New album by DeWolff
Mascot Records are thrilled to announce the new album ‘Thrust’ by DeWolff, which will be released on 4th May 2018.
DeWolff formed in the Netherlands’ Deep South of Geleen, when they were barely teenagers in 2007 by brothers’ Pablo (singer/guitarist) and Luka van de Poel (Drums) and Hammond organist Robin Piso. Named after Harvey Keitel’s character, Winston Wolfe, in Pulp Fiction, their luscious and expansive neo-psychedelia saw them burst out of the city.
They have released 5 studio albums previously, all have catapulted them up the charts in their homeland. Whilst still in their teens they played the prestigious Paradiso in Amsterdam and took to the main-stage at PinkPop Festival in front of 10,000 fans, relentless touring followed, earmarking them as a formidable live act. Since then they’ve played to 30,000 at Lowlands Festival, 15,000 at Sziget, as well as Reeperbahn, Rockpalast, Rock Oz Arenas and supported The Black Keys, Blues Pills, Ten Years After and Deep Purple.
They’ve played Castle’s throughout Europe, been invited to perform at a Russian millionaire’s birthday party in Berlin, they had bodyguards for a show on a Moscow rooftop and at a Biker festival just outside the city, they came face to face with unexpected pyrotechnics, nudity and watched fire spread across the stage during their set.
Deep Purple’s Roger Glover, watched them from the side of the stage and told them “I love your band man, it sounds awesome.’” They jammed with Ten Years After live on stage and got told Woodstock stories from Ric Lee and also count Seasick Steve as a fan. Steve was asleep in his bus at a festival they were playing at and he was dreaming that he was watching The Allman Brothers live in ’72. Only, he woke up and realised he wasn’t in a dream “Right after we came off stage he came up to tell us ‘that was amazing guys, I thought I heard The Allman Brothers playing in my dream but it was you,’” remembers Pablo.
They crossed paths again at Rock Oz Arenes in Switzerland in 2016 where Steve introduced the band to their idol Robert Plant. “We found out Robert Plant was headlining it. Robert fucking Plant, the golden god. He is one of my biggest heroes ever,” says Pablo. Security wouldn’t let them backstage until Seasick Steve said, “‘these are my friends, they have to be in the back stage area’ and we got to talk to Robert Plant. I cried after, but not during fortunately.”
Now based in Utrecht they have their own analogue ‘Electrosaurous Sound’ studio, which is tucked away in a wharf on the scenic Old Canal of the city, the bunker is full of recording equipment, decorated with antique lampshades, Persian rugs and stuffed animals. This is where they recorded and self-produced ‘Thrust’ last summer.
Away from their traditional ‘vintage’ sound, the album is full of lots of firsts for the band; they tackle contemporary social and political issues on ‘Deceit & Woo’ which was written on the day of Donald Trump’s inauguration and they explore the political climate closer to home on the opening track ‘Big Talk’ which is targeted swipe at the Dutch far-right politician and ‘Dutch Trump’, Geert Wilders.
Now in their mid-twenties, they’ve opened themselves up completely to be creatively free, Pablo explains “We didn’t really start writing this record with a concept in mind, we just started writing and saw where it took us.”
‘California Burning’ attacks todays loud mouth society, they tackle gambling on ‘Tragedy, Not Today’, dark undertones on ‘Swain’ and they approach the god of death on ‘Tombstone Child’. ‘Outta Step and Ill at Ease’ is another first for the band. “I used to be really bad at when I had a strong emotion, either I was really happy or really sad to write a song about it in that moment,” Pablo says. “This is the first song I ever wrote when I was feeling super down and lonely.”
In 2017, the band celebrated their 10th Anniversary in fine style as they headlined their own DeWolfest to 3,500 fans with support from amongst others, Wolf People and Little Barrie. “Its super weird,” says Pablo talking about it. “It feels like 3 years or something, it’s really cool that such a lot of people came to this festival, it felt super rewarding. Sometimes it feels, is this going to last? Is it going to fade? But, we’ve been together now for 10 years and this isn’t going to fade and people believe in what we stand for and respect and appreciate that. It feels like we finally made it.”
Ten years of being a band and wanting to produce your greatest record to date has made ‘Thrust’, a full representation of the DeWolff live experience incorporated with the in the studio experimentation. It represents the sound of rock ‘n’ roll in 2018; equal doses of anger, frustration, emotion and at times disillusion with the state of the world today and all delivered in a hooky and gloriously epic fashion.
Track Listing
1. Big Talk
2. California Burning
3. Once In A Blue Moon
4. Double Crossing Man
5. Tombstone Child
6. Deceit & Woo
7. Freeway Flight
8. Tragedy? Not Today
9. Sometimes
10. Swain
11. Outta Step & Ill At Ease