THE WOLVES
Questions asked by Jon Wilde, added to Rock Realms 1st June 2010.
German rock 'n' roll monsters The Wolves have just released their second album, Turn Up The Volume on their brand-new label Stay Rock Records.
We caught up with Daniel a.k.a. HOLLYWOOD, lead-singer and guitarist, to find out more...
Hi Daniel, thanks for taking a moment to answer these questions. Hope you are well?
Daniel: Yeah we are doing really good..the band is in a great condition!
Can you give us a brief history of The Wolves – how you formed etc...?
Daniel: It was in Late 2006 that I wanted to start a new band. I quickly found Benny a.k.a. BIG BAD as the bassist and we found a drummer called Becks who left us three months later. After that we recruited Sebastian a.k.a ZEKE as our drummer; which was the luckiest pick we could do for the band and the sound. After that we wrote songs and played several shows in and around our hometown and quickly decided to record an album.
So we hit the Ironbar studios in Darmstadt (our hometown) and, with producer Lorenz Blümler a.k.a Lolo, we recorded "Volume 1" which came out in september 2008. After that we played several shows in and around Germany and in September 2009 we hit the road for a 13 day long tour bringing us to Germany, Belgium, France and Italy.
After that we hit the Ironbar Studios again to record the follow-up album "Turn Up The Volume" which came out on May 8th 2010 on our own label "Stay Rock Records". Before that we had a mini tour in France and Belgium.
Did you know what sort of music the band should play right from the start?
Daniel: Yes. That was the whole Idea behind the band. I was wondering why there are so few bands with that typical sound that I love, so I decided to start my personal "favourite band". So the sound was clear in my head and I fortunately found the perfect fellow musicians to perform it.
How would you describe the sound of the band to someone who hadn’t heard you before?
Daniel: Well it's a mix. It's all based on rock'n'roll but heavier, with a touch of metal plus some of the catchy hook lines from the good Punk bands. in the end it's heavy-punk-rock'n'roll...if you want to call it that way.
Who or what would you list as your main influences?
Daniel: The Influences are many things...first of all there's the godfathers of rock, Motörhead and AC/DC etc.. Even "smaller" Bands are inspiration like Zeke, Peter Pan Speedrock, Supersuckers,etc. but also the good old rock'n'roll heroes like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis etc. and also some of the finest metal-bands like Metallica, Slayer and stuff like that.
In fact it's nearly all guitar-based music which has an influence on us!
You have a new album “Turn Up The Volume” out. That must be a good feeling! Do you enjoy the whole writing and recording experience?
Daniel: Yeah it was a great feeling. The writing was fun and the recording went very well. Sometimes we had parts done in only one take and that was a damn good feeling. and also the drinking was good :)
When did you start work on the new album?
Daniel: We started doing new songs shortly after the release of "Volume 1" in September 2008 and we hit the studio with the new songs in November 2009.
Where do you find your writing influences? Where do you look for inspiration?
Daniel: For the guitar-riffs I just jam at my home and every time I get a good riff I start building riffs around that. Those are sometimes influenced by the bands mentioned above or other bands but... well you can't re-invent rock'n'roll right? You can just put your own style on it.
For the lyrics it's thoughts that run through my head, sometimes just simple bullshit and sometimes things I get to see or experience in life.
Is there a single story behind the songs on Turn Up The Volume, or are they all standalone tracks?
Daniel: They are standalone tracks. We don't try to built up a story in a record. Each song has more or less its own story. Well, some don't even have a story; they are just like "statements". For example the song 'Fast and Dirty' is just a statement that I like music fast and dirty. Other songs like 'I Don't Wanna' and 'Lipstick Lesbians' are just funny little stories that I created, but songs like 'Bastards' and 'Prey To The Devil' have a personal touch.
How does the writing process in The Wolves work? How would a typical song be created?
Daniel: Normally I bring up the guitar and bass riffs for a new song. Then I work the drum-licks out with ZEKE and then the band discusses breaks, fill-ins, intros. After that we work on the bass-riffs a little more intensive and the backing vocals..and then we practice.
Do you use any special techniques in the studio to get your sound?
Daniel: Yeah we use Lolo :) No he's a great guy and he's got so much knowledge we will never get about recording so we just let him do the magic while we rock the songs in.
How does the new album compare to your older work in terms of sound and quality?
Daniel: We tried to give it a more "natural" sound. It sounds more live, and we made some songs that have more catchy riffs and hook lines included but also heavier elements...so it's more diversified then the last one. It's also more "The Wolves" which means we increased our own typical sound.
Was this a harder or easier album to create than your previous effort?
Daniel: It was definitely easier. We now know our sound better, had played longer together and knew how Lolo works.
Do you have any favourite moments on the new album?
Daniel: I personally love the song 'I Don't Wanna' and I'm absolutely stunned about the solo work I've done on 'Prey To The Devil'. I didn't know that my own playing could have such an effect on me. Also the bass-lines on 'Fast And Dirty' are damn great and the drum intros we have for 'Nice Thrice' and 'Shake It'.
Are you planning a big tour to promote the new album?
Daniel: Unfortunately that's not possible. We are all working a lot and so there's not that much time left for big tours. But we are right now planning a short tour in the Netherlands.
What is one of your live shows like?
Daniel: Well I would say they are energetic. We really try to rock out on stage like there was no tomorrow...and so we drink :) Well It's always been a sweaty, heavy, intense experience, even if we can't drop big poses (since we are "banned" behind the microphones) you can see some great action in the parts where there's no singing. BIG BAD and I really know how to interact and also our "additional" Bassist Dr. Glazer (from the Band Bushfire who helped us out on tour when BIG BAD couldn't join us) Is a great personality on stage. And the things people told me after our shows prove my feelings about our shows.
Any question you love being asked that I’ve missed? If so, what’s the answer?
Daniel: Yeah..the question would be: how can your readers book us? and the answer is: for gigs in France you can contact our french booker Evy (http://www.myspace.com/evywallprod), for gigs in Belgium and the Netherlands our booker Pauline (http://www.myspace.com/sbxpaudv), and for Germany and the rest of the world just contact me on http://www.myspace.com/thewolvesrocknroll or thewolves@gmx.net.
What are you up to once you’ve finished answering these questions?
Daniel: Well right know I am at the INKSIDE Tattoo shop which is run by our drummer and I'm gonna prepare the Tattoo I'm gonna do later on a friend.
Anything else you would like to mention?
Daniel: First of all thank you for the Interview, it was fun. And last but not least I wanna give my thanks and respect to our hard working and hard drinking Road-Crew!
Thanks again to Daniel for his time. Check out The Wolves' latest album Turn Up The Volume right now by going to their MySpace site. That's an order!
http://www.myspace.com/thewolvesrocknroll
