Wölfrider - Interview

Hey, Breathing The Core fans, here we bring you another interview of the Old School Heavy Metal band Wölfrider from Poland, so here you can see and give a like to his FACEBOOK PAGE. We have nothing more to say, so enjoy this interview!

1.Where did you get the idea for the band name, you planned it or came out just like that?

You know, lots of boredom and booze. Just brainstorming, throwing words in the air. We know that it has to be something coarse and rude - like our music mostly. Later on we added this metal umlaut, to be even more irritating, lots of people has serious issues with pronunciation and that’s sounds really funny when you hear your band’s name different each time.

2.Why did you want to play this genre?

That’s because no matter how many different kind of music we listen to, how much we practice or take classes in music - we simply cannot do anything other way better than play Heavy Metal. By observing modern metal scene with lots of crappy (and a few of good ones) djent, something-core and uber-technical-vegetarian-progressive-coockie-monster-brootal death metal bands we really feel urge to play the old school vibe with sound from XXI century. We feel that that tune and vibe from ‘80 and ‘90 (but better sound quality and production) should be carried over next years.

3. Did you know each other before the band was formed?

Yeah, we played as Clairvoyant before but that band has longs issues and it’s history and we were simply immature pricks, each 20-21 years old. Rafał Gębicki (the vocalist) was new to us, I mean we knew him from his band Deversor but they split up, we wanted to play something new under new name and stars were in right conjunction with Moon at the correct high. Well almost worked, we still don’t have record deal with some major metal label. Yeah, we couldn’t find one single virgin to sacrifice, that’s why.

4. Each band member favourite band?

Tough one, but here you go. For Rafał G (vocals) it’s Judas Priest, Iced Earth and Down. Our bass player’s choice (Rafał P.) is Exodus, Pantera and Megadeth - since he is really thrash metal fan. Both Kamil and Maciek are into Iron Maiden, Running Wild and Accept. I’m the douche who is huge fan of Death and Chuck Schuldiner’s legacy along with musicians who worked with him.

5. Who or what inspires you to write songs?

Just go outside in Poland and go shopping. You will be pissed enough to come back to home and write angry songs ;) Ok, seriously - we don’t have any rituals and ceremonies to work on new ideas. We spent huge amount of time working on our musicianship and sometimes practising stupid drum stick pattern or playing some pentatonic scale over and over again could be inspiring. You never know - but as far as I remember, we don’t write songs drunk or write lyrics stoned.

6. Where was your last gig?

Our last gig was in our hometown - in Ciemna Strona Miasta. Its special, awesome club in Wrocław, that specializes in playing all kinds of metal/grind/punk music. Lots of bands come there from different countries - shit, even from different continents ! We played tribute to Bathory (07.06.2014) and the show was incredible. Also owners of CSM are true metalheads and really cool guys to hang out with.

7. Where would you like to act?

The farthest the best - we like to tour if you have nice car of course. If we can load our gear and still sit comfortably then we can go travel around. Since Wrocław is located in south of Poland, we have very short way to Germany and Czech Republic. Don’t know why we haven’t booked gigs there yet but definitely we have to do it soon.

8. Whom would you like to feature with?

It’s always nice to be on tour and share stage with our friends from Wrocław from bands like Crimson Valley and Panzerhund but it’s our dream to play before Iced Earth, Running Wild, UDO, Accept or Grave Digger - you know, legends of Heavy Metal. Maybe some day dreams will come true, until that moment we have to work harder and harder and progress further as as band and musicians.

9. Whom not?

Bartek: Personally I don’t mind to play on one stage with mixed genres, for instance band before us play some funk, we do heavy metal and after us some jazz fusion. It would be cool as long as none of musician go ape shit or start to be dickhead. Among metal bands ? For someone this could be really confusing since some people says that Wölfrider is power metal band - and that’s not true. Yeah, for prestige and general fame we could play before Hammerfall or Rhapsody of Fire but we wouldn’t be proud about that and we just don’t like that kind of “happy-metal”. So: “No to power metal bands”.

10. Any of you has ever suffered from stage fright? Any tip for beginners on how to beat that?

Of course - all the time. Stage fright is bigger or smaller but it’s never like none - zero. Each show is different and unique and you cannot say “Oh yeah, I played so many shows that I’m not afraid of anything anymore”. That’s bullshit. If someone tells you that he/she doesn’t feel stage fright then someone has too big ego or simply lies. Guys like to drink 1 beer before show just to relax, I can’t even smell alcohol because single beer drops down my stamina - I don’t know why. For a couple of years I don’t drink anything (or smoke of that matter) before gig, just try to not argue with anyone, keep smiling and don’t let you be rushed by anyway yelling “C’mon ! Hit the stage now !”. You have to have your set of mind exercises to keep the stress away and turn your stage fright into driving force to be 200% ready on stage.

11. What bands have inspired you the most?

In general Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Accept, of course Iron Maiden and other German Heavy Metal warriors. Recently we’re very inspired by Amon Amarth’s “Deceiver of The Gods” record - since listening to that we dropped our tuning to B-Standard to be more heavy.

Not many Heavy Metal bands do that, this tuning is popular among extreme metal bands.

12. What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you for?

Shit, man - I don’t know ! Usually fans don’t approach me - as a drummer I’m the most busy guy - if they do, just to take photos and shit. And rest of the guys don’t tell about anything special that our fans did or asked us about.

13. What do you think of your fans?

We don’t know what they are listening to besides our band so I can’t really tell more that I see from stage. They are definitely enthusiastic about the old style of playing, eager about good stage presence and that rock’n’roll energy during show. I don’t think we got some die-hard fans so far but the people from Poland and other countries that buyed our CDs are simply amazing - warm and honest words keep you on doing what you do.

14. What do you think of our site?

It’s simple, clean and useful - it’s Wordpress magic :) You didn't put many pop ups and other annoying stuff that comes right into your face. You have nice metal content and I can see that you're really into that kind of music, showing lots of support to bands - that’s really priceless in those hard times especially for musicians and music industry. Keep that going !

15. Something to add?

Yeah, whoring for views, subscriptions and likes on social media websites. Check us out on:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wolfrider.band

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/wolfriderofficial

Bandcamp: https://wolfriderband.bandcamp.com/

I want to add that we know that there are bunch of our fans outside Poland, even outside Europe. For that people and many other we have idea to live stream our gigs on YouTube or other platform - so please, wait for news !