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Wolfmother.
 It's all about atmosphere, textural sounds, space and aesthetics for those three curly-haired 'motherbrothers' of Wolfmother. And that's precisely what producer Dave Sardy assisted in bringing to the band's self-titled debut album, according to bassist Chris Ross. "He was just perfect. I was impressed with his attention to detail, like the right tones, which is really important to us. I got this sense that he really understood us, he just got everything how we wanted.
"We were really concerned when going over to America that they might simplify our sound and make it into a big rock thing, because we've actually got a lot of English influences and interest in the UK sensibility. But it turned out great. It was really cool to hand over the whole thing to someone who really knew what they were doing in the recording process so we could just concentrate on playing and writing."
That was a big change for Wolfmother, according to Ross, because during the recording process of their EP the band scrambled to merely get their hands on whatever gear they could, while at the same time trying to work on a song, as well as think about how they would record it. Trying to wear two hats at once was really distracting, Ross recalls.
"With Dave, I kind of felt spoilt. It was nice. I mean, you're like 'I wanna do this sound and I want to do an organ or something and I want to sound like this and that!'" he laughs, "and Dave would be like, 'OK, so we'll try this' and he would do exactly what we meant. He was perfect for us."
Of course, Sardy can't take all the credit - after all, a band that was nominated at this year's ARIA Awards for both Single of the Year and Breakthrough Artist of the Year categories must have members who are doing at least something right on their own.
"Yeah, but we didn't get anything," Ross laughs. "I can understand that. But where did that come from anyway? I don't know. Just being nominated at the ARIAs is really insane. I guess it never really hit us until we got there. And it was a trip, my word! It's all glitz and crazy glamour and loud sounds - you know when you're at the cinema and the ads come on and it's all like 'whoosh!'? It was that far out."
It sure does: take the almost tribal community Wolfmother has built up for itself in the last year alone, "It really is communal, music just affects people that way all over the world. I mean, at our shows you mostly get people who are really excited to see us, but then you also get the sort of 'circle of death' at first from people who are standing back... But it's funny because they relax after a few songs and come up to us and get into it, it's beautiful. It's a cool trip to get up on stage and play to 15,000 people at the Big Day Out or something, just celebrating being out in the sun, it's priceless. But it's just as cool if only thirty people in the audience are loving it and going nuts. It's about quality rather than quantity in terms of our shows - you're striving for that perfect moment when the stars are all aligned."
And no doubt they will be for Wolfmother in the next couple of months, when the band sets off on a national tour and prepares for an onslaught of summer festivals.
"We're trying to do shows in as many theaters as we can on this tour," Ross explains. "It's just another one of those aesthetic things that we're really into. We supported Regugitator once at the Roxy in Paramatta and we were just like, 'how cool is this old theatre!'. People see music one-dimensionally... I mean, it should be all about the music, but there's so much more you can add to it. Sometimes it's disappointing to see a band whose music you love and feel like they're not putting any thought into the vibe of the show. That's something I really like about classic 70s music, it seemed to be an 'experience', a 'happening' - and that's something we're going to strive for when we play our shows."
Nina Bertok
 | 'Wolfmother' is out now through Modular/UMG, and Wolfmother play at the Governor Hindmarsh on Wed 16 Nov and Thurs 17 Nov. |
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