Wolf Gang

By Charlotte Stones

We caught up with Wolf Gang backstage, ahead of his performance at this year’s Y-Not festival.

Firstly congratulations on the news that you will be headlining this year’s NME radar tour!

Thank You!

Has there been a particular highlight to this year? Or is that it?!

Errm, I guess having the album out, releasing that was incredible. Its my first one and everything, so it’s a bit of a mile stone, but yeah we’ve had so many highlights, supporting The killers at Hyde Park, was an amazing gig! Yeah, I’d say the album is the main one though!

What is Suego Faults?

It’s a made up place! It came out of my imagination. I had this dream, I was trying to get to this place, was kind of a utopia in a way, like this big epic journey like a film, and I wrote a song about it. I thought it would be a good title to the album, because quite a lot of the songs are dream like.

Quite a lot of the songs from the album have a slight MGMT style to them, do you count them as one of your main influences?

Not really one of my main ones no, I tend to prefer things from the 70s – like that generation. I worked with Dave Fridmann who produced MGMT so I guess it does sound quite similar, I do get that a lot.

What made you decide to become an artist?

I kind’ve felt like I had to, you know, I was doing a degree in London and I got 3 years down the line and was about to sit my exams and I just realised I was doing the wrong thing. I had to go and do music, I’ve been doing it all my life.

Well it seems to have worked out anyway!

Yeah, so far so good!

What was the process for you getting signed?

It all happened really quickly! I dropped out, my parents stopped talking to me, I was living in Camden with no money. I was just writing and writing and writing loads of songs and working in a coffee shop and a manager heard my songs on myspace and got in touch, then I played to a loads of labels over the course of 2 weeks and then got signed!

Whats your writing process?

Sometimes ideas just pop into my head and I record them. Lots doesn’t get used, I record odd stuff then randomly start taking things out, I usually just sit at the piano or with my guitar and just strum away and a melody will come up. I always do the music first, then think about what that could be and what vibe it has.

You performed at underage festival yesterday, how was that?

I did! It was really good! That crowd of 16/17 (year old) they’re really enthusiastic, they really go for it!

Do you think your performance style changes when its for such a young crowd?

I don’t think so. It changes with the energy of the crowd so if the crowd is energetic, then I will be too.

I don’t know whether you’ve seen, but the majority of the crowd are in fancy dress, what is your staple fancy dress outfit?

I have many, I love fancy dress! I always go to fancy dress parties. I’ve got an amazing hat collection and I’ve got all sorts of venetian masks and stuff like that. My big thing is going to fancy dress parties and things, so I don’t have one favourite outfit.

If you were to come up with your own fancy dress character that was a blend of two different people, who would you choose?

Two random people….One would have to be a character from the 1800’s like some kind of victorian, I’ve got this amazing top hat, so I’d want to wear that! Err….Jack the ripper possibly? I cant think of another half!! Something psychedelic maybe?!

Who would be on your dream festival lineup?

I’d love to see LCD sound system, Prince. Maybe some classics too, like Bowie, Roxy Music. Yeah, a mix of new and old.

Whats your favourite track to play from your album?

Lions and cages is always fun. We always play that at the end of the set and it always gets people going and stuff, it’s really fun to play!

Have you had any embarrassing on stage moments?

There was one in perth where all the instruments stopped working, and we hadn’t had much experience at that point, one thing after another just got worse and worse! We didn’t know what to do! It was horrible!

Did it work out in the end?

No, not really haha! We scraped by just about!

Do you do any improvisation on stage when things like that happens?

You kind’ve have to sometimes and that comes with experience!

Have you been to Derbyshire before?

No, this is my first time but it’s so lovely and serene!

You need to have a Bakewell tart!

Yes! I know! I really really do.