Wolfmother: A New Moon Is Rising
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» The Great Escape 2007 - Newington Armory, NSW - April 7, 2007
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Wolfmother are well and truly reborn. After Chris Ross and Myles Heskett left the band in August 2008, leaving frontman Andrew Stockdale as the sole remaining member, Stockdale declared he would continue to use the Wolfmother moniker.
In January 2009, Stockdale was joined by bassist and keyboardist Ian Peres, rhythm guitarist Aidan Nemeth and drummer Dave Atkins, and the rebirth was well and truly in process.
The new line-up released its first album, Cosmic Egg, in August 2009, which stays true to the style of ‘Wolfmother’. Wailing guitar riffs, heavy drumming and Andrew Stockdale’s highly distinctive voice. It’s not just what you’ve heard before though. Stockdale’s voice seems to be bigger (if possible) and in songs such as ‘In the Morning’ and ‘Far Away’ you hear a side to Wolfmother that you haven’t before.
Bassist and keyboardist Ian Perez said the band wasn’t necessarily trying to appeal to the Wolfmother fans of old.
“The plan is there is no plan. We play what we like, and hope the fans like it too. We’re pretty confident they did.”
The album title Cosmic Egg “represents the combustion of the universe. It strikes a chord with Wolfmother because it’s exactly what they did; combust. It’s also about rebirth and us taking a new direction, not only through our music, but in the make-up of the band.”
Having recorded Cosmic Egg with producer Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and Bullet for my Valentine) in the Sunset Boulevard studio; Wolfmother experimented in their style constantly and churned out the second album.
“Alan wasn’t like other producers who brought their own ideas to the table and said, ‘do this’. He let us do what we wanted, to mess around and try different things much as we wanted.”
Cosmic Egg comprises songs that have been worked on for really differing periods of time.
“Andrew has been working on tracks for the album over the last two years, but songs like 'California Queen' and 'New Moon Rising', we came up with over two weeks, while pre-recording at Silverlake. They then went on to become the biggest hits on the album. It's funny how that happens.”
Perez describes the whole recording process as frenetic. “I’m a sound engineer and I like to watch what the sound techs are doing, and take it all in. But it was so overwhelming, I was so filled with nervous energy, I just played my parts and hoped I didn’t screw it up. We (Peres, Nemeth and Atkins) came in towards the tail end of Cosmic Egg, as Andrew had been working on tracks for a long period of time. We didn’t have the time or the luxury of taking everything in, we just played our parts.”
2009 was a huge year for Wolfmother, unveiling a new line-up and then releasing an album and 2010 beckons to be just as big. The band is currently supporting AC/DC on its Black Ice Tour before conducting a prolonged tour of Europe.
“The thing about being in Wolfmother is you’ve got to have no expectations. Something turns up and it’s usually big. Like supporting AC/DC or Kiss. It’s just a massive honour, a huge thrill. Walking out to play and there’s 65,000 people with glowing AC/DC horns on. There’s no way you can prepare yourself for that. It doesn’t suck.”
Having toured Europe for a month in 2009, Wolfmother return for the European summer in 2010, and support Kiss in the process.
Ian, a keyboardist who played bass sporadically, in Queensland’s local scene prior to playing both for Wolfmother, says that the first few weeks with the band were particularly challenging.
“I had a bass in my garage and played it for my band every now and then, but hadn’t played it anywhere near as much as I do for Wolfmother. I’d never played an instrument with such thick strings for so long. My fingers would be bleeding after every practice and I kept thinking ‘shit, maybe I’m not cut out for this."
Wolfmother are a band who are heavily scrutinised by the public, but Ian states the important thing is to shrug it off. “Andrew certainly doesn’t feel the pressure. He’s very apathetic in that way and you have to be. That’s something we’ve all learnt from him, brushing off criticism and staying focused. Nasty things get said from time to time, but when you’re packing out venues on a constant basis, you can’t be doing that much wrong.”
With Cosmic Egg released in August last year, and Wolfmother supporting AC/DC on its Black Ice Tour as well as playing the Falls Festivals, Australian's have had lots of opportunities to catch Wolfmother, but it doesn’t end there.
“We’ve got a song, called ‘I Fell Down a Hole’ that is featured on the soundtrack of the Disney Movie Almost Alice. We got a call from Andrew telling us to come to his basement to work on a new track. He didn’t have a mixing desk so we went out and bought one. One and a half days later, and we had our track. Aidan (rhythm guitarist) did the mixing and the recording, and now it’s on a Disney Movie. It’s all very surreal.”
Wolfmother perform a live show that just oozes with energy and simply commands you to rock the night. At times, however, there have been slip ups on stage.
“Amps stop working, the keys on my keyboard get stuck, it happens. I got so into playing at Falls that I toppled the keyboard over onto myself. Andrew sat on my organ when we were playing at Sound Relief. But the show must go on; it’s the nature of the beast, this stuff happens.”
