By Aniruddh ‘Andrew’ Bansal
Swedish old-school metal band Wolf will be making their first ever visit to India later this month. They will headline Harley Rock Riders III, a free concert set to take place at Clarks Exotica, Bangalore on November 24th. Yesterday, on November 9th, I caught up with vocalist/guitarist Niklas Stålvind to discuss this show, the band’s recent touring activities, future plans, and more. Read our conversation below, and visit Wolf on their official website, facebook and twitter for more info. For people who’re attending the India show, you can check out the full line-up and event schedule and download your free pass to the show here.
First of all, bring me up to date with what the band has been up to lately. I believe you just completed a UK tour with Evile and did a one-off show with Accept?
Yeah, the Evile tour we did in the UK was excellent, actually. They’re a nice band and have a really nice crew, and everything was just amazing. We’ve always thought of UK as our second home. That’s kind of where our music came from, and now we are getting popular in the UK. It’s always good to go back there. Although the weather is always crap, the audience is great, and we have a good time. So yeah, we got home from that tour and a week after that we did a show with Accept, and that was also fantastic. We’d been touring with Accept before, so we know them and they are a really, really great band. It’s good for us to play with Accept because their audience is very receptive to Wolf. It’s the same kind of music, so it’s always successful for us to play with them.
UK has always been the home of classic heavy metal. With your kind of music, I’m sure you enjoy playing there as much as anywhere else in the world.
Yeah, we do enjoy playing in the UK but also in some other places. We did some shows in Spain, and it was unbelievable because the audience was the craziest bunch of fans we have ever played for. I think some places don’t have so many metal bands coming there, so it’s not a big audience but the people who come to our shows in some of these countries are amazing because they are so hungry for metal. So apart from UK, I really like touring those countries.
And I think you also have the ProgPower Oslo show tomorrow [tonight]? You must be looking forward to that as well, because that’s a show where your music would fit in really well.
Yeah, I hope so! People from Norway ask us all the time about when we’re going back there. Also, we’re playing ProgPower next year in USA, and I’m really looking forward to that one because I’ve heard so many great things about the festival.
Obviously, we have to talk about the India show which is coming up very soon. Not a lot of bands get to play in India, so that is something you should be proud of. How does it feel?
That feels very, very good, actually. I’ve always loved India and wanted to go to India. I’ve always liked classical Indian music like sitars, ragas and such, so it’s kind of an honor for us, because as you said, not many bands get to go to India. I get the impression that the market for metal in India is opening up and people are able to go to concerts now with more bands coming there, and we are really proud to be one of the first bands that come to India and tour.
This being your first visit to the country, can the fans expect a long set list with songs from your entire career?
Oh yes! We always do songs from every album. Well, may be not from the first album all the time. But we have this song called ‘Electric Raga’ on the first Wolf album. We’re definitely going to play that and do something special because that song was inspired by music from Ravi Shankar and other Indian classical music.
Do you think the Indian classical music is still a part of your inspiration when you create your own music?
Yeah, it is. I was chatting to a guy right now on YouTube. I listened to it more ten years ago. I was really into it back then, and it’s one of those things that comes to me in cycles, but that kind of music is definitely one genre I enjoy more than others.
One of the bands opening for you at this show is going to be Albatross, whom you’ve worked with on their new EP ‘The Kissing Flies’. You did a guest vocal spot as well. What was that like and how did it happen?
I think it happened because they added me on facebook or something, and Riju the bass player and main writer is a big Wolf fan, so he contacted me and asked me if I would listen to their song. I listened to the song. The title of the CD was ‘Dinner Is You’, and when I saw that, I said to him that it was an excellent title. So he was very happy about that and started to write me on a regular basis. He asked me if I could produce the upcoming CD and do some guest vocals, and I did. They recorded it in India and then they sent the files to me. Then I mixed it in my studio and did the vocals. It was really nice, everything worked out really smoothly and I think the Albatross thing is probably something that led to Wolf coming to play in India, because I worked on their CD, we got contacted by Rolling Stone India about the festival.
That’s awesome, man. Will you be performing with Albatross at this show?
Yeah, that’s the thought, that I go up and do my thing on that particular song. It’s going to be really a lot of fun, I think.
This is going to just a one-off show in India. Are you doing any other shows in South Asia, or are you just coming for the India show and going back home?
Yeah, this time we’ll just come and do this show and go back home, but I think we’re really going to enjoy our stay there and I really hope we can come back and do more shows, like a small tour or something.
India is a big country, so if you play in just one city not everybody is able to make it out. That’s why you should do a longer tour next time, probably.
Yeah, I think we have to just connect with the right people and see what we can get. May be this is something that can grow in India, I hope.
The good thing about this show is, it’s free of cost. For a change it’s good to have a show where the organizers and promoters think about the fans as well, and it will be good for you as the turnout should be good because it’s free, right?
Yeah, I really like the whole thing about this festival. It’s arranged by Harley Davidson and Rolling Stone Magazine, and for us that’s a really cool trademark to work with. It’ll be a big party and we’re going to meet new audiences that would otherwise never travel to a Wolf show, you know. So I hope we make lots of new fans in India.
I was actually living in Los Angeles for a while, and I noticed that you never really did a US tour during that time. Is it just the lack of interest in old-school metal that prevents you from touring the US?
I think our kind of music isn’t really huge in the US, but it’s mostly because we haven’t found the right business partners in the US. So, us going to ProgPower next year feels very, very good because it’s been a long time since we went to the US. But I hope we can make the right connections and start working on proper tours in the US.
I read something on Wolf’s twitter, where you were talking about some fan asking for parts of your stage outfit? What was that story?
(Laughs) Yeah, you know, I love fans and always after every show we go to the merch stand and sign everything, and if people want to take pictures, we take pictures with everybody no matter how long it takes. We really want to give something back to the fans because they came a long way and paid money to see us, but there are always those people that want more. There was an old guy, I think he was in his 50s, and he was asking for my wrist band. It’s the Wolf logo wrist band which I use on stage, and it’s the only one I have in that particular color. I said, ‘No, you can’t!’ (Laughs) And he kept saying that he bought two of our CDs and complained about me not giving him my wrist band. I was like, yeah, good bye! I mean, people don’t own me. Some are like, ‘I traveled 30 minutes and bought one CD, and you should be really thankful to me.’ I am very thankful, but I don’t like to be owned by other people. The drummer he gave his wrist band to that guy. It was so sweaty, it was disgusting, but the guy was happy in the end. But yeah, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere. I even had people getting my home number and my cell phone number and calling me at home! I really don’t like that. There’s got to be some kind of limit to how much you can be there for the fans.
Yeah, I agree. So, you usually release albums every 2-3 years, and the latest album ‘Legions Of Bastards’ came out early last year. Are you already in the process of doing the next album?
We have started, but it’s just the beginning of it. For some time now, we have collected riffs and vague ideas. Everything is very open and we don’t know where it’s going to take us. We start off with collecting a good bunch of riffs, and after we come back from India, we’re really going to sit down and start working on songs and see where the album is going. So right now, yes we have started working but it’s very wide open. We have no idea what the next album is going to sound like, but it’s definitely going to sound like Wolf.
Are you booking any more shows after the India gig?
No, but we have a new booking agency in Scandinavia and we’re still working with Factory Music in UK & Europe. We’ll see what comes up but the main focus is going to be on writing and recording the new album next year. If good shows come up, we will take them but we will be really focusing on the album.