WOLFMOTHER

The hype, the fros, and the retro riffs had purists scoffing. But the fact remains that these Australian stoner-rock phenoms have everyone living la vida lobo.

By Dan Epstein
Photo by Mick Hutson

2006 was definitely Wolfmother’s year. The Seventies-flavored heavy-rock trio—completely unknown outside of England and their native Australia at the start of the year—were suddenly ubiquitous in the U.S., with their songs “Love Train” and “Joker & the Thief” appearing in iPod commercials and Jackass 2, respectively, and a seemingly never-ending tour schedule that included performances on Lollapalooza and several late-night talk shows.

To date, the Sydney-based band’s self-titled debut on Interscope/Modular has sold more than 800,000 copies worldwide, an impressive number for a young band with such an unrepentantly retro stoner-rock vibe. While similarly inclined acts like the Sword and Priestess are still working to establish themselves on a cult level, Wolfmother have blithely blown into the big time.

Such unexpected success has inevitably fostered some resentment and suspicion in hard-rock circles, as if the Wolfmother album was simply a product of major-label hype that was somehow forced onto CD players everywhere. But listen to such righteously riffy tracks as “Dimension,” “Witchcraft,” and “Woman,” and it’s obvious that vocalist-guitarist Andrew Stockdale, bassist-keyboardist Chris Ross, and drummer Myles Heskett have a real knack for nicking choice bits from the Classic Rock Encyclopedia (Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, etc.) and mashing them together into songs that are catchy and fun and rock like hell. And, really, what’s wrong with that?

On the eve of yet another U.S. tour, Stockdale got on the phone with Revolver to talk about Wolfmother’s musical evolution, his fantasy-tinged lyrics, and the value of going to the library.

REVOLVER I’ve heard that you guys didn’t actually start out as a heavy band.
ANDREW STOCKDALE Stylistically, we went through a few different changes. At the start, it was more or less just… I don’t know what the hell it was! [Laughs] It was kind of in a Beastie Boys, Money Mark kind of style, I guess—this weird electro stuff with keyboards and computers. And then I drifted off and started doing things on a nylon-stringed acoustic, putting together some really mellow songs. A friend offered a slot to support his band, so I got together with Chris and Myles, and we learned those songs. We just had an electric guitar, bass, and drums. It was the first time that we’d sort of just simplified our setup and actually played songs from start to finish, and just really worked on getting our songs together.

REVOLVER Did the songs automatically take on the riff-oriented feel that they have now?
STOCKDALE Well, since those songs were written on an acoustic, there were a lot of chords and stuff. But after that show, I thought I’d like to experiment more with riffs—forget about chords and just do riffs! And, yeah, everything else just kind of evolved from that point.

REVOLVER Several of your songs, like “White Unicorn” and “Tales From the Forest of Gnomes,” have a lyrical perspective that seems to recall the whole hippie, Middle Earth imagery of the late Sixties and early Seventies. Do you personally identify with that particular period?
STOCKDALE Not really, but I definitely think that sort of lyricism has been lost. It has a romanticism to it, and it seems to have more of an impact on your imagination than other, more straightforward styles. I’d never experimented with that kind of lyricism before, so I found it kind of exciting. It just opens everything up. It was sort of a different perspective on rock and roll.

REVOLVER Is it more fun to write like that, rather than write about stuff that’s happening in your own life?
STOCKDALE Oh, for sure! When I was 18, I was trying to write songs influenced by Pavement and Nirvana—all that kind of stuff, where you’ve gotta have something emotional to get off your chest. And a lot of the time when you do that, it just comes out sounding forced, too predictable. So this was really cool, to change the angle to a totally different world from what I’d ever thought about. It was basically like discovering a new approach.

REVOLVER Have you ever dipped into The Lord of the Rings for inspiration?
STOCKDALE That hasn’t been where I get my inspiration from, no. [Laughs] I did read a few pages of the Bible before I wrote “White Unicorn.” It was the part with Adam and Eve, where the Serpent—which was supposedly meant to be Satan—coerced Eve into eating the apple. I was also reading this book called Mind’s Eye, which was about tapping into the unlimited possibilities of creativity within your mind. At the time, I was kind of in a breakup phase with my girlfriend, so I was living in this squat, and I didn’t have a TV. I didn’t have anything to do. So I joined the local library, and I just went and got all these books—various philosophy books and other things. Mind’s Eye was one of them. That’s how I got into that style of writing, and that’s also where the song “Mind’s Eye” came from.

REVOLVER When people think of hard rock and Australia, AC/DC immediately comes to mind. Were they a big influence on you guys?
STOCKDALE Not musically. I don’t think AC/DC consciously came into the equation on our first record. There’s so much more space with their stuff—there’s lots of gaps and pauses, and the beats are a lot more aggressive and almost mechanical, whereas we’re a bit more swingy with the beat, and the riffs get into more of a groove. The Datsuns [a garage-rock act from New Zealand] were a big influence, though. I remember seeing them play at a venue in Sydney, and there was, like, 20 people there, but I was blown away by what they were doing. And also another Australian band called Rocket Science—they’re kind of like the Blues Explosion, but with Kinks or Yardbirds type of fast rock-and-roll songs. Rocket Science was a big influence on us. We just thought, man, let’s just do some rock-and-roll riffage chaos!

REVOLVER You guys have done really well in the States—much better than most bands that have a similarly heavy, stoner type of vibe. Why do you think you’ve connected so well with U.S. audiences?
STOCKDALE Wolfmother’s music is very extroverted, and a lot of those bands can be very introverted, so I think that’s why we’ve connected with a much broader audience. A song like “Woman”—there’s a playfulness to it. If you look at the way Bon Scott used to gesture and play around, that’s what makes rock and roll more fun, and more in your face. You’re not just playing to yourself—you’re giving something to whoever’s listening to it.

REVOLVER As opposed to the Nirvana/Pavement approach you were talking about before…
STOCKDALE Yeah, although I do think that Kurt Cobain was very consciously trying to draw the listener in, through his melodies and his well-structured songs. He was thinking of the listener, but he was layering it with all this self-hatred, or whatever. He put depression into a pop format with distorted guitars! [Laughs]

REVOLVER Whereas you guys are putting fantasy into a pop format with distorted guitars?
STOCKDALE Well, if you want to interpret it as fantasy, I think that’s one part of it. “Woman” is just a love song about a woman. “Dimension” could be about subconscious thoughts, letting go of negativity—just a mental exercise. “White Unicorn” mentions a white unicorn, but the lyric is, “White unicorn across her shoulder.” It’s just a design on the clothes a girl is wearing. So I wouldn’t say it’s fantasy put into a pop format with distorted guitars. I’d say there is some depth beyond the fantasy in the lyrics. I think you can bring artfulness to any style of lyricism, regardless of the subject matter.

REVOLVER Speaking of “Woman,” has that song become a strip-club anthem yet? It seems tailor-made for that sort of thing.
STOCKDALE I don’t know what’s happening in strip clubs, but when we first put the demo out with that song on it, we had heaps of people saying, “Oh, yeah, I’ve been having sex to your music!” [Laughs] So I see what you’re saying…

REVOLVER Is there a new Wolfmother record in the works?
STOCKDALE We’ve got a few ideas, and hopefully we’ll get a few things demo’d before the end of this tour. We’ll see how that goes, but we’ll wait a little while before starting the next record—we still want to tour on this one for a little while longer.

REVOLVER You’ve been touring like crazy for the past year. How do you keep sane on the road?
STOCKDALE Do phoners—that’s the best way to wind down in our spare time! [Laughs] We watch a lot of movies. I just got 2001: A Space Odyssey, and I’m gonna put that one on later. I just bought a whole bunch of Stones albums, so I’m look forward to listening to all that. And I read a bunch of books. There’s only so much drinking your body can stand, you know?