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Spotlight (Brisbane) – 48: Teenage Wolves

A while back I got the opportunity to interview local duo Teenage Wolves. I discovered them after reading a positive review of their live show via Blair Hughes of Brisbane Sounds. They’re relative newcomers to the live circuit, but have have done a spate of shows over the past two months. (Justin Edwards posted a good live review + pictures of the band at the Legions Club from a while back.)

Here’s what Jasmine of Teenage Wolves had to say.

Do I detect elements of PJ Harvey and Ennio Morricone in your sound? Where do your influences come from?
“We have very different musical backgrounds but our tastes are slowly merging together as we continue to influence each other. The Ennio Morricone influence rings very true, there’s something timeless about spaghetti westerns, in particular Sergio Leone’s films and the soundtracks Morricone adds to them are hauntingly brilliant. But spaghetti westerns aside. my main influences are the Delta blues, psychobilly, early 60s garage rock and 50s rock’n'roll.”

I love the way the songs are recorded. How conscious was this?
“Lane studies audio engineering so we’re lucky enough to have access to a studio every now and then. I’m really glad people dig the reverb on the recordings, I fought hard to keep that in there! Lane told me I use ‘too much reverb’ I told him there’s no such thing. He let me do a vocal take in his bathroom recently so I think he’s warming up to it.”

How did Teenage Wolves come to be?
“We’ve known each other for 14 years but we’ve only started playing music together as a two-piece recently. We’d try out other people for different roles but no one could really understand what we were about, so we just kept it as the two of us.”

Any favourite records or artists?
“Lane’s pick of record is Rated R by Queens of the Stone Age, which is also his favourite band. I can’t bring it down to just a single record, but I’m mad for The Cramps.” [Aren't we all? - approving Ed]

Any local bands you think we should be paying attention to?
“For personal safety reasons, people should be aware of a group who creep around Brisbane called The Chokes. They’re some of the nastiest, lowbrow, lo-fi misfits playing instruments I’ve ever met. We’ll be arranging shows with them soon.”

What are the future plans for Teenage Wolves? Headline gigs, major festivals, the trashing of hotel rooms?
“We’ll be recording as soon as we get the chance. We have a lot of new songs that I’m wanting to hear recorded, but until then, playing around town and focusing on writing and rehearsals. It’s such early days for Teenage Wolves that it’s still really exciting.”

You can listen to Teenage Wolves on MySpace and download some tracks from the Triple J Unearthed Website.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 4th, 2010 at 8:57 am. It is filed under Columns and tagged with Brisbane, Brisbane Sounds, Delta blues, Ennio Morricone, PJ Harvey, Queens Of The Stone Age, Sergio Leone, Teenage Wolves, The Chokes, The Cramps. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.