Wednesday 17 July 2013

Wolves Carry My Name Interview

Last year, Wolves Carry My Name burst out with the amazing
album "Amongst Ruins and Ashes" which featured in my
top albums of the year. With a new single out, the guys have
kindly agreed to an interview - read the words and
download the sounds!


Who is in the band?

We are Dennis (Bass), Moritz (Drums), Adil (Guitar), Tobi (Guitar) 
and Konstantin (Vocals). Together we form the musical entity known 
as “Wolves Carry My Name”, which was born in late 2011.

You have a fantastic sound of Sludge and Post-metal but the thing 
that sets you apart (for me) are the fuzzed out psychedelic solos. 
Was this something that just happened or was it a decision you all made?

Almost every aspect of our sound from the stoner sludge/post-metal 
hybrid to the solos was a very natural development, which just 
happened during our first songwriting sessions. Our guitar players 
come from very different musical backgrounds. One of them is more 
post-rock/metal orientated and the other has a more stoner background, 
so it was a logical conclusion for us to blend both styles into one sound. 
Adil is the guy, who does almost all of our solos and he really enjoys 
writing and performing his stuff, so we let him do everything he wants 
regarding the solos as long as it fits the song.

Your album from last year “Amongst Ruins and Ashes” burst upon 
the zine and blog world with glowing reviews. Although this sort of 
exposure spreads the music to a much bigger audience, does it have 
any impact for getting people to gigs or new places to play?



We were absolutely amazed by the positive reviews and reactions from 
different corners of the web. It really helped us in finding new listeners, 
supporters and different contacts and it was also a great motivation for us 
to take further steps in developing our sound. This exposure was not as 
useful for us in the case of finding new places to play, since there is not that 
much of an audience for this kind of music in Germany at this moment. The
feedback from blogs and zines is still a major factor for our band and will 
remain  as important in the future as it is now. I am sure, that this also applies 
to almost every small underground band.

You have recently released the track “Bone Carver”. Why just the 
one track? Are you working on any more songs?

The release of “Bone Carver” was intended as a foretaste of our first 
full length release (“Bone Carver” will be a part of it btw) , which will 
hopefully see the light of the day as soon as possible. We also planed to 
make a video for our single, which was shaping to be the most awesome thing 
since the dawn of mankind, but unfortunately we had to cancel it due to lack of 
money. We will hopefully be able to realize the idea at some point in the future.

We are currently standing knee deep in the songwriting process, so yes there 
are more tunes in the making. We wanted the new material to sound more 
diverse without losing the feeling, that made “Amongst Ruins And Ashes” 
special. One reviewer described our sound as Eyehategod on and off their 
medication, which seems to fit the songs quite well. The new material will 
still have  those sludge, post-metal and stoner elements, but will also bring 
something new to  the table.



Is there an active “scene” for your sort of music?

We don't have that much of experience regarding the sludge/stoner scenes 
in other countries and since we started Wolves Carry My Name only 2 years 
ago, there is still  a lot of venues and scenes for us to explore. As for our local 
area...we don't have a particular “scene”, but there a lot of people who enjoy 
stoner sound and some of them  can even get over our pissed off vocals. 
There is even a bigger stoner/blues festival  called Freak Valley not far away 
from our hometown.

Do you have to put on your own gigs or are there plenty of places to play?

We did organise most of our gigs, since it is rather hard do find a people or 
booking agencies, who would be interested in our music. Most venues in the 
underground lean toward hardcore and metal crowd, which is not always 
interested in more atmospheric and slow music.



Your recorded sound is fantastic - powerful, aggressive with a chaotic 
feel to things. I have never been able to translate my live sound to a 
studio, things seem to come out watered down and thin - what method 
do you use ....... it sounds very natural.

We had a couple of great guys who helped us with “Amongst Ruins And 
Ashes” and “Bone Carver”. Both recoding sessions were very low budget 
and were held in our rehearsal room. No special sound magic, just simple 
recording stuff. I guess we just got lucky, since we don't have much experience
 in this field. We were able to use much better recording equipment for our 
single though.

The album is free to download - do you find places like Bandcamp 
are able to get your music out to a much wider audience than just 
gigs and friends?

Absolutely yes! We can't imagine us doing any kind of promotional work 
without sites like Bandcamp and the social media. There are surely many 
downsides to the explosion of band related stuff in the social media, but 
the positive aspects are more relevant in this case.

What plans have you coming up regarding shows/recordings? How 
hard is it to juggle work with playing?

We have to bigger shows coming up which we are very exited about. 
We will support PELICAN in our hometown Siegen and EYEHATGOD 
in Cologne. 



Both bands influenced our sound, so it is something very special to share the
 stage with them. We are pretty sure, that our next output will be a full length 
and not another EP. We can't give you any deadlines at the moment, but it 
shapes up to be rather promising.

Unfortunately work and studying take a lot of time at this moment, so we 
can't spend as much time writing and performing our music as we would like
to, but we are happy, that we can still manage to spend just enough time together 
to keep the things going.

Are there any bands in Germany that other readers may not of 
heard of before that we should check out?

There is a Whole bunch of them. If you are into sludge, post-metal and 
blackened hardcore be sure to check Bitterness Exhumed, Godbreaker
Reborn To Conquer, AblazeDepravation, Longing for Tomorrow and 
Under The ledge Of Secrecy..and thanks for the interview!

Pleasure talking to you - cannot wait for the new album!


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