Interview: Sam of Werewolves

The Razor's Edge: As a group of veteran musicians what is the most important lesson you have taken from your experiences when it comes to recording to ensure the final product is as you want it?

Sam: There’s no one single thing or trick we can give you. Okay, maybe this one: have a good team. Find yourselves good studio technicians, mixers, artists, and a label who do what they say when they say it, and stick with them all. Make sure everyone is paid promptly, that all materials are provided when you say they will, and that you’re always available for communication. If you’ve got a good team, then it makes everything so much easier. If any part of that is weak, it slows everything down. You can have an album finished and ready to go, and if say a photographer has taken some promo band pics but is a slack-ass and won’t provide them, then all your combined efforts are waiting on this one weak link. Just having one person who isn’t into what you’re all trying to do and not pulling in that direction messes it all up. Get rid of all the weak links and find people who work as hard as you do.

The Razor's Edge: How do you find the running of an extreme metal band now compared to 20 years ago, what has improved and has anything in your opinion caused the style to suffer?

Sam: I think it’s easier these days to do a band. These days the dust has settled a bit and you know what tools and sites to use, and how to go about putting music out and promoting it and shit. Twenty years ago though, the internet had just hit. There’s no way to describe to anyone younger than thirty just how much change was inflicted so quickly onto… everything. File-sharing fucked sales immediately, and the established industry fell apart, labels had no idea what to do. The sites you used to promote music would change each year, the methods of approaching magazines and labels changed constantly, there weren’t really any tools for getting your music across everything, it was a real fucking mess. I think we have the best of both worlds now, the flexibility and independence of the internet age, and labels have worked out what their place is amongst all this. There’s still an advantage to being on a label.

As for the music itself? It’s worse. Don’t get me wrong, the playing and production are better than they ever have been, just the majority of bands sound the same… same tones, same vocals, same emotional palette, same riffs. I may just be old and bitter. Over twenty years ago, there was a huge amount of difference between bands. Everyone wasn’t as self-conscious as they are now or terrified of having hooks in their music. Everyone seems to be desperately, repeatedly, trying to prove that they can play their instruments. Everyone needs to get over themselves and go for it as if an asteroid is hitting next week.

The Razor's Edge: When you as musicians have such a rich history of musical output, do you still find influences from other bands or artists, or do you find it more productive to look at your own previous musical accomplishments to influence your next steps?

Sam: With Werewolves, it’s pretty easy. We just stomp on the accelerator with both feet and let rip. We’re not looking out the window at everyone else, and we’re definitely not looking in the rear-vision. We’ve kind of settled into that midlife thing where we know what we like and aren’t constantly getting into new styles, we’re not going to suddenly pull a U-turn and record an homage to Blood Incantation and start on about aliens. We listen to enough stuff to have a fair idea what’s happening out there in metal and where we get placed in it every time we record.