Interviews About Albums: Sonic Wolves - III (2024)

In this new interview, we sat down with the Italian Heavy Rock band Sonic Wolves to ask questions about his album "III". 

1. What can you say about III?

The new album III is obviously the third full-length of Sonic Wolves. It contains 8 songs and it was recorded in February 2023 at Trai Studio, near Milan, Italy. It was actually the third time we worked with our dear friend Trai. The first time was back in 2018 for Sonic Wolves, the second album, and then in 2021 for the EP It’s All A Game To Me. There’s a great synergy with him. He knows exactly which kind of sound the band wants, and most importantly, he also makes you feel at home when you stay in his recording studio. He’s our guy. That really helped while recording live with Nico who was still new to the band at that point. The whole process went very well, we couldn’t be happier with the sound and production.

2. What is the meaning of the III name?

The title III didn’t just come about because it happens to be our third full-length, although it certainly fits. The name came from the fact that we are a trio and from the overall theme of the songs- escape, meaning everything from literal jailbreaks to death, to escaping the prison of the mind. The Roman numeral III (we are from Italy after all) resembles cell bars for our original cover concept, every bar contained a slice of our faces, therefore it seemed ideal. We were ready with a great idea regarding the cover and we were already referring to the album as III. Then our friend and graphic wizard Diogo Soares, of Soares Artwork, brought forth to us a cover so beautiful and so perfect that it was love at first sight- a circle of 3 wolves chasing each other in perpetuity. So, we used that graphic instead and still kept the title of the album III.

3. Which one is the composer of the III?

We all are the composers. When Nico joined Sonic Wolves, he had a killer demo from his old project that he brought to the table. Additionally, the band was already working on the new album and five of those songs were ready to be recorded. Nico’s songs were great and fit well into our style, so we completed the album list learning three of them, having reworked them a bit and giving them our sound. Most of the lyrics were already quite compatible, but a few had to be rewritten from scratch. It was a really efficient way to compose an album.

4. If you had to pick one song, which one would you pick?

O.B.E. is the band’s favorite “son”. It’s a song that Nico brought from his old project. It’s a close to 12 minutes with a heavy and fast beginning followed by a lengthy, driving, psychedelic part that, when played live, always invites a different ending. It has a lot of freedom at the end and that’s what we find so appealing. In the recording studio, we took four takes of O.B.E. and we were satisfied with the fourth. However, Trai insisted on one more take, so we played it and nailed it so well that we put that fifth and final take on the album. We are glad we listened to him.

5. Is there a special message in III? If there is what it is?

The songs on the album discuss the topic of escape. Whether from a prison cell, from the physical body (as in O.B.E.), escaping the dark entanglements of one’s mind, or death itself. We aim to acknowledge the depths or indeed heights a human being will go to just to be liberated. We wouldn’t necessarily characterize the overarching theme of the album as a message (certainly not advocating criminality) but rather a glimpse into ourselves as a species and what we can become capable of.

6. Are there some lyrics that you'd love to share?

A few lines from The Ten Doors:

“We’ve taken each door out one by one

Knowing every sight and sound, every ticking second

under the gun

Paper, wood, metal, wire

Our minds are steel

And our time is on fire"

7. Which inspirations have been important for this album? Like musically or friends, family, someone you'd love to thank especially?

Though we find the tales of jailbreaks and other types of escape fascinating, there was one that stood above all others as far as inspiration. The story behind the above-mentioned The Ten Doors was something we had heard back in the 90s and we remember it being very interesting and it definitely influenced the theme of this album. Very briefly, it’s about two white South African activists, Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee, who back in 1976 got arrested, imprisoned, and convicted as terrorists for fighting against South African apartheid. Their only “weapons” were propaganda fliers spread by extremely low-intensity leaflet bombs that were put in markets and areas mostly frequented by the oppressed black community. Although no one was injured or killed by these minor detonations, they were still sentenced to several years behind bars. Once incarcerated, they met another civil rights activist, Alex Moumbaris. The trio started to plan their escape from the Pretoria Central Prison complex making wood keys for the ten doors that stood between their cell doors and the outside world.

Our musical influences have always been a steady diet of 70’s heavy rock, psychedelic, metal, and blues.

We’d really like to thank our friends Gero and Argonauta Records, Diogo Soares of Soares Artwork for the album cover, our studio sound lord Fabio “Trai” Intraina, and Barbara Ferrando for photos.

8. Something to add?

We want to thank Breathing The Core for the interview and all our fans for their support.

We would like to close by quoting Grand Funk Railroad: “PEOPLE LET’S STOP THE WAR”