they’ve pulled on tour or in the studio?

W: (Alan) Definitely Paul, and I think that would be the immediate answer from anyone else in the band. I don’t get it as bad from him, but he normally gets the best reaction out of Christian so he will normally be the main target. If I had to name one I think it would be when we got Christian to believe that we had lost Paul in the woods at like 2 am and we needed his help to find him. He believed us for about 1-2 hours. 

TheNwothm: If you weren’t in a band, what would your dream job be (no music allowed)?

W: Paul would be playing baseball or have a chiropractic license, Christian would be a professional skateboarder, Sterling would make a great salesman, Chris would make great upper management at a company, and Alan would be in the engineering field.  

TheNwothm: Outside of music, what’s something unexpected that each of you is passionate about — any secret hobbies or skills?

W: Paul and Christian are huge into Poker. Paul is a big sports fan, and pretty much follows the MLB and NFL year round. Christian is big into fashion and before he hurt his ankle was big into skateboarding on a religious level. Alan is pretty good at calculus and also loves to go fishing. Sterling also loves to fish but is also an insanely talented multi-instrumentalist. He is probably one of the best drummers in Detroit, and probably one of the best guitarists in the area as well. Chris is big into cars and has a pretty big old school heavy metal record collection. 

TheNwothm: “Late Attraction” was your second full length album that came out in 2023. It had a different energy — what story were you telling there that you hadn’t told before?

W: I think we had found the sound that we were looking for when we were writing the frameworks for that album. You still had some of that Chain Reaction sound that carried over in songs like “Only One Tonight”, “Forever”, and “Living On Love”, but the rest was a bit more of what our current writing still sounds like today. We were all in a much better headspace when we were writing this album, which is why a lot of the material just sounds more lively. “Breaking Til Dawn” is the defining track of the album and we feel like it covers the best parts of our writing from that time period. 

TheNwothm: And off that record do you have a favourite song or one that you particularly like to play live?

W: Late Attraction for sure. We play it a bit faster live and it will normally be our opening track. Super high energy, great chorus, great riffs, and lots of attitude. The runner up is definitely Lost In The Night. 

TheNwothm: Last year you released “Out of Touch” — what was on your minds this time around, and how does it represent where Wanted was creatively?

W: (Alan) It actually is kind of an oddball for us in terms of how we are currently writing. The latest release “Under The Law” which came out about 6 months after is more of defining track for the upcoming album. I wrote that song because I felt we didn’t have a more driving ballad, sort of like “Is This Love” by Whitesnake or “Night Comes Down” by Judas Priest.

TheNwothm: I know you guys have been in the studio so what is next for the band musically? What can you share?

W: The next album is a pretty big melting pot of inspirations. 10-track album, with one being a power ballad, and the rest of the songs fully encapsulating the Hard & Heavy dynamic that we have been pushing lately. 

TheNwothm: And will you be heading out on tour this year?

W: Definitely in the works, we will have more information on that hopefully in the near future.

TheNwothm: How can our readers buy your music and merch?

W: We have a Bandcamp page (wantedbandofficial) which is where we sell all of our merch and music directly from the band. 

TheNwothm: Where can fans follow you online?

W: Our Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook are all @wantedbandofficial. We also have a website www.wantedbandofficial.com

TheNwothm: Anything else you would like to mention?

W: Our upcoming album “Cutting Edge” will be out on CD, Vinyl, and digitally through Eonian Records on Friday, June 27th. If you are from the Detroit area or want to make the trip, we have an album release show at the Diesel Concert Theater in New Baltimore on Friday, June 27th. The lead single and video for the album titled “Armed for Action” will be out on all platforms Friday, May 16th. For any updates follow us on our socials. 

Bandcamp: wantedbandofficial

Facebook: wantedbandofficial

Instagram: wantedbandofficial

Website: www.wantedbandofficial.com

Label: Eonian Records