Wolfmother are three rambunctious, rakish Australians with riffs of such magnitude they can barely be contained in their songs. Mark Robertson catches up with the band, as they prepare to conquer America.
16 THE LIST titer? iii. :0 ‘3?
Picture the scene: three men gu'etiy baking in the Sun. Each sports ‘.ar.0us shades of dapper retro clothing. There's velvet and ageing denim ii‘yoly ed safe to say. Their Cur?y hair is. by degrees. sensible. unruly and COfTTl“OdOV€S The trio piay rock'n‘roll. and everyone. fron‘ too-cool-fOr-schooi
Californians to the frenzied inhabitants of CarrbOro.
Nonh Carolina. lS loving it.
If WOItmOther SOund like a rock'nroil cliche. that's because frankly they are. Not in a COthrll. ed Primal Scream way yOu understand. but in the sense that they make rock music which. rather than being an artistic whimsy or yain indulgence. is Simply an adrenalismg. coruscating. joyful. cleansmg experience. They s0und old —- like Led Zep. Black Sabbath. Blue Cheer. Traffic. even Jethro Tull a bit ~ but at the same time they do something fresh and wildly enjoyable. Like both the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Who in their y0unger days. they contrive only to have fun. blow minds and make riffs carved from Australian granite. And it's the stuff of magic. The last musmian to do this Successfully was Jack White and look what happened to him. I icined Wolfmother‘s eminently affable bass player Chris Ross (pictured. below right) as he navrgated up arid down a tOur bus and into an empty parking lot in North Carolrna.‘
How would you describe your music to the uninitiated?
We used to sax t"at it was a so" t psyt "ede t‘
sexuai fstina'nT .-.l‘ c“ souwzet: tzeod But it's ,ia'n based rock. a o: o‘ JDS a'xi t1t)‘.‘."8. o'gai‘ic. big N‘s. the spaces ke to diav. co'nparisons with atitho's I ke Our name i‘tll‘i‘r‘S from a Torn Robbins book The stones have a good solid base. but he ailoy. s t"e"‘. to net iea x weird. I like the idea th; f we wite songs the may
he rites stones'
How has America been treating you?
"The shows have been exttelieiit. ots of fan. pretty crazy We did Letterman and Cor‘a" O'Brien and the MTV movie awards We did the red tiarpet which was actually blue \‘v’e played at the close of the show It has spectacle already so thought 'let's see how stupid e can make t~ a"d eitCOurage people to go pats. And it v.ovke<l
Any famous faces rocking out in the crowd? ‘That kind of famous person doesn't like us yet. but we've got a (iouple of fariioiis farts already Lars from Metallica came to our shov. in San FranCisco. He watched us may. really dug it and ye hung out. Thomas from Daft Punk (:airie down tO our show In LA and he was fucking exitellertt.'