Wolf & Cub

Tue 5th May, 2009 in Features

Recruiting Chris Colonna of Bumblebeez to produce their sophomore effort Science and Sorcery raised a few eyebrows, not least from Wolf & Cub themselves. Employing a producer whose own band relishes mishy-mash, sampley-sounding experiments conjured ideas of a Wolf & Cub album threaded through a computer and spat into much-maligned – œelectro-rock’ territory.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” agrees Joel Byrne, guitar-playing vocalist of Wolf & Cub. “We had that misconception about Chris as well. We thought he was an electro dude and he’s far more eclectic than that. Even his Bumblebeez stuff…He gets labeled [but] he does all kinds of shit.”

So, Chris’ name got put forward and you all went, – œFucking, what?’

“True. [But] we definitely chose Chris. As far as what we wanted to do with this record – step outside of our comfort zone – Chris was the right person. Initially, I felt really uncomfortable. In the spirit of this record I had to go against what my natural instincts were.” Tough call. “Yeah, it was pretty scary. There are fans of the band [who] were shocked that we were going with Chris. They probably still are. But that’s part of the creative process, for us, to do something a little uncharacteristic. And Chris is about as uncharacteristic as we could have got.”

He speaks with an air of relief. Making Science and Sorcery this way may have been a massive leap of faith for Wolf & Cub as a collective, but Joel admits it was imperative for his personal development as a songwriter; especially since Chris went some way to educate Joel on classic pop song structures.
– œThe way we write, it’s easy for us to go into a jam and create sprawling, unstructured tracks. But as a music fan, I really like pop music. I love Motown and all that sort of stuff. I’d love to be able to incorporate what we did on the last record into some kind of structured songwriting. I’d like to be a better songwriter and I think in order to do that you need to attempt to adhere to whatever the science of songwriting is – you need to put one foot on that side of the fence.”

“Working with Julian was an extension of that,” he continues, referring to The Presets’ Julian Hamilton, who helped Wolf & Cub complete the song One To The Other. “Writing with another person was something I’d never done before. It’s just all part of this record, doing stuff that makes me feel uncomfortable,” he laughs. “As far as me as a songwriter, I’m developing more in that respect so that’s helping. If we stuck to our guns, I don’t think there would have been any growth.”

It’s the first recording, too, with Marvin Hammond, new drummer (amongst other instruments). What did the four of you find out about each other or the way you work together? “Ummmm, that we…” Joel trails off, laughing. I sense an attempt at diplomacy. “Well, no,” he is still laughing. “This record really tested the relationships between the four of us. Think about it like this. Imagine working on a track, going in to make a demo [as a band] and then [me] going to Chris and working on it with him, then taking it back to the guys and have them say, – œWhat the fuck is this? You’ve taken this track that we worked on together and now it’s this? What the fuck is going on?!’

“For one, it’s difficult taking something I’ve created myself to the guys and… some people didn’t like what Chris had to say and some thought it was a good idea.”

So it really got to the point where there’d be Wolf & Cubs going: Argh! Fuck this! I’m going outside for a cigarette!

“Oh yeah, that was a regular routine for the making of this record. There was a lot of tension. A lot of the tracks, if you listen to them as demos, are unrecognisable as the finished product and there are a lot of tracks on the record that never existed in the demo stage. Nothing ventured, nothing gained type scenario, and it really does feel worth it now. On a personal level, I’m glad I committed to it.”

Is Joel the kind of guy who, once a record’s finished, says, – œRight, I’m gonna put that under a cushion somewhere and never listen to it again’?

“I re-visit it every now and then. Some days I’ll deny it exists, to myself, and then every now and again I’ll listen to it again and go, oh that’s quite good, I’m quite proud of that.”

Joel admits that while he shopped debut album Vessels for feedback among his friends and family prior to its release, he was much more apprehensive with Science and Sorcery. “And I think I hurt a lot of people in that respect. It wasn’t until a few days before it was released that I gave it to my brother. He’s an inspiration to me so I wanted to know exactly what he thought. But I really resisted it for some reason. I think it was because…I wanted to be comfortable with it before I let everyone else in. [With Vessels ] I had so many opinions coming in that I just got confused and ultimately ended up creating a confused sort of record. And with this one, it’s a little more clear.”

Mind you, the sophomore album’s always the big ask isn’t it? “I’m glad we got over that,” he says sheepishly. “I thought it was a bit of a myth, hey.”

Well, when you think about it, you’ve got ten years of shit up your sleeve to make album number one and then you’ve only got a two-year turn around to do it all again.

“Yeah,” laughs Joel. “It is like that. And as well, it’s a first record and there’s no inhibitions and no expectations.” He becomes a little more subdued. “The second one comes around and people are really aware of what you’re going to do. It’s weird. It’s kind of difficult.”

So what’s gonna happen now for Wolf & Cub?

“I can’t dwell on that, you know what I mean? With the first record I was like, okay, this is gonna happen, then I hope this happens, I wonder if this will happen? I wasted so much energy on the wrong things. Sometimes, you’ve just got to let other people worry about that shit and do what you do best. Yeah…I’m not going to dwell too much on what we don’t have.”

Science And Sorcery is out now on Dot Dash through Remote Control Records. Wolf & Cub will tour the album this winter, proudly presented by FasterLouder.

Thurs 11 June – Republic Bar, Hobart
Fri 12 June – Fowlers Live, Adelaide
Wed 17 June – Mona Vale Hotel, Mona Vale
Thurs 18 June – Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Friday 19 June – Oxford Art Factory, Sydney
Saturday 20 June – Oxford Tavern, Wollongong
Sunday 21 June – ANU Bar, Canberra
Wed 24 June – The Loft, Warnambool
Thurs 25 June – Barwon Club, Geelong
Fri 26 June – Corner Hotel, Melbourne
Sat 27 June – Karova Lounge, Ballarat
Wed 1 July – Seaview Tavern, Woolgoolga
Thurs 2 July – Sound Lounge, Currumbin
Fri 3 July – The Zoo, Brisbane
Sat 4 July – Woombye Hotel, Noosa
Sun 5 July – Great Northern Hotel, Byron Bay
Thu 9 July – Settlers Tavern, Margaret River
Fri 10 July – Prince of Wales, Bunbury
Sat 11 July – Rosemount Hotel, Perth
Sun 12 July – Mojo’s, Fremantle