Wolfmother interview

interview by Bill Palmer

Quite a bit has happened in Andrew Stockdale’s world since the Australian singer-guitarist and his hard rock outfit Wolfmother released their debut album four years ago. After touring the world, winning a Grammy for the song Woman, and eventually having to replace Wolfmother’s original rhythm section with new musicians, Andrew and the newly incarnated Wolfmother have finally released their sophomore effort Cosmic Egg today. I caught up with the affable Aussie, whose answers were often punctuated with an enthusiastically drawn out “Yeah!”, while he was visiting Los Angeles to talk about the new album and more. But first, a little catching up…

When you made that first record, you guys were in obscurity at that point. Did you always feel like Wolfmother had this unique sound that once people heard it they would love it, or were you surprised that that album had the success that it did?

I always felt like the music was pretty good and there was something to it. I thought we had something unique, I guess. I couldn’t see many other bands around, at least in Sydney when we started, I felt like we had something to offer. And then literally just the one person saying that they enjoyed it and offering us a record deal, to another person saying that they enjoyed it and offering us a gig to promote it, and we just met people after, you know how you meet someone the next day, then meet someone, and we just followed. Like I said to myself when Wolfmother started, that I was just going to follow the music, see where this music takes me and just follow it. And it ended up reaching a lot of people, and yeah, I just try to give it as good a chance as I could, without not following up on what was going on around the time.


And then it becomes where some people will say, “Did you think it was going to become that big?” I had no relative idea of how big was big. Everything, every step along the way, felt like a success. Whether it was five hundred people or whether it was just going to a guest program, like a TV show that I used to watch when I was a kid, that felt like a massive success. So along the way, everything felt like it was something that you’d never experienced before.

Before you could make Cosmic Egg you had to bring in some new people because you had a couple of departures from the band. At that point you were the only decision maker left in the band, and you could have theoretically gotten anybody you wanted in the whole world. How do you even start to narrow down that kind of process to where it’s a manageable thing?

I did attempt to do it in the way that the label suggested, that I do some auditions and do it that way, and I tried that for like two days, well I tried it for a week I think maybe.



Wolfmother was the first band I’d ever been in, and I’d never met someone who I didn’t know and just start playing. It was kind of a really unusual experience. So I kind of just decided, after what happened with the band, I could be auditioning just to be polite, you know what I mean (laughs), to the people who organized it. But I felt at that point I just had to go back home and take it easy and work it out how I was gonna do it, and I just started recording songs. And a few people who helped out with the recordings like Dave [Atkins] did the drums, and then I just kind of felt well he’s doing a good job, might as well be in the bloody band (laughs).



So he was in the band, and then he had a friend who knew Ian [Peres], who’s the current bass and keyboard player, he came in and just started playing, yeah he was all over it, he could do it. It was kind of a bit of a shock to go home and sort of leave, not actively look for people, and then find people who were really good anyway. It was kind of bizarre but it worked out. Yeah, now that band sounds great, like it’s really cool. They’re tight and they’re putting everything they’ve got into it, and it sounds like a band.

You were always a trio, what made you decide that this was the right time to bring in a second guitarist and be a quartet?

For the album I played pretty much all the guitar. Just the live [performances]. I guess I just thought well, it’s a new lineup, let’s try something different, bring in another guitarist. It seems to be going well, you know? Those times when you do solos, or when you want to do harmonies and stuff, there’s another guitar to keep it pushing along.


When you made that first record, not a while lot of people had heard of you, no expectations. But now you’ve got all this attention with Woman, winning the Grammy, opening for famous bands and now this big fanbase of your own. So when you go to make Cosmic Egg, do you feel pressure to repeat that success?

To repeat the success? Not really. Of course I would like the record, for people to enjoy it. Anyone who says that they enjoy it, and they get it, they like it, then I appreciate that, you know, I’m glad that they do. For anything that happens in regard to this record, anything that we can do that’s positive, I totally enjoy it. As for success with the record, and I guess like how many units does it sell and does it chart, the real sort of comparative stuff, I guess that’s one way to judge it and that’s definitely one way to look at it in terms of the real meat and potatoes, what does this album mean. I can only hope that it does well. But I’m also just enjoying playing the music (laughs) and creating it.

You’ve opened for Pearl Jam, The Killers, is that as cool as it sounds like it would be, or is there any kind of a downside or negative side to that?

We’ve only ever supported, I think, two bands, two or three bands. We’ve never done a tour supporting a band. When we first started we supported a band in Australia called Regurgitator, then we supported The Black Keys in London for one gig at Shepherd’ Bush Empire Theater, and we supported Pearl Jam for three gigs. And that’s it. The rest of it have been our own shows or festivals where you’re on a bill. We’ve never been like “Let’s go on tour with a band and support them for a year or for a month or something.”



So yeah, supporting Pearl Jam, that was a really enjoyable time. Meeting Eddie Vedder, he made a huge impression on me, he’s a real cool guy. So all of our experiences supporting have been great. And their fans were great to play to, really responsive. So yeah, it’s good. You get to have the good life of a big band in a big venue, and kind of kick back and enjoy the treatment or the surrounds, the civilized stadium environment. It’s fun.

You’ve had a lot of success in Australia and in the United States. Is there one or the other that’s more important to you on a personal level?


Which one’s more important? Yeah right, as if I’m gonna answer that (laughs). No, of course not.


I was just trying to get you to piss off half your audience.


Exclude someone, exclude a million people. Everything means something. Australia means something cause that’s where I came from, and then America means something cause it’s such a huge place and it’s always a trip to be here, so that’s a trip as well.

Cosmic Egg is now available in iTunes. Learn more about Wolfmother at Wolfmother.com.