Having spent the majority of their career touring and selling out theatres, stadiums & festivals throughout the world including North and South America, Europe, the UK and Scandinavia, Wolfmother recently announced they will be performing at Scene & Heard Festivals this October/November. With an extensive history and career, including multi platinum sales globally, ARIA, Grammy & other award nods too numerous to mention, Wolfmother are a well established Aussie act with international recognition. We recently chatted to frontman Andrew Stockdale about the coming shows plus their return to Australia at this year’s Splendour In The Grass as well as news on a new record.
Andrew: We got a lot to talk about as far as festivals and stuff but what’s the latest with Wolfmother? What have you guys been up to lately?
Andrew Stockdale: We’ve toured east coast and west coast in the States, Mexico, all over Europe and Israel and Italy and got back here and played Splendour In The Grass and I’ve spent the last month recording songs in my front room in my house, demos for the next record and these songs I’ve recorded at the Foo Fighters studio. That’s the short answer [laughs].
Andrew: Oh nice that’s cool! Look forward to that, it’s been a while since we’ve heard new material from Wolfmother. I know it might be a bit too early to say but how is it looking so far?
Andrew Stockdale: It’s good, this record doesn’t irritate me [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs].
Andrew Stockdale: Sometimes, like I like the record but there’s a couple of lines or a couple of things I just wish I could tweak. I’ve done this one myself and it’s all in my laptop and I can keep editing it, keep changing it so I’m like, ‘Oh yeah I’ve got this one to a good point, everything is sitting nicely’, if you know what I mean? I’ve kinda worked it enough to iron out all the kinks and everything that kind of bothered me which we had done that on the first record because we spent ages and ages on that, playing it a gazillion times by the time we finished it. So that’s what I’m kind of doing now, so it’s getting well worked on like a well oiled machine!
Andrew: I gotcha so looking forward to it, like I said it’s been a while since we’ve heard some new stuff from you guys. I heard that you had a triumphant return down under with Splendour In The Grass so how was that?
Andrew Stockdale: Yeah that was great. The last gig that we did before Splendour In The Grass was in Tel Aviv in Israel, we finished this European tour and then we flew maybe 8 hours to Israel or something, played this gig in Israel, then had to fly 8 hours back to Frankfurt then fly 8 hours back to Dubai. So by the time I got to Byron Bay I was pretty jetlagged and confused and then to rock up to Splendour In The Grass and have the reaction that we did, it felt like it was all worthwhile, it was great.
Andrew: Yeah I guess it’s one of those moments where no matter how tired you get, as soon as you see that crowd and the reaction, that must pump a lot of adrenaline back into you I suppose.
Andrew Stockdale: Yeah totally, you get this massive high from putting on a show like that. It’s funny, after you finish the show you kind of think, ‘I don’t care about money, I don’t care about friggin’ material possessions’, all of that, just enjoying life and you’re on a total high. It’s like an affirmation of what you really value in life and then you go back to your car and might get a parking ticket or something [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs].
Andrew Stockdale: And then you check your email and then there’s a tax bill and then you just start gradually coming back into this irritated day to day life, running errands kind of thing. That’s the thing I’ve found when I’m touring, I’m on this massive ultraistic high and then I gradually go back into civilian life and kind of readjust my patience and everything, you try to hang on to those moments as long as you can and remember the good times.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and speaking of the touring life, you have some more festivals coming up as well with the Scene and Heard Festival so it’s good to see you doing more shows in Australia again.
Andrew Stockdale: Yeah and what better way than headlining a big festival like this, it feels like a good way to do it.
Andrew: Do you have a preference at all between a festival type show and your own show at a club or theater?
Andrew Stockdale: It depends when you ask me. Sometimes we’re only doing headline shows and we want to only play in front of this many people, and other times I’m like, man I’ll play anywhere, I’ll play in a box on the street! So what I like depends on my mindset and how much time off I’ve had and how generous I’m feeling with my energy and time [laughs], for lack of a better way of putting it. Because if you are in a good mood, you feel like, ‘Let’s go to India and play some random gigs for no-one’, then if you’ve done 50 shows in a row you’re like, ‘Could we just maybe not do the last show and relax for a bit?’ It varies but half an hour before a show I’m stoked and looking forward to it, the excitement sets in. But any kind of show is exciting, performing is exciting no matter where it is or when it is. There’s something special about putting yourself out there and playing music and connecting to people.
Andrew: So touring around the world and playing to different crowds and stuff, do you find the audience is always the same or do you find subtle differences between countries and territories around the world?
Andrew Stockdale: Well it’s funny, the first show we did in America, we did a show in Philadelphia and it was in a place called the Underground Arts and there were these long haired sort of stoner rock guys and they were like, arms crossed and looking at the pedal board. I could tell they were real music connoisseurs and I’m like, ‘OK’, so I’m playing to these kind of dudes who were into their stoner rock and listening to it and as you progress through the set, they kind of got pushed off and this whole mob of people transform into this seething mass of chaos. So yeah you’re right, sometimes different areas have a different energy. Sometimes people are like, ‘I’m here to listen to the music and intellectualise it’, and then other people are like…I mean we’ve played in places like Germany where there’s a huge moshpit and one dude is standing on another dude’s shoulders like three people up in the air. So yeah it all depends where you are, I guess major cities can sometimes be a little bit reserved. We played in Mexico just recently and we played “Woman” and they have this thing in Mexico where they throw their drinks into the air and when the riff started, it was 50,000 people throwing drinks in the air and beer splattering everywhere, you can look at it on our Instagram page. But yeah it all depends on the culture of the place and how they react and if it’s a major city, the time of day. Things do vary, that’s for sure.
Andrew: Yeah festivals do have a completely vibe than a regular show. So you’re playing at the Scene and Heard Festival and it’s been a while since some of the fans that will be attending have seen you guys so what are you planning for the audience as far as setlists and all that kind of stuff?
Andrew Stockdale: Usually, for a while it’s been open with “Victorious” and close with “Joker and The Thief” and everywhere in between has been open to a variation. But I went through a set where at one point I was like, ‘What are the top 13 songs on Spotify” and we’ll just play all of them [laughs].
Andrew: Hey that’s a good idea!
Andrew Stockdale: Yeah that’s what I’ve done recently, one time in Italy I got all the songs that were in the same key. Like all these songs are in D, we’ll put them together, all the songs that are in E, put all them together and all the songs that are in A we’ll put all of them together and we actually did 25 songs and we did medley versions of say “Vagabond”, first chorus, next song, first chorus and it was the most manic set and we did 25 songs. I think it was kinda cool, for a festival I don’t know if I would do that. I don’t want to stuff around to a huge audience but sometimes we experiment and do unusual setlists. This one is going to be straight to the hits, giving people what they want and people who want to know about Wolfmother. Honour the friggin’ classics and play it the best way we can, that’s it.
Andrew: That’s actually a question that pops up for bands that have been around for a while now where they have a number of albums behind them in their back catalogue, is putting together a setlist. It’s interesting how you describe sometimes changing things around because sometimes it can be difficult the more albums you have to put together a setlist that will not only please yourselves but obviously please the fans as well.
Andrew Stockdale: Yeah well I don’t have a problem playing “Woman” and “…Joker”, I mean I guess I’m in a fortunate position where the songs that did well I actually like and I wrote that because that’s the kind of band I wanted to be in. I don’t have a problem with the setlist, I don’t have a problem with playing the big songs. You never know, the thing that I found with recording and setlists and everything in the music industry is whatever works one time, the opposite can be completely true as well. That’s what makes music so fascinating is that once you choose one path, someone does the complete opposite and that works as well. So you look at the audience, you look at where you’re at and you kind of find a happy medium between the two…
Andrew: And play it by ear.
Andrew Stockdale: Yeah play it by ear.
Andrew: Well we are looking forward to seeing you on these festivals and the new material you mentioned before as well. I better let you go so thanks for your time, really appreciated and we look forward to the new album when it comes out.
Andrew Stockdale: Awesome, yeah no worries!
SCENE & HEARD FESTIVAL
Sun Oct 27 – Barlow Park, Cairns, QLD
Sat Nov 02 – Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane
Sun Nov10 – Wickham Park, Newcastle
Tickets & Info: sceneandheardfestival.com.au
