Wolfmother Interview

This is my interview with Chis Heskett, the drummer of Wolfmother. It will probably be appearing in an upcoming issue of The DePaulia.

S: How’s the tour been going?
W: Great, it’s been cool. We played new states and the crowds have been awesome. Excellent.
S: Did you guys do anything for Thanksgiving?
W: Not really, we kind of had a day off and everything was shut which mean we could sleep. We were in New York and we went to friend’s house and he cooked a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast, it was great. We didn’t get a turkey but it was still really good.
S: Was it your first Thanksgiving?
W: Yeah! We gave thanks.
S: What’s your favorite animal?
W: (Pause) um, I like dogs.
S: Dogs? Did the other guys want it to be Wolfmother and you wanted it to be Dogmother?
W: Yeah (laughs)
S: What is it about wolves that make it so popular for band names, like Wolf Eyes and Wolf Parade?
W: I don’t know, I’m not sure. There’s a bunch of bands in Australia that have wolf names as well that we didn’t know about either. I think there’s something in the water. I’m not sure, I guess it’s a cool animal.
S: It is pretty cool, yeah.
W: Sounds cool (laughs).
S: I think last time you were here was for Lollapalooza. How was that?
W: That was amazing, that was great. Perry Ferrell came up and met us before we went onstage.
S: What is he like?
W: He was great, he was very cool, he was like when he was announcing us, he gave a little speech, he was like ‘combing the past and the future!’ ????
S: I was actually at the show, I saw you guys it was really cool. Did you get to see any other bands there?
W: Um, we saw um, um we really didn’t get to see a lot. We saw Gnarls Barkley, we didn’t get to see too much other than when we were walking around. I love that festival, such a cool spot.
S: It’s so cool with the city in the background.
W: And the water on the other side. It’s cool.
S: What’s a typical day on tour like for you?
W: It depends what were doing. At the moment were on the bus, which is coo. You wake up and then you’re in the next city. Kind of wander around, get something to eat, sound check, hang around waiting, play the show and get back on the bus.
S: Do you get sick of the other band members?
W: Oh yeah, we all get sick of each other. (Shouts in the background) (Laughs).
S: What’s your favorite song to play live?
W: Um, um, um I like Pyramid and Joker and the Thief, it changes from night to night.
S: Do you get tired of playing the same songs every night?
W: Sometimes, we’ve been playing them over and over again. You do, it’s only like every now and then. (Laughs)
S: Speaking of Joker and the Thief, what was it like working with the Jackass guys?
W: They flew out to Sydney to film it, it was filmed over two hometown shows, we had two sold out shows in Sydney and they just came and hung out and filmed around backstage. They had their own band room, it was like a circus, it was amazing.
S: Did they try to get you guys to do any stunts?
W: Wee-man kind of leap out from underneath the couch I was on once and tried to get me in the nuts. That was about it, they were super cool guys, they were hilarious. It was kind of like when you’re crazy and the rest of the weekend you freak out. But then when they go you miss them. They’re like constant amusement at all times. You pass their van and it would smell like vomit and they’d drink all your beer and they were beating each other up all the time, it was great.
S: What was it like introducing Led Zepplin to the UK Hall of Fame?
W: Aw man, that was the most high pressured, scariest night of my life. There were so many big wigs there like Jimmy Page, who was there to get inducted and accept the award. Tony Iamai from Black Sabbath, David Gilmour, Brian Wilson, George Martin, Prince, Beyonce, Bon Jovi, they were all there and watching. We had to play a Led Zepplin song and I fucked up the start of it, it was scary. (Laughs) It was cool.
S: Did you get to meet any of those guys?
W: Not really, I was a bit scared.
S: Everyone always says that your influenced by people like Zepplin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, what kind of music do you actually listen to?
W: I guess that we do listen to that stuff, but it’s one tiny little sliver of what we listen to. I like psychedelic music, kind of everything from the ‘60’s up to now. I like jazz and hip hop and rock. There’s good stuff in all the genres.
S: What was the last CD you bought?
W: I bought Small Faces but I haven’t really listened to it, Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake or something. It’s like an old ‘60’s album.
S: What is it about Wolfmother that appeals to such a large audience?
W: I don’t know, it’s pretty straightforward rock music, so I guess its accessible. When we started we played in little clubs around Sydney and we had these biker dudes with black hair at the show freaking out and also really young people. I guess because it does have an old school sound so people that were around in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s can access us right away, they know what it’s all about, and also young kids who have never heard it before can get into it for the first time.
S: How do the crowds in America compare to the Australian ones?
W: They’re pretty close, I think rock crowd are pretty similar around the world. I think its different city to city rather than country to country. I think the real major cities the crowds are more relaxed. All the shows here have been amazing, we’ve had such a great response. Once the people get to know the music better after the album has been out for a while it get better.
S: What’s something Americans don’t know about Australia?
W: I don’t know. (Laughs) I think there’s funny TV footage that shows America doesn’t know much about anywhere but America (Laughs). But that’s really generalizing (laughs). I haven’t done any surveys, I should get a video camera out and start interviewing our fans.
S: What do you consider to be the highlight of your career so far?
W: I think just getting the copy of the album for the first time, getting the finished product that’s been imprinted enmarked and getting a copy on vinyl. Getting a copy on double vinyl, that’s alright for me, that’s what it’s all about, that the finished product.
S: Since you released the EP in 2004, you’ve become pretty big pretty quick, do you think you’ve “made it?”
W: I don’t know what that means really, I don’t know. What do you mean ‘made it?’
S: Do you feel like this is what you always wanted to do and now you did it?
W: Yeah, I guess so, to be in a band touring the world, recording music, I guess we have made it, we’re playing music full time, we don’t have other jobs, we’re traveling around the world. So yeah, for me, this is a dream come true.
S: Is this what you wanted to do when you were a kid?
W: Yeah, but it’s something you never thought you could, to me it’s always been this kind of magic thing that you want to be part of but you don’t really know how. I guess we just spent a lot of time jamming and discovered music and how to play music. I think it’s something we’ve always wanted to do. It’s like a childhood dream really. I remember I used to sit in school and draw guitars and bands and hair bands, metal bands.
S: I read that you designed the cover of the debut album…
W: No, no I didn’t, the first EP in Australia I designed the cover, it was like a white cover with a triangle, kind of psychedelic volcanoes looking thing, it was actually Frank Frenzetta who designed that, so I can’t take credit for that because its incredible.
S: So your not still doing design anymore?
W: I think music has kind of taken over, when we had a lot of time, when we were starting out, I kind of had a lot of things going on. The music has kind of taken over. Maybe in the future. (Laughs)
S: What do you have planned for 2007?
W: I’m not sure yet, I’m not sure. Management wants to tour our asses off again. Our manager was saying that bands put in all the groundwork and they tour their asses off, especially bands from Australia because its so far, you have to work a lot harder. You put in all this ground work and play so many shows and by the time it gets kind of playing the shows where you get the big money, hopefully we can pace ourselves, not go insane.
S: Do you think you guys will work on any new material?
W: Yeah, we just kind of started to, it’s cool, especially when you’ve been playing the same songs every night. But yeah, we’ve been jamming, it’s exciting, it’s fun.