Nike just released part one of a chat with Gino Iannucci. Catch up with what’s happening with his part in the Chocolate/Girl video and more here.
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Following a huge breakthrough in 2011 with their debut album ‘Late Love’ picking up some rave reviews across Europe, Wolves Like Us return to 2012 hungrier than ever to spread their Nordic love further into our rock scene. The 4-piece will be back in the UK co-headlining on tour with label mates Junius in April, so look out for them on the road and enjoy what bass player Toy Kjeldaas told Ryan De Freitas and Crossfire when asked about how their impressive sound and stature has come together so goddam well.
Talk us through how this album came to be, from the formation of the band to the finished product?
Lars, Espen and I had recorded a few ideas and sketches that we played for Jonas. When all four of us met up in the rehearsal space for the first time, it all just clicked. It was truly amazing. We had plans for maybe playing a couple of shows last fall, but before we knew it we had been touring Europe, done a bunch of shows in Norway, sealed a record deal with Prosthetic Records, and started recording our debut album. Not sure what happened really.
Would you say that the experience you guys had musically with bands such as JR Ewing and Amulet helped you to find a mutual respect for each other quickly?
It certainly did. We were all fans of each others bands, and we’d all been friends for a long time when we first started thinking about making music together. We grew up listening to the same music, but it wasn’t until we started to play together we realized how similar our background really was.
The artwork on the album is also something that people have picked up on, we know that it’s by Justin Bartlett , who has also worked with Kvelertak and Sun 0))), how did the concept come about and was there a bunch of choices?
Justin put in a lot of work for us on this one. He used both our music and our lyrics for inspiration, and picked elements from them to come up with the concept that ended up on the album sleeve. He’s a very thorough guy, and it certainly shows. We thought it was an incredibly cool concept ever since he showed us the first sketches. He is an amazing artist we have a lot of respect for.
Are there other artists out there that you want to work with on sleeves in the future?
We have a few names on our wish list. We’ve already been in touch with Aaron Turner, he’s better known through his music career having been in the late, great Isis, but he’s doing some incredible artwork as well and we’d love to work with him.
You are currently touring with Kvelertak, how will you fuck with them on the road?
1) The contents of their on-stage water bottles might “accidentally” be replaced by vodka one night. That’s a classic really. I’m pretty sure it has been done before.
2) They are using a wireless system on stage for their guitars, and we plan to hack their frequency and play Justin Bieber’s last album through their amps in the midst of their set.
3) Our finishing blow will be to hide all their guitars right before they go on stage and put fake plastic weapons in their guitar stands instead. You know, axes, swords, medieval stuff really. The drum kit will be a bunch of real anvils. We really are doing them a favour, because it looks even more badass than real instruments.
Which band member is the most roadworthy and can take anything that comes in the way without moaning, and who is the worst?
Espen can take anything that comes in the way without moaning – except bad coffee. That unleashes hell. To all other problems, he only sees solutions. Jonas is the one that has been touring the most in the past, and has certain expectations of how things are supposed to be while on tour. That of course leads to a certain amount of moaning, haha! He’s the youngest of us, so we just treat him like a child, and everything will pass. No really, it’s a good thing, cause all of us others are just a bunch of puppies learning the ropes when it comes to touring compared to him.
What is the most ridiculous tour story to date since the band formed?
Well, we haven’t been around with this band long enough to make that much of fools of ourselves yet, haha! One funny story is about a friend of ours who is a lightning engineer. He was gonna do lights for us at a show in Oslo. We started worrying because he never came around to the venue. After a long while he turned up, and as it turns out he had gone to the wrong venue, spent a couple of hours setting up the entire lightning rig, programmed the light board and been starting digging in on the backstage beers when he realized that someone else was playing there. No one noticed him sneaking out the back, so it was all good.
‘Late Love’ is an album that truly shines, how do you follow such an epic record now it’s out there and will you be playing new material on this tour?
Well, first off; thanks a bunch! Lars has some awesome riffs and ideas going on, but there won’t be any new material on this tour unfortunately. It has been an incredibly busy year for us, and we need some time to get back in the rehearsal room and put things together in a proper way before any new material will see the light of day.
In the past you’ve referenced 90’s skateboard videos as something you took an interest in musically, are you drawn to skate culture and do any of you guys skate or is it purely the music that you found enjoyable?
Skating and music goes hand in hand. We’ve discovered lots of bands by watching skate vids in the past. Espen, Jonas and I used skate back when we were kids. We still bring our boards on tour though, but personally I am feeling a bit too old and fragile to be doing any neck-breaking stunts these days, haha! I mean, I am almost 37 now and haven’t really been skating much for the past twenty years. Plus, I was a vert skater, and still suck immensely at street skating so I’d rather look back at my teenage glory days on the vert ramp than risking my limbs doing kickflips to impress the other guys outside the venue while on tour.
What decks and skaters were influences along the years?
Obviously, the Powell Peralta team were the shit when we were kids. They were the easiest decks to get a hold of. Personally, I was really into the H-Street team. My first deck was the Tony Magnusson pro model. I met him a few times on some skate events he did in Norway, and he was a really inspiring guy. Him being a Scandinavian making his way onto the US skate scene was mind blowing for me at the time. That was everyone’s secret dream to do. Also, I’ve always loved the artwork that Ed Templeton did for his decks when he started his own company, and in the later years I’ve become a huge fan of his photo work as well.
If you have some skateboard history to unleash from back in the day, unleash it here…
As absurd as it might sound, since the 1970s and up until 1989 skateboarding was illegal in Norway, so when we started to skate we had to sneak around and hide our boards or the cops would confiscate them. When the ban was lifted, I’ve heard stories about guys who went to the main police station in Oslo to get their gear back. They were followed by an officer down to a vault in the basement, and there, right by sawn off shotguns, homemade nail bombs and rocket launchers was a bunch of skateboards. A skateboard is really a powerful thing, use it wisely.
Last words….
Remember kids, skateboarding is not a crime…anymore.
Wolves Like Us + Junius April 2012 UK tour
22nd Nottingham Hit The Deck Fest
23rd Glasgow Ivory Blacks
24th Manchester Star And Garter
25th London Borderline
Danny Way‘s life has been documented in a new film directed by Jacob Rosenberg who looks into his incredible life and his influence on skateboarding.
Waiting for Lightning features many pro skateboarders and industry insiders in the USA reminiscing on Danny’s incredible career and innovation that he has brought to skateboarding since he first stepped on a deck.
Watch a new teaser clip here and join the facebook page for updates. The film will be released sometime this year.
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Pritchard vs Dainton Reflections 2011
Two of skateboarding’s most colourful characters came through our office at the very end of November unannounced, so we took the opportunity to find out exactly what Dirty Sanchez duo Matt Pritchard and Lee Dainton got up to throughout 2011 and the highlights throughout the year.
They have spent time on the road performing their Pritchard vs Dainton stage show where, quite frankly, they get hurt for the pleasure of many onlookers, annihilated themselves for charity and have still made time to love skateboarding. Click play for a Reflections feature and also find out more about the Kill City Skateboards DVD release ‘Rookies’ that will be dropping this December into your local skate shop.
Welcome to the world of Cerebral Ballzy, a hardcore band from New York whose band name I can never spell properly when typing it on a keyboard. This 5-piece have toured every shit hole out there and caused chaos with their energetic live sets for the last couple of years. Thankfully, we have had the pleasure of them playing 2 Crossfire events in 6 months and managed to sit down with them for a chat.
This video interview was shot at 2011’s Camden Crawl. The recording’s were lost on hard drive and then found recently, so enjoy their words discussing hardcore influences, the making of their debut album, skittle nipples, flourescent Nike’s, Raymond Pettibon’s studio in Venice Beach, being taught how to kickflip from the legendary Zoo York skater Harold Hunter (RIP) and more.
Baker and Deathwish pro Erik Ellington discusses his working relationship within the skate industry for Bitchslap Magazine whilst on tour with Supra this year.
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Rack N Ruin interview
Rack n Ruin has been knocking out bangers for a couple of years now and with a string of hits under his belt including Soundclash, Righteous, Territory and more, he’s guaranteed to blast the speakers each and every time. As we gear up for the Crossfire Halloween Massacre, we had a quick chat with him to show you what to expect come the 28th.
You’ve been on the scene for a little while now and have mixed up sounds from Soundclash with Jessie Ware to Territory – do you just make tunes as you go along and see how they turn out? Or do you set out to make certain styles before you get going?
It depends really. Some days I have an idea in my idea and will stick to that but some days it’s just experimentation. If I’m working with a vocalist, we’ll generally get the vibe going together and then go from there.
You’ve done remixes for the likes of I Blame Coco and Nas/Damian Marley – how did they come about and do you approach them any differently from your own original beats?
Island Records approached me after hearing Soundclash and asked me to do some remixes, this then led to the work with Coco etc. I approach remixes in lots of ways, but usually I listen to the original and think of a way to make it more interesting and more suited to the dancefloor. It is different to making original tunes unless you start an original with a prominent sample.
There are loads of talented MCs out there, who have been the best you’ve worked with and are there any you still want to jump on one of your tracks?
P-Money is very talented and a fast writer. Old skool jungle dons like Navigator and Slarta John are also amazing. I’m very lucky to have worked with such sick MCs. I’d really like to work with some MCs from the States next.
How did you hook up with Black Butter Records and how good a fit are they for your tunes?
My manager runs the label and we’ve been there from the start of the label so it nice and my sound has progessed along with the label. I really like their output so it’s all good!
What are your top three tunes playing out at the moment?
Bax by Mosca, Signal by me and P-Money and everything by Hostage!
It’s the Crossfire Halloween Massacre you’re playing at, so who would be the last person you’d want to see trick or treating you when you open the door?
Evil clowns freak me out so probably one of them!
And money’s no object – what would you dress up as for the Ultimate Halloween outfit?
That’s a hard one. Always loved the Jason films so probably him, a bloody hockey mask!
Get on Rack N Ruin’s latest release below and find him of Facebook.
You have probably noticed that the internet right now is talking a lot of Nirvana, and reminiscing on a lot of grunge related topics due to the 20th Anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind record. At the time of its release, the band were managed by Danny Goldberg and John Silva at Gold Mountain Management in the USA who watched this album’s popularity grow overnight and then explode. This week at Music Radar, Goldberg is interviewed and discusses discovering the band and how Nevermind became a phenomenon.
Read the full interview here and get an inside scoop of the band that killed off soft rock overnight with quotes like this:
“You know, Kurt didn’t become a star by accident, he became a star on purpose. Then he found out he didn’t like everything that came with being a star. It was hard for him. He didn’t like being recognized on the street or in airports, and stuff like that. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t want to be successful, because he absolutely did.”
Tony Hawk was in town 2 weeks back for a swift visit to Laureus, a project set up to inspire kids in East London. We were invited to pop over there and say hello and returned with a video interview for you that will be running on here soon where Tony discusses the new Bones Brigade plans with Stacy Peralta, Birdhouse plans, the impressive amount of ams on the rise across the planet and much, much more.
Watch this teaser for now and spread the word.
Fugazi and the Wu Tang Clan are two iconic groups, both defining the sound of a scene and making everyone sit up and take notice of their music and their message. So what happens when you mix the two together? Well, thanks to Doomtree‘s Cecil Otter and fellow Minneapolis musician Swiss Andy, of The Swiss Army and The Millionth Word fame, we now know.
Sleep Rules Everything Around Me mysteriously appeared on Soundcloud and within half a day, the track had garnered 20,000 listens, with over 100,000 in a week. It has been one of the most talked about topics in music of late and we caught up with the two brainchildren behind the project to discuss the process of making the music, how long it took and even preferred fighting styles.
Ladies and Gentlemen, enter the Chamber of the Wugazi!
Words: Abjekt
Photo: Ben LaFond
Straight out the slums of… Minneapolis?
Cecil: Yes Sir, the centre of the Universe!
The big question first – how did you come up with the idea of putting Fugazi and Wu Tang together? Are you both big fans of both acts so know their catalogue extensively?
Cecil: Andy had been kicking around the idea for a few years before he brought it up to me. We had both been huge fans of each group since we were young, so it was easy to fall in love with the idea of WUGAZI.
Andy: Yeah, that is pretty much all that was in my headphones during the 90s.
Cecil: A one point in his life, Andy sold his guitar amp just so he could go see a Fugazi show. I sold my tickets to that same Fugazi show and bought an ice cream cone and shared it with my friend. I later broke into that show, caused a scene and got screamed at by Guy from Fugazi. He kept telling everyone that he saw me eating ice cream outside with my friend…over and over…I didn’t enjoy that at all, but the ice cream was good.
Andy: Asshole.
Did you decide on the tracks you wanted to use first or did you just play it by ear and see which Wu track fit with which Fugazi?
Cecil: We would listen through every Fugazi album and take notes on where the drum breaks, bass loops and guitar loops were. After that I would put them into Protools accordingly, find a close enough tempo to fallow the song, chop everything onto a grid and start cranking away at a song structure.”
Andy: I had a few Fugazi tracks I really wanted to use, but they were just too fast or slow for us to fit under an acapella.
Cecil: We let the samples loop in the background and begin to play Wu Tang acapellas over the song until we found the perfect match. When we found that, we would place it in the session and begin to cut, paste and stretch each verse to fit the track…then we get detailed.
Andy: We would try to use more than one song in each track. Using them more as samples for producing, than just putting one thing on top of the other.
Were there any tracks that you tried to mash together that just sounded horrible?
Cecil: Oh yeah, that’s why we put a full year into this. We have a handful of half done songs that just wouldn’t marry each other or we didn’t have a clean enough acapella to work with. The hardest thing about making the album (well, one of them) was the limited Wu Tang acapellas that we had access to. There are so many Wu Tang songs that we would have loved to do, we probably would have been able to call it Wugazi: 36 Songs if we had all the acapellas!
You’ve got 13 Chambers dropping in July, is there anything you can tell us about it other than it houses the track Sleep Rules Everything Around Me?
Cecil: Well, it will have 12 more songs and they will all be different and they will all have drums and bass and guitar and vocals, never forget the vocals!
Also, Sleep… hit 20,000 plays in 12 hours, did you think it was going to be as huge as that in such a short space of time?
Cecil: Not at all. We we’re very excited about the tracks because our friends loved them so much. We had no idea that the two groups would work together so well. We made S.R.E.A.M. the first night into the project. We lost our shit when we stretched the vocals in and took the first listen. After that night, Wugazi was pretty much a reason to get together with a friend and lose ourselves in the moment. I don’t think either of us had any idea that so many others would like it as much as we do, but then again…it’s Wu Tang and Fugazi, who doesn’t like them?!
Andy: When Paddy Costello almost started crying, I knew we were doing something right. But never thought this would spread like it has.
Would you like to see the two bands work together, maybe do a one-off live show where Ian MacKaye battles Ghostface? Or have Guy Picciotto go hard against Method Man?
Andy: All those guys are such great musicians. Even after Fugazi, Guy produced that amazing Blonde Redhead record and Joe put out that album with John Frusciante. Putting Ian in a room with RZA, I wouldn’t even know where to start…
Cecil: Without a doubt. That would be one of the happiest days of my life.
If you had a sword style, which you would have to train in the mountains of Tibet to perfect, what would it be called?
Andy: Drunken Monkey
Cecil: Drunker Monkey