Russell and the Wolves: Interview

1. How long have you been going and how did you all meet?
Russell: We've been going since around May 08. I went to a one off psych night in Boro by myself, saw Ned there and followed him around all night. I found where he lived and wouldn't leave him alone until he started a band with me. I knew Great Scott from college, needing a full time drummer, I stole him from another band. Ned and I DJed Danielle's club night (Black Jack Rabbits) and when she found out we were in a band, she forced herself upon us. So really it's just me forcing two other people into a band and Danielle forcing herself in there as well.
Danielle: Yeah I did totally force myself in really haha. Well I'd known Ned for years, knew he could play guitar like a demon but he'd never been in a band properly before so I was excited about that for starters. I got him to help DJ this night I run and then he starts bringing this
looming freak called Russell into my house, and then DJing too. At first I was a bit 'what the fuck is going on here, who's this annoying guy who won't shut up talking about 60's bands at my parties?' Then I heard his sets and they were good, and one night I went and listened to the
bands myspace, and got drunk and sent them a message saying they should let me play guitar for them. I might have promised them some gigs or something...erm...yes. I actually made them chuck the guy who played bass out, which was shit of me really but when I heard what they were doing I knew I had to be a part of it; I'd considered joining a couple of other bands after quitting my last one, just to keep playing, but my heart was never really in it, it wasn't music I'd ever listen to. So when I heard that horrible dirgey garage I just decided I was going to barge in. I'm sorry Mikey!


2. Is there any story behind your choice of band name?
Russell: We all have very hairy backs. Especially Danielle.


3. I hear you are releasing a CD, can you tell us a bit about where/when you recorded it and what the tracks are like?
Russell: It's our first set studio demos which we did at a college over the course of 6 months, due to working limitations. The experience wasn't too painful, plenty of typical situations like Ned wanting his guitar louder, so Danielle wanted her guitar louder which resulted in me getting turned down!
Danielle: You always need turning down, you screechy bastard! I fucking DESPISE recording. You go from being drunk and happy onstage with your mates playing loud, loud music having the time of your life, rolling round on the floor and getting sweaty, to stading there alone in a studio with clammy hands trying to get everything note perfect for the bloody recording. Then everyone has a different opinion about the mix, tempo, effects etc... including the soundguy/producer, so it's like adding another band member, only one who doesn't really know what sound is in your head, so doesn't have much chance of mixing you well. So I hate that situation and it makes me a pain in the arse to work with. Infact any time I have to play sober I sulk. We all love just getting the eight track and sitting in my house with an endless supply of coffee and recording that way; surrounded by loads of instruments and old record players with my dog getting in the way. We always play stuff back and it sounds low quality yeah, but you can tell we're all having fun at least. I'll always treasure the acoustic 'banjo and pringles tube' sessions we did on the radio because we all had such a great time doing them.
Russell: Another thing is you spend most of your time playing songs to other people and rarely ever get the chance to experiment. So we thought, what better place to do that in... So we came to the studio with our big bag of ideas and pockets filled with dreams of how we can make the song a million times better. Then you get there you try them out and some work! But most of them don't, so you do the only thing you can do in that situation and throw your coffee at the sound guy, have a hissy fit and storm out of the room. Then you come back a few minutes later, do the original version and realise the song's actually qutie good. Also when I record I pretty much hear myself for the first time and it's horrible. So I end up trying new things which
generally don't work out and that demoralises you even further and in the end you realise it was best the way you started, which is some relief I suppose. Also when we're onstage the sound is usually so rubbish or I'm too drunk to ever notice what my voice sounds like, so when I get to the studio and hear my voice back I get 'Jesus Christ, do I sound like this!' syndrome and the first few takes all in a club night singers voice until I relax.

Danielle: Maybe I'd be excited about recording if we had the money to travel and get someone who knows how to record and produce our kind of nasty stuff well. There's a few producers out there with it nailed that we'd love to work with. Let's just pimp Ned out for money. Or help us by buying one of our CDs! Haha!


4. How would you describe how it sounds as a whole to someone who hasn't heard it?
Russell: It matters who you're speaking to really and then it matters who you're speaking to in the band. We've all got a different opinion of what we think The Wolves are. In my opinion we're a Rock 'n' Roll band. Not in the strictest musical sense, obviously we've got elements of Rockabilly, Blues and Punk in our music, but who doesn't! Rock 'n' Roll doesn't really have a straight single sound, it's about an attitude, which is impossible to separate from any band. When I think of the music that excites me it's always been the ones who were Rock n Roll the one that were dangerous, confusing and overall gives me that feeling that makes me want to dance like my legs and arms were going to explode. I think The Wolves have that to some degree. So if I had to express that all into a one liner, it'd be something like, "Loud and dangerous, sexually driven psychobilly garage to make you spin around until your eyeballs burst."
Danielle: An epileptic fit underwater. Rock n Roll makes me think of Oasis so I don't like calling us that. I'm rubbish if anyone asks what we sound like actually. There's no point trying to explain, some people just get it, others don't. There's the comparisons we get to a few bands and while we don't directly try to sound like any of them, it means a lot to us when someone comes over all excited after a gig and says they saw the Cramps live and they love us just as much... whether it's the Birthday Party, or the Butthole Surfers, The White Stripes or The Pixies, it's an honour to mentioned in the same breath as any of them, and always interesting when people throw a new one in there. It's difficult to be objective about your sound so other people
letting us know is an eye opener. We just love getting people excited like that and it means a lot, especially if it's coming from someone who's lived through and still holds a passion for punk and alternative rock n roll to give us an opinon like that.

5. Are there any less obvious influences on your music you'd like to tell us about?
Russell: I'm influenced by my own ignorance. I don't come from a musically orientated family, I didn't inherit any collection from my parents. When I did start discovering 'real' music my friends hated it and at there weren't many modern bands doing it either. I just couldn't believe that only I had heard of these bands and it felt like no one else in music had either (obviously I was wrong but it still can be an influence). Then more and more I thought about this fact the angrier and more upset I became. Which is why the second I found a musically like minded individual (Ned) I started a band with them. One time Loz Firewalker from The Hangman said to me "Some bands are like seeing animals in a Zoo, but the ones that are really good are the
ones that look like animals in the wild." When he said that to me I knew exactly what he meant and we all stick to that as well. Everything you see on stage is unrehearsed, uncoordinated, unflattering and almost always unmediated, if a haircut's there at the end of a set, you've clearly not worked enough! So I'd like to think that people think we're more like 'animals in the wild' because that's what we are, a genuinely live show.

Danielle: I probably wouldn't be in a band at all if it wasn't for my family. My Dad has been in bands since he was 18, I grew up around guitars, amps, scrawled lyrics and broken guitar strings. He still sits in his home studio with loads of weird old analogue synths messing about. It might be a cliche but he truly doesn't make music for anyone else, he just does what he wants. My Nana too. She's a pensioner and her passion for music never dies; she forced me to take her to see the White Stripes and New Order, has a Joy Division poster by her pantry and is always listening out for great new things. She's my inspiration whenever I getted bogged down or depressed by the shallow crappy fashion side of music; whenever I think 'Christ, my ass looks huge I don't want to go onstage tonight' I just think 'If Nana Velterelle can dance her little perm off in the disabled box at the White Stripes and not care what anyone thinks then I can pick up this guitar, and fuck what anyone thinks of my fat ass!' Life's too short and all that.

Russell: Being from the Northeast is a big one as well, as much as I hate to say it, there is a huge difference. We've met bands from London who were like "Have you got a single? Who are you signed to?" to which we grin and sigh. Bands from London can get (relatively) big in less than a year but if you're from the Northeast you're luckily if it takes four. There are no magazines or labels here so you're never going to get lucky and be spotted. So we're heavily driven by the fact we're going to have to work if we want to get anywhere. Although at the end of the day, we don't give a fuck, we really enjoy what we're doing at the moment.

Danielle: There is definitely an Northern anger going on! It's so hard to get to gigs, so expensive to play them. It's not impossible and working your bollocks off will get you somewhere, bands like the Chapman Family have shown that. But when you have full time jobs still no money or food or heating it's hard not be bitter at public school or Brit school style indie and rock that gets massive on utter passionless shite while you scrimp and save for your next packet of guitar strings. Really frustrating when you've got the offers of gigs there but you can't logistically do it because of the geography, when if you lived 200 miles South you could just do it. It makes me cry when all you want to do is play, but it all comes down to miles and money. Depressing.


6. What are some of your all time favourite records?
Russell: Hang Up- The Wailers, Comanche- Link Wray, Kommienezuspadt-Tom Waits, Swampland- The Birthday Party, Caveman- The Cramps
Danielle: Pussy Stomp- Pussy Galore, Liars - Clear Island, Captain Beefheart - Hot Head, Stereototal - Ich Bin Nacht, Monks - I hate you, PJ Harvey - Yuri G... I could go on for a long time.
(Russell rings Ned and he says): I've been everywhere- Johnny Cash, I get a little- The Risings Sons