Interview: House of Wolves

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What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?

We all grew up with different influences and have been playing our instruments for many years. Its hard to imagine what we would be doing instead of music since it’s such a big part of all our lives its hard to imagine something else being able to fill that gap. 

What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?

We all work aside from this but due to the lockdowns we haven’t been able to do much other than play our instruments at home. It hasn’t stopped us creating music though as we have all been coming up with ideas separately ready for when we can meet up again.

How long has your band been around?

We formed in June 2020.

Where are you based out of and how did that influence your music?

We’re based in Preston, but that didn’t really influence us, we mainly gained influence from the music we listen to and from each other.

How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you.

We were originally called House of Dogs because we practice at Jakes grandads house who breeds German Shepherds. We changed to House of Wolves just because we thought it sounded better and found out that House of Dogs was a dog grooming service.

Tell me about the best and worst shows you have played.

Since we have only been together during the pandemic, we have been limited to how many shows we could play. We played at a pub and at a beer festival at the end of summer last year and they both went well.

Tell me about your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you haven't already?

We don’t really have a favorite venue as we haven’t done that many shows but we would like to play the Ferret in Preston as it is quite iconic. We have all played there with other bands but never together in this band.

If you could play any show with any lineup who would be on the ticket?

Jimi Hendrix 

The Red Hot Chili Peppers  

Mac Demarco

The Black Keys

Tame Impala 

Catfish and The Bottlemen 

Lower Than Atlantis 

Royal Blood

What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band?

Before starting make sure everyone is committed to playing and can practice regularly and make sure everyone gets along and there are no personality clashes, as these can end your band before it even begins. Don’t give up if this band doesn’t work out, we had all been in multiple bands before this one, but this is the furthest any of us have got in terms of getting recordings done and getting radio play.

If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?

Put your life savings on Leicester to win the Premier League in 2016.

Of your songs which one means the most to you and why? 

Pass Me By because it is one of the first songs we played together as a band that wasn’t from our lead singers’ previous catalogue of songs.

Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?

Probably Flames is the favorite to play because its very energetic and gets everyone on their feet but Pass Me By is the one most people say is their favorite.

What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?

Henry our lead singer and writes the tunes he usually just has an idea for a riff or some lyrics then Jake will play some bass to it and Tom plays some drums and we just jam it out. Sometimes it will change a lot from the original concept and sometimes it will stay the same but that’s the usual process.

What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?

People can take whatever message they want from the music there’s no specific message so you can hear whatever you want to hear from it.

Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?

We don’t usually disagree about much when it comes to the band, we’re all on the same level for the music so that’s not an issue. Sometimes we argue about art for the songs, but we try and meet each other in the middle and make it so everyone’s happy. We’ve never really let disagreements out of hand.

What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that's coming up?

Make up for all the shows we haven’t been able to do by doing loads. Record more music and hopefully release an EP. No solid plans as of yet just waiting to get back into the practice room first and see where it takes us, which we will hopefully be able to do now the restrictions are being lifted.