Exclusive
CVLT Nation Interviews:
WOLFBAIT

Dublin based “krautviolence” mongers WOLFBAIT have turned many a bruised head in the last few months since the release of their self titled tape through the Art For Blind label. A crushing blend of drone, repetition, explosive pummelling rock and spine tingling dirge it’s a unique and often eerie affair – complimented recently by the release of a second recording, a free download from their bandcamp page that’s an all drone affair entitled “A Veil Of Phosphorous Rot”.

The mechanics of the first tape actually being released turned into a bit of a nightmare, but now that it’s finally out there are they happy with it? “The first batch arrived but they were faulty and then our copies from the second batch went missing between Cork and Dublin so we got more made which are now here. Yeah we’re happy with them and more so happy to get them out. Sold to Europe, the US, the UK and here so plenty of response to it. If someone wants to put it out on vinyl we’d be very happy to do it.”

One of the key successes of the recording is that it successfully captures the intensity and insanity of their live show “It was mostly done live but approached in a very different way to a gig. We were able to build things in way that we can’t do live yet. Tommy was really receptive to the way we worked and the sound we were going which was a great help.” The way they work, of course, is to build layers that are almost hypnotic at times. Which begs the question, are Wolfbait out to invoke some kind of altered state in their audience? “We don’t aim to achieve an altered state for the audience, it’s much more about what we want to experience and if others can share that experience then that’s good. We have no fascist tendencies, and the idea of trying to get the audience to an “altered state” and manipulating them is a bit scary. Music can act as a catalyst towards different states, sure, but mass hypnosis or something like that…pretty sure you need verbal communication to achieve that anyways.”

So with their talk of their sound being a kind of black psychedelia, I have to ask: are drugs a part of the Wolfbait experience? “Drugs aren’t really relevant to the experience. Or any experience. It would be like recommending meditation, maybe it works for some people but surely they know better what works for them, their mind and bodies…right?”

An immediate and key weapon in the band’s quest to blow minds is, of course, electronics specialist Moose’s array of oscillators and effects. The man himself talks us through his set up. a lot of which is self-made: ” Yeah I run a custom pedal and repair business called Moose’s Custom Electronics, and have built or modded our main fuzz sounds for the band but really it’s the lads themselves that make the sounds I just help facilitate them. For the noises in Wolfbait it’s generally 40106 based oscillators, with anything between two and six running at one time creating fucked drones/noise. Then I use an old Boss HM2 as my EQ and base sound, running that into one of my Dobsky Fuzzes (Russian Muff style fuzz also used by Adam on bass) for more nastiness and filtering. I also use a few self built and bought modulation, dirt and delay effects with the idea being to use the whole thing as a sort of crude modular synth. As for improvisation, the basic sketch of what I do is roughly the same but I’m given the freedom to fuck with that as I please so yeah improvisation is a large part of what I do but it must always relate back to what the lads are playing. Of course Buckfast also plays a part in what happens.”

While the band’s reach is slowly but surely extending beyond the island of Ireland, one thing non-locals might not be aware of is that the band collaborated with Dublin based dance troupe Paper Dolls on a performance piece last year. ” A friend of ours is part of Paperdolls and asked us to collaborate on it. We wrote music specifically for the show with the performance group, the creative process was very much interwoven between us. The interaction was foundational to the approach and we believe it was very much present in the performances. We’re open to all kinds of unusual creative digressions!”

(trailer for Wolfbait/Paperdolls “Constellation” performance from Dublin Fringe festival 2012)

The one area they surprisingly haven’t expanded on as yet though is their own visuals, bar one local show that saw them playing with a loop from the infamous movie “Possession” as a backdrop ” Visual ideas are very important to us when we talk about our music, and we have talked extensively about visual ideas and video as part of what we do. The “Possession” video was put on by Andy who put on that particular show, for our own video material we have been waiting for until we could present something truly our own but non half arsed…”

This approach has lead them to play local art spaces like The Joinery in addition to the usual host of bar shows and the like. Do they feel there’s a crossover between their home town’s art and punk communities? Does their home scene influence their work? “Dublin in particular doesn’t have any influence but environment will always affect any “thing”, and we don’t really live in a vacuum shielding us from the world. Also there are a lot of bands in Dublin and somehow Wölfbait belong to this continuum… We have thoroughly enjoyed playing to art and punk crowds, a lot of the punk scene is already involved in making art, it makes sense that these two scenes should be less separate. It should enhance the positive aspects of both, and maybe diminish the negative…”

Currently on the road in the UK, and with their immediate future somewhat unclear owing to the multitude of other projects the members are involved in (particularly drummer Colin and guitarist Alan who amongst multiple other personal projects also currently play together in Disguise and the new lineup of Cvltnation faves Drainland: ” They don’t give a shit about the linearity of time” opines Jaako when quizzed as to how the duo fit in so many other bands), what can we expect next from the band? “The beans are not ready to be spilled, we don’t know ourselves! The new stuff we’ve been working on sits in a sonic scape somewhere between the moods of the A and B sides of the tape. Compared to the more noise rock kinda stuff, more repetition and less dick jokes. We are mini – touring the UK 14th to 16h of June – London, Nottingham and Manchester”

WOLFBAIT UK WEEKEND JUNE 2013
Fri 14 Nottingham – Stuck on a Name w/Ommadon, Bismuth
Sat 15 London – Urban Bar w/Art Of Burning Water,Ommadon,Slow Plague
Sun 16 Manchester – Kraak Gallery w/Gnod, Wode, Roases