Formed in 2011, Dead Wolves are a Brisbane band that take raw, punk rock and throw it into a multiple of styles – from an all-out, heavy assault to more balladeer crooning.
Vocalist Bones makes himself a cuppa before answering the following questions.
Maybe the best song title I’ve seen this year, the new Dead Wolves song is ‘Who Would Expect To See A Shark In A Public Pool’; do guys enjoy penning exceedingly long titles?
Ha! That's an awesome question. The credit for that title has to go to Ben Gorenge of bass fame for Brissie room wizards Frown. We lifted the title straight from his part which you can hear right at the end of the track. It's weird because I [Bones] enjoy the habit of naming the tracks with said ‘exceedingly long titles’, but we as a band only ever call the songs by a single word; for example, one of our songs off our first album is titled ‘Defying Death Is A Daily Pursuit’, but to us it’s always just refereed to as ‘Death’; and in this case we always just call out ‘Sharks’ before we bust in the song. But yeah, it's really fun and there may be a few more titles like this planned for the future.
Where is the band at in terms of another Dead Wolves album?
As we are writing this we have all the songs in form and are heading into Word Studios to lay it all down. We are all super excited about it because we have been playing pretty much all the tracks live for a while now and it’s our intention to make it as raw and off the way energy as our live set. We got that feeling down on one of our tracks, ‘Choose Your Weapon’ [‘Blek Shurp’ EP], but it’s gonna be a great thing to have a cohesive record with that vibe all through it because it’s what alot of people have been expecting from us, so we are going to work super hard to exceed both their and our own expectations.
You’ll be headlining Ear Candy 7, at the New Globe on NYE... anything special planned given it’s the final day of 2014?
Ha! ‘Headlining’. With bands and friends on the bill such as: Muddy Chanter, Switchblade Suzie, Flannelette, Anti-Thesis, Ghost Audio and so many more awesome bands we would never say we where headlining, so let’s just go with ‘playing Ear Candy 7’. Saying that though, if you have ever seen a Wolves show you will know that nothing is ever orchestrated because that chaos would tear the plans apart, and it’s just that which makes it ‘special’. So the best we can do is to say we will be plugging in, turning up, playing loud and if you’re lucky maybe a little bit of confetti may fall down upon you as you lock lips with the one beside you as the clock strikes 12.
Do you have any New Year’s resolutions planned?
Seeing as statics would say that the majority of people are likely to fail with any New Year’s resolution we are going to try trick our way into a successful year by firstly vowing to gain a whole bunch a weight – sorry in advance to all the fine people in the crowd that will have to lift our bloated bodies as we crowd surf. Secondly, we feel that only having three out of the four members in Dead Wolves smoking is plain weak, so Bones is going to finally take up the habit and the other boys are pushing their efforts to a full pack a day. Finally, we are going to attempt to get two birds stoned at once by plunging ourselves into copious amounts of creditcard debt and using that cash to drive around Australia playing house party shows thereby spending virtually no time with family and loved ones. If you like the sound of that make sure you go over to our Facebook page and stay up to date with what we are calling ‘2015: A Nightmare Of A Dream’.
The Ear Candy bill is a who’s who of Brisbane underground/ DIY bands... is it important to have a local, NYE event that promotes/ supports the fringe, music community?
Without a doubt. Live shows like Ear Candy are the lifeblood of any local band and it’s always amazing to be a part of gigs like this especially when they are put together as well as this one is. This is where the huge shout out to David BeeTea has to be made because he has put us on the bill for the last three Ear Candys and from the first band to the last we have really seen some next-level performances from so many diverse local acts. It's in the ‘fringe’ that real, un-homogenised music can be allowed to take true form and become whatever the musician and audience would like it to be.
Image © Thomas OliverThe New Globe recently celebrated their first birthday; as a musician, it must be crucial to have that mid-size venue who can cater to locals, national and lesser-known internationals?
You hit the nail on the head with that one. We were lucky enough to play that show thanks to Chris Nance the instigator and sometimes victim of Some Can’t. But yeah, what more can you say about The New Globe, it's an awesome room with some of the best people behind the bar in all of Brisbane, and they're continuously putting on amazing line-ups while also taking chances on bands where it may be there first ever show. We love them and so happy for all their success.
The band have been around for three years now... are there still items on your band bucket list you need to strike-out?
COUNTLESS! But really nothing brings us more enjoyment and fills our hearts than the simple things like seeing people come to our shows and rocking out right up the front; or it could be like on one occasion when we where playing The Zoo for our album launch and there was this beautiful creature of female origin and she comes walking towards the venue through the crowd when all of a sudden it’s visible that she is wearing a Wolves shirt. She didn't say a word, she just walked right passed, but it’s those type of moments where you just have to laugh at the idea of needing anything more in life.
What has been the best house party you've ever played?
I don't know if it’s like a first, summer romance – because we have played a few stella house parties in our time together – but it’s automatically the first one that stands out in our minds. It was put on by our now good friend Wilco who at the time had only met Callum. It was Wilco’s party to celebrate the fact that his neighbours couldn't stand him living there anymore and had complained one to many times to the landlord. So we carried all our gear plus the PA just a few blocks from our rehearsal room, and within an hour all was set-up and ready for the perfect swansong. I remember vividly this was the first time we all played with our shirts off because it was in the middle of summer and the night’s air was so thick you could bottle it. We played first because we one the coin toss against The Johnny Mustards and like most house parties this is about all we can remember. If there has ever been a funnier summer night played out in a West End living room well then we don't wanna know about it.
Brisbane local punk-rock scene... who are the young cats beginning to make noises you enjoy?
The music and people that we religiously go out and support can't always be called ‘punk rock’, but they all do it with the fun, bands much like: Muddy Chanter, Midwife Crisis, Ape Farm, Junkyard Diamonds, Walken, Roth, Last Chaos, Frown, Rook, Elvis Got Fat, The Keepaways, Release The Hounds, Hobo Magic, Babaganouj, Whiskey And Speed, Trigger Warning, Baron Samedi and massive sorry to all the others that are out there and killin' it so hard and representing Brisbane so well.
2015 for Dead Wolves... what's on the menu?
Well being that its usually two beer tickets per band member at every gig I’d say about 672,744,521,233,451 beers and if all goes well we might even get a falafel kebab each from the valley with wait for it... cheese. But yeah, on that very nutritious diet we'll be putting out a brand spankin' new album and riding its sonic vibrations up and down the coast on a tour I’m sure at some point and maybe even be looking into a few shows over in NZ or possible the hustle and bustle of Japan.
Written by Thomas Oliver
Dead Wolves play Ear Candy 7 at the New Globe Theatre, Brisbane, on Wednesday 31 December. Other bands include: Ghost Audio, Anti-Thesis, Flannelette, The Skinnie Finches, Switchblade Suzie, The Con And The Liar, Muddy Chanter, The Eagle Junction, YellowCatRedCat and DPOOA. Dead Wolves play another show with Switchblade Suzie at Ric’s, Brisbane, Thursday 11 December.
