As dream-pop bands go, Wild Nothing shows its influences on its sleeve. Pitchfork, in reviewing the track "Reichpop," said that the band's sound depends directly on what Jack Tatum, its mastermind, is listening to. The song was an obvious nod toward minimalist composer Steve Reich, but that's not the only influence Tatum took to heart when recording Wild Nothing's third album, "Life of Pause," released in Feburary.
"My taste has changed a lot since I recorded the first couple of records," Tatum said in a phone interview. "I wanted to include stuff from different genres, so that it's less purely '80s dream pop." He named David Bowie as having been a major influence on the album, but before Wild Nothing's performance at the Sinclair on May 9, he pointed to another iconic artist who also passed this year — speaking while en route from Minneapolis to Chicago, Tatum named his top five Prince songs, in order.
1. "Why You Wanna Treat Me So Bad?" It's track 2 from his self-titled album. It was hard to pick between that and "I Wanna Be Your Lover" for No. 1, but those are my two favorite songs from that record.
2. "When You Were Mine" I feel a lot of people know this song because Cyndi Lauper covered it. It's from "Dirty Mind," which is a scrappy-sounding album. This is a perfect pop song and, like Prince usually does, it blurs gender and sexuality and all of that. He talks about being in bed with a guy and a girl, but you're not really sure what's going on there.
3. "The Beautiful Ones" It's my favorite song from "Purple Rain." It's been awhile since I've seen the movie, and I really want to watch it again — I can't think about that record without thinking about that movie. The album itself is amazing, though, beyond the movie, with how much went into it. A few songs on the record are actually great recordings from live concerts. On that specific song, Prince gets really screamy towards the end, and I love it.
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4. "Something in the Water (Does Not Compute)" It's definitely my favorite song from the "1999" record. It's very minimal and kind of pitter-patter. I listened to it a lot when I recorded "Life of Pause."
5. "Pop Life" It's one of the singles from "Around the World in a Day," which is Prince's almost-psych record, and I think it's really interesting for him.
JOHN STAPLETON
Wild Nothing performs with Charlie Hilton at the Sinclair, Cambridge, on May 9 at 8 p.m. Tickets: $23, $20 advance. 617-547-5200, www.sinclaircambridge.com
John Paul Stapleton can be reached at john.stapleton@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @JohnP_Stapleton