Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A Pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Winston-Salem rockers Wolves & Wolves & Wolves & Wolves (WolvesX4) are gearing up for the release of CurseCurseCurse coming from AF Records (preorder). Ahead of the album release, singer-guitarist Brian Woodall, took a few minutes to chat with TGEFM about WolvesX4, the more-politicized content of the new record and what the future may hold.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Congrats on the release of CurseCurseCurse! What should TGEFM readers know about Wolves & Wolves & Wolves & Wolves? How’d everyone get together and what can you tell us about the CurseCurseCurse recording process?
Hey thanks for getting in touch, we’re happy this album is finally getting out there. From the beginning wolves has been me (Brian), my brother (Kyle), and whoever we could convince to play with us for a while. We’ve gone through a number of members (temporary and long term) over the years and now it’s pretty much back to the 2 of us, which it pretty much has been at least as far as writing goes. We have a couple longtime friends playing with us now in Scotty Sandwich and Kyle Cox both formerly of Almost People and countless other bands here in North Carolina. Recording this album put us through the wringer. I had been writing these songs for a while, some I started as far back as 2015, so once I had a good group I was happy with, Kyle and I got together and started making sure they worked. Kyle actually tracked the drums for 10 songs over the course of 2 days back in June of 2018. I had put some scratch guitars down to help with everyone finishing writing their parts. That’s about the time the wheels started coming off the band. After a mentally and emotionally exhausting European tour in the Fall of 2018, I sat down and started taking stock of the band. I kicked out a member I should have kicked out sooner, you find out who people really are on the road, and I had ignored a lot of it for too long. Because of that our 2019 was only a couple festivals and a handful of shows because we couldn’t find anyone to play long term with us. I went on a month-long road trip across the US that Fall and played a couple solo acoustic shows on the West Coast, to see if I still had anything left in the tank. I came home unsure if Wolves would make it much longer. Then Covid hit. With the music world put on pause it gave me time to find my passion again, and I got to work finishing the album. I spent entire days writing lyrics, working out guitar parts and vocal melodies, and polishing the songs. Finally in late 2020/early 2021, Scotty messaged me asking about working on the album at his studio. So, I started driving out to his studio once a week for quite a while, I can’t remember exactly how long it took to track everything. A couple hiccups along the way couldn’t stop me from getting it all done, but it did take much longer than I hoped it would.
The world has seen some shit over the last few years… What are the 3 curses in America that give you the most concern? What can we do to reverse those curses? What affect, if any, have the cultural and political landscapes of the last few years had on your music?
Con men, the lies they tell, and the people who believe those lies blindly. Honestly there’s so many problems right now even narrowing down to 3 seems like an impossible task. There is so much unfounded fear, needless anger, and unjustified confidence that I don’t think things could begin to turn around until some humility, empathy, and shame are shown by people who have none. I’ve always been one to pay attention to politics, local, national, and international in some capacity. I was in a political punk band back during the Bush years and I thought that was as bad as it could get but I underestimated the evil lurking under the surface. It was never my intention to take Wolves in a political direction, at least not so straight forward. I had some subtle references in early songs but once the writing for The Cross and The Switchblade began it all started bubbling up, and with this new album it was overflowing. “Empires” is a direct rebuke of the far right/Fox News and MAGA movements. We were in the UK on tour during one of the 2016 Presidential Debates and we watched with the people we were staying with, they asked us completely seriously “Trump is a joke over there, right?” I had to convince them it wasn’t a prank and people were legit behind him. Same Old Sin was a late addition to the album written during that time all the corporations were trying to convince everyone the pandemic was over, and we should all go back to the way things used to be. We’re just numbers, acceptable losses as long as profit margins are met or exceeded, we have no value to them except dollars and cents. And speaking of the money obsessed, I’ve written songs before about my former life in the church, but I still had more to say, despite former band members saying I “can’t just keep writing about my past faith.” It was a very formative part of my life so seeing what has become of the faith of love, of course I’m going to have a few things to say about it.
What stood out most to you with this recording compared to your previous experiences in the studio?
Having lost not just the one member I kicked out but also having another quit during the process, I had to write and play everything but the drums. I won’t say it was easy, but I knew what the songs were supposed to sound like, so that helped. I never sat down and wrote bass lines before so that was the most challenging part. I spent time doing in-depth listening to some bands whose bass style I enjoyed and lovingly swiped a couple runs here and there, trying not to be too overly flashy or distracting from the rest of the song. But I think I spent more time on vocal melodies and harmonies than any other song I’ve ever worked on, again not trying to do anything over the top. Plus, recording with Scotty, who I’ve known for a decade now, made it a laid-back experience. We’d usually start and end each day with what we came to call Punk Rock Therapy sessions, venting about everything going on with ex-members and whatever else was pissing us off that day.
What does Wolvesx4 have in store for fans in 2023 and beyond?
We’re working with Gunner Records again for the EU/UK release, so we’ll be back over there for a Euro tour later this year, more details soon. We’re also going back to work on a rerecording of Subtle Serpents to make it sound more like we do now and finally flesh it out some. We were kind of rushed to finish it the first go around due to some unfortunate circumstances, so we want to give it the polish it deserves. It never got a proper release here in the US either, so we’ll be working that out as well. I’ve also been writing more songs so we should have a new EP early next year too. AND we’ll be getting back in the van for US shows and festivals much more often this year.
One of our obligatory questions in these interviews also tends to be the one I have found most important on a personal level. Who are some bands on your radar that TGEFM readers may not know about, but you think they should know about?
Bad Idols (TN), Boss’ Daughter (NV), Teens in Trouble (NC), Orphan Riot (NC), Totally Slow (NC), Neckscars (NY), Tiny Stills (CA), Holy Fangs (CA), Crossed Keys (PA), anything A-F, Wiretap, or Gunner Records releases, More AM Than FM (DC), Big Bird (IL), and anything Drew Brooks does. These are all solid people, we’ve played shows with, toured with, are going to play shows with or tour with, or just generally like. There’s going to be a million more I’ll remember after sending I’m sure, so this is not even anywhere near a comprehensive list, just the ones that first popped in my head.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
