We spoke to London-based trio Wolf Cellar about their sound, their upcoming EP and what their aims for the future are. If you’re a fan of Marmozets and Royal Blood, you should most probably check these guys out immediately.
Hey guys! Firstly, tell us about the background of the band. How did you all meet and when and where did you form?
Rach: Hi Punktastic! Well, I met Adam at uni in Oxford a few years ago and we bonded instantly over heavy rock music. Adam met Doug in London last year, where we now live, and we formed a four piece band originally, with a second guitarist. Our second guitarist left around the same time Royal Blood were making waves all over the music scene, and that’s when we realised we wanted to define our sound as a one guitar band, and Wolf Cellar was born. Bonded by our love of the heavy sounds of Royal Blood and Marmozets, we started writing and recording as Wolf Cellar earlier this year.
How would you describe your sound?
Rach: Some of our tracks are heavily riff based while others are more centred around the vocal melody.  We like to combine strong memorable melodies with more screamy stuff because live, it’s really fun.  I guess we’d say we’re sorta garage rock, hard rock…we’re LOUD.
Doug: We’ve been called ‘dirty blues rock’ before, which I like the sound of. We’ve definitely got a filthy edge to our sound.
Who and what are your influences as a band?
Rach: Royal Blood are hugely to blame for Wolf Cellar coming about full stop. We realised one guitar was all you need to create a big sound. Then there’s people like Drenge, Marmozets and Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes that we rate big time.
Doug: I love guitarists that get interesting and unusual noises out of their instruments, people like Jonny Greenwood, Kevin Parker and Tom Morello. Effects pedals are a pretty integral part of our live sound and I’ve spent a lot of time poring over pictures of their pedal boards trying to figure out how they got such great sounds. Also, you can’t be a lone guitarist and not name check Jack White, he could make a stadium filling sound out of some elastic bands around a shoe box.
Adam: Dave Grohl. His drumming in Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures is spot on.  I’ve also learnt a lot listening to bands with only one guitarist (Royal Blood, Drenge, God Damn etc) as the drums have to be a lot more inventive to fill that extra space.
You’ve got an EP coming next year. What can we expect from it? Have you finished recording or are you still in the middle of the process?
Rach: We’ve got a studio booked for later this month to record our EP in Hackney with Shuta Shinoda who is just amazing. He worked on Ghostpoet’s Mercury Prize-nominated album that dropped this year and has worked with Daughter. We just think he’s the guy who will really capture our sound on record.  Our sound is very unique and we have a certain energy when we play live that we are desperate to capture in our recordings. We reckon Shuta’s the guy! It’s gonna be melodic but punchy. Our newer stuff is definitely heavier.
Doug: We’re really excited to get into the studio. It’s a proper DIY place, a basement with bolted plywood walls hidden under a shop off Hackney Road. It’s chock full of awesome vintage gear, we’re gonna get some really sweet sounds out of there.
Tell us more about the writing and recording process. How have you found it?
Rach: Writing with the boys has just been so amazing and so natural. We joke that Doug just shits out riffs like no tomorrow – he really does! We’ve built up a catalogue of songs that we’re really proud of in such a short amount of time. It’s just been so exciting because we’re experimenting with different sounds and structures and the end products are so varied!
Adam: The great thing about the writing process for me is that we are all actively involved in different parts. I tend to write the softer guitar parts, then Doug writes the heavy stuff and then we give it to Rach and she comes back in no time with full melody and lyrics. It just works really well.
You’ve got a couple of London shows coming up. How are you feeling about them?
Rach: We’re so excited. We’ve been building momentum on the London gig circuit recently but our upcoming two shows are where we’ll be playing/testing out our EP material properly. We can’t wait to see how people react. Our new stuff is heavier and so much fun to play live, it’s gonna be gooooood! Come on down!
What can people expect from you as a live band?
Rach:Â SWEAT! Buckets of sweat, and shit chat from me while Doug tunes.
Doug:Â RIFFS, big riffs! And when the bass kicks in it’s like a punch to the face. But in a nice way.
So far, what have been some of your favourite experiences as a band?
Rach: I’d say our first milestone as a band was when we won a Battle of the Bands competition we entered. We won a cash prize that funded our first couple of demos and got to play Imperial College’s summer ball, sharing the bill with Professor Green and Reeps One which was awesome. These days though we’re starting to feel more established and the reaction of the crowds at some of our recent gigs has been incredible. At one of them people were climbing on stage, there were mosh pits, the energy was just insane and we really feed off that!
Adam: Lately we’ve noticed people singing along to ‘Strike’ which is the first song we wrote. That has to be a highlight for me.
What are your plans for 2016? And where do you hope to be by the end of the year?
Adam: A UK tour is hopefully on the cards later in the year. 2016 is our year.
Rach: 2016 gon’ be busaaaaaaaay! Can’t wait to release the EP and really get gigging good and proper and get people listening. I really want us to get heard next year. Supporting one of our faves wouldn’t go amiss either.
Doug:Â By the end of 2016 I want to have sold out, written five No.1 hits for Miley Cyrus, bought a Malibu beach house and toured with One Direction. Or what Rach said.
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