Dead Wolf Club Chat To Stereoboard About Their Debut Album & Upcoming Tour (Interview)
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Written by Rob Sleigh
London-based alt-rock quartet Dead Wolf Club will be releasing their self-titled debut album next week before heading out on their very first UK tour. As the band prepare for the imminent release, Stereoboard caught up with frontman John Othello and guitarist Alwin Fernandez to find out more about their music and about their obsession with knitting. Eagle-eyed readers, look out for the hidden music competition and you could win the chance to get your hands on a free Cadbury’s Flake – but probably not…
Your debut album is due out next month. How are the band feeling in the run-up to its release?
We’re rather excited. It’s mental really - we’re putting an album out and going on a hefty tour. Cannot feel anything other than excitement, and pleased with ourselves for accomplishing this. We imagine we feel how The Rock felt before he faced off with Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania 18.
How long have you been working on these songs and how does it feel to see them coming together as an album?
Accomplished is how we feel. And proud. This album is for us. It’s our ideas and hard work and good times encapsulated onto a perfectly round CD.
Where did you find inspiration for the songs and what themes do you tackle on the album?
It can be anything really. Zelda, comics, BBC News, our friends, the internet. We just come up with ideas that could have been inspired by anything. The video game ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ inspired us with its art direction, and maybe that translated to a guitar riff. Or Martha [Supajirawatananon, bassist] is always knitting, and maybe she imagines her bass lines as strands of wool, locking in together to make a piece of music. As for themes, aggression, melody and rebellion. We don’t set out to sound like anything or focus on a theme, but it seems that those have ended up as the themes for the album.
How would you describe the album to someone that hasn’t yet heard it?
Dark punk. Light versus dark. Loud versus quiet. Happy versus angry. Noisy guitars versus melodic vocals. It’s all a big fight, it seems.
What was it like to record your first album and what do you think you’ve learned that will help next time around?
Recording is always fun. It is a bit like dissecting your creations that you’ve learned live together and finding out what makes it work. You get to hear everyone’s parts and notice their little nuances. We recorded it rather quickly, mainly due to being skint. The one thing that would help loads for next time would be loads of extra studio time and monies.
Was it much different from what you expected?
Honestly, no. We try and recreate how we are live and try and keep a live feel to it. However, you will always get a revelation on one song, where it will turn out completely different and almost morph in the studio. ‘Colossus’, for instance, sounds like a beast compared to our early demos.
Please can you tell us a bit about where the album was recorded and who you worked with on it?
Twas all done mainly in Forest Hill at Perry Vale Studio via Camberwell via Gravity Shack in Tooting. The majority of tracks were done in Forest Hill, recorded and mixed by Pat Collier. He’s great, he gets our sound and what we try to achieve - I don’t think many people do. Maybe it is because he was in a punk band, I don’t know, but whenever we work with him, it always turns out rather good. Jessica Corcoran recorded ‘Radar’ and ‘Disappear’, which came out bloody awesome. She’s a bit different to work with, a perfectionist, and the thing with that is you’re going to get awesome results. One song was recorded onto tape by Tim from Part Chimp at his Camberwell Studio. If you correctly tell me which track was recorded onto tape without looking at the CD credits, I’ll give you a Cadbury’s Flake.
How long have Dead Wolf Club been around, how did you all meet and what events led to the formation of the band? Sometimes the best stories are kept secret like the Moon landing. We were all on our holidays and ended up sitting next to one another by chance on a plane bound for St Petersburg and just got talking about coconuts, knitting and Russia, of course. Martha speaks Russian and lived there for a year, did you know? That’s a good one for a pub quiz. An extremely obscure pub quiz that features unknown bands, of course.
What music has influenced Dead Wolf Club and when did you first settle on the kind of sound that you wanted to go for in the band?
We just got together with similar ideas and influences and developed our sound over time. We just played the songs we liked the most as opposed to having any plan. We always want to keep the sound edgy and alive. The main influences and drive behind our sound has been lemons, Russia, tea, knitting, comics as well as lightness and darkness.
Do you all share the same influences or does each member of the band bring something different?
I think all the members add something unique to the band. John brings mad poetry and melancholy, Alwin brings good hooks and beeps, Martha adds cool heaviness - and knitting - and Serra [Petalle, drummer] rhythmic aggression.
You’ll be following the album’s release with a UK tour. How are you feeling about those dates?
We haven’t played a long tour before. We’re very much looking forward to it. We are going to have a lot of good times, smashed guitars and hangovers.
How do you think you have progressed as a live band since you started out and how important is that to you?
It’s essential to be good live, but live is also very unpredictable. That’s the fun of it. We used to just play bottles, tin cans, bongos and Zitars, so this is definitely an upgrade and we feel we have moved forward live now and ready to take on The Man.
For anyone hoping to go along to one of the dates, what can they expect?
Fireworks, free sweets, lots of fun and a headache.
What else have Dead Wolf Club got planned in 2012?
We are hoping to play the festivals in summer. We are writing a new LP to follow up this one for early summer release.
What are you looking forward to most?
Looking forward to destroying guitars and meeting the Queen for tea and scones.
The new album ‘Dead Wolf Club’ is due for release on 1st February.
Dead Wolf Club UK Tour Dates are as follows:
Wednesday 1st February 2012 – Horncastle, Old Nicks Tavern
Thursday 2nd February 2012 – Leicester, Lock 42
Friday 3rd February 2012 – Doncaster, Social Bar
Saturday 4th February 2012 – Inverness, Madhatters
Sunday 5th February 2012 – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
Monday 6th February 2012 – Coventry, Kasbah
Tuesday 7th February 2012 – Manchester, Kraak Gallery (Free Entry)
Wednesday 8th February 2012 – Bristol, Louisiana
Thursday 9th February 2012 – London, Barbican Native Tongue (Free Entry)
Saturday 11th February 2012 – Southampton, Joiners Arms
Sunday 12th February 2012 - Kilmarnock Festival
Saturday 18th February 2012 – Southsea, Facett Inn
Friday 24th February 2012 – Wrexham, Central Station
Saturday 25th February 2012 - Isle of Man, Douglas Clarendon Hotel
Sunday 26th February 2012 - Milton Keynes, Crauford Arms (with Bleech)
Thursday 1st March 2012 – London, Upstairs The Garage (with Bleech)
Saturday 3rd March 2012 – Halifax, Puzzle Inn (with Bleech)
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Sometimes the best stories are kept secret like the Moon landing. We were all on our holidays and ended up sitting next to one another by chance on a plane bound for St Petersburg and just got talking about coconuts, knitting and Russia, of course. Martha speaks Russian and lived there for a year, did you know? That’s a good one for a pub quiz. An extremely obscure pub quiz that features unknown bands, of course.
