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, Ablaze, Depravation, Longing for Tomorrow and 

Under The ledge Of Secrecy..and thanks for the interview!

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