Wolfmother
For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves? Give us a bit of background, so we can get a picture of who you are.
We are three guys who met up through mutual friends, some years ago, in Sydney Australia, and realised we shared a love for collecting gear and playing music. We spent five or six years jamming together in our free time, we would have sessions where we would just play for hours on end with no structure at all really. We loved it but began to get increasingly frustrated that we didn’t really have any songs and had never played a gig. Most of the tracks on our album were put together to get gigs and try to fill a live set.
How do you write songs? Any special techniques?
A lot of the tracks come together from jamming sessions that we would record and then go back and slowly structure into songs, we spend a lot of time thinking about dynamics, and how we are taking a song on a journey, a lot of the time a song doesn’t really get resolved until you road test it on an audience.
What do you think is the most influential Australian music release and why?
For me it would probably be The Avalanches “Since I left You” because it was such a bold statement, They really weren’t paying attention to what anyone else was doing and came out with something so unique and full of character. Part of the beauty for me is that it doesn’t necessarily sound Australian, It sounds like it could have been produced in New York or Paris or wherever. It’s just a celebration of psychedelic music, and can translate anywhere, I think.
Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming album?
Well we recorded the album in L.A last year with Mr D. Sardy. The majority of the tracks came directly from our live sets we had been playing and touring for up to a year and a half before hand, a handful of the songs were created during the one month of pre-production we spent working at cherokee studios in L.A. We then spent another two months tracking and recording the album in various studios around Hollywood. It was an amazing experience for us and we are really happy with how it has turned out.
The producer on the album Dave Sardy has worked with some great bands. Was that a pressure to bare?
We were probably a bit nervous the first day of pre-production when he walked in, sat down and said “o.k. play me a song” but very quickly we realized that we was a great guy to work with, he would push and challenge us but at the same time was a really down to earth and funny guy. He taught us a whole new way to communicate and he was like the fourth member of the band for a while, he could bring an outside perspective to structuring the tracks and giving us ideas.
The artwork for your releases has been stunning. Who does the work?
It’s from a guy called Frank Frazetta, he’s a pretty well known illustrator from N.Y. he did a lot of sci-fi and fantasy book covers and things back in the 60′s.
You are on the Big Day Out Festival. Are you looking forward to playing with all those bands?
We love being a part of music festivals, it’s a trip for us to have our name up on the bill with bands we really dig.
What cane people expect at one of your gigs?
People cane expect to experience a trance induced interaction between three curly haired fools jumping around the stage and attempting to co-ordinate a musical happening through the use of loud noises.
Who are you guys listening to right now? Are you listening to new stuff as well as old stuff?
A Tribe Called Quest, Air, Amon Duul II, Antipop Consortium, Aphex Twin, The Arcade Fire, Autechre, The Avalanches, The Beach Boys, Beans, The Beastie Boys, The Beatles, Beck, The Beta Band, Bjork, The Black Dog, The Black Keys, Black Mountain, Black Sabbath, Blackalicious, Boards Of Canada, Bola, Bon Jovi, Booker T. & the MG’s, Boom Bip, Brian Eno, Broadcast, Buffalo Daughter, Bumblebeez 81, The Byrds, Can, Cannibal Ox, Capitol K, Caribou, Clisms, Clouddead, Cream, The Creation, Cut Copy, Daft Punk, Damnation, The Dandy Warhols, Danger Doom, David Axelrod, David Bowie, David Holmes, De La Soul, Dead Meadow, Death In Vegas, Decoder Ring, Deep Purple, Desert Sessions, Devendra Banhart, Die! Die! Die!, Dj Shadow, Donovan, The Doors, Dr. Octagon, Dungen, El-P, Entombed, Faith No More, Four Tet, Fu Manchu, Fudge Tunnel, Gerling, The Go! Team, Gorillaz, Grateful Dead, Herbie Hancock, The Hives, Icehouse, Incredible String Band, Interpol, Jackson and his Computer Band, Jaga Jazzist, Jean-Michel Jarre, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jimmy Edgar, The Juan Maclean, Kate Bush, Kim, King Crimson, Kings Of Leon, The Kinks, KLF, Kraftwerk, Kyuss, LCD Soundsystem, Led Zeppelin, Lego Feet, LFO, M83, Madvillain, Manitoba, The Mars Volta, Massive Attack, Mastodon, Metallica, The Meters, Midnight Juggernauts, Mike Patton, Miles Davis, Money Mark, Motorpsycho, Mouse On Mars, Mr. Bungle, Mr. Oizo, Mr. Scruff, Mum, My Bloody Valentine, Neil Finn, Neil Young, New Buffalo, Nightmares on Wax, Nirvana, Outcast, Pavement, Pink Floyd, Plaid, Plone, Poets Of Rhythm, Polyphonic Spree, Portishead, Prefuse 73, The Presets, Primal Scream, Prop, Radiohead, Ratatat, RJD2, Rocket Science, Roots Manuva, The Saints, Savath and Savalas, Skalpel, Slayer, Sleep, Sly & the Family Stone, Soulwax, SPOD, Squarepusher, Stereolab, The Stanglers, The Strokes, Supergrass, Syd Barrett, Talking Heads, Tangerine Dream, Tom Vek, Tomahawk, Tommy Guerrero, Tortoise, Trans Am, Turn On, Two Lone Swordsmen, Van She, Vincent Gallo, Ween, The White Stripes, The Who, Wolf & Cub, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yellow Sunshine, etc.
I always wanted to go to Australia. Give me a reason why I should?
Because you always wanted to. We’ve got kangaroos.
By John Siwicki
