SEASONS OF THE WOLF…Classic Metal Dudes !
1. Hallo, would you like to talk us about the past and present of the band?
Skully / SOTW – Yes indeed. Well this October we will celebrate our 20th year.
It all started in October 1988 for SOTW.
Lots of good times in the past and more good times coming. Lots more recordings and more shows. We hope to be coming finally to Europe soon.
2. You remain loyal to your horror & fantasy lyrics,any special eason for this?
Skully / SOTW – We get enough real life news from CNN blasted in our face everyday.
There is plenty of music out there covering it to. So, we tend to enjoy taking everyone’s mind away from all that for a while. Although we do sneak in some real life inspired lyrics here and there. Mostly we enjoy writing of Myths, Legends, Metaphysical, Horror and Sci-fi topics.
We touch on a bit of history too.
3. When are we going to expect a new album from the band?
Skully / SOTW – We are working on full-length album number 5 right now and hope to have it released by early 2009. This is only 12 months from now.
It took us a while to get the current one out, so we want to make up for it on the next one.
We are also going to try and release a all instrumental SOTW album this fall 2008. It is specifically geared towards the horror sci-fi film industry
4. What about your live appearances, would you like to reveal your plans?
Skully / SOTW – That is up in air most of the time for us. The economy is bad right now in the USA. Also live entertaiment venues and promotors are in a state of confusion. There are too many musicians willing to play shows for nothing. That makes it hard for other bands to make a living and be able to reinvest.
5. How hard is to be self independent in your music productions all these years?
Skully / SOTW – Yeah it is a rough way to go doing all things ourself. But its a lot tougher when you get ripped off by everyone else in the industry and they never get anything done they say they will do. So, for that reason we have remained self sufficiant all these years. As I mentioned before it is hard to make enough to re-invest.
6. What’s your goals as a musician and as a band?
Skully / SOTW – Over the next 10 years we intend on having a catalog of at least a dozen albums or more. We sure do have enough material old and new that has not been recorded and produced yet. We have also been working on a 90 minute SOTW History DVD complete with 12 music videos, backstage fun footage, and indiviual band member intrviews from past and present. And while all this is going on we are certain to get involved in scoring music for a few more films.
7. Are you still involved in horror soundtracks? Let us know how did you involve in this action and what are your future plans regarding cinema?
Skully / SOTW – We got invovled by suggestion from a few of our friends and fans that thought our music would be great film soundtracks. So, back in 2001 a good supporter by the name of Torch sent us a few contacts. We sent out music and got some responce. One led to another and now we have been involved musically in 8 films. It is a excellent way to expose SOTW to more people. It has helped us sell CD’s to people in that industry that may have never found us by other means. For that reason we are making the all instrumental release specifically geared to film industry. We are certain a few of our regular headbangin fans will enjoy it as well. Something a little different – but still very much SOTW.
8. How are you experiensing the change of music biz these days with peer to peer software, ringtones, the “Radiohead case study”, etc ?
Skully / SOTW – I think the “RadioHead thing” was more of a experiment than a case study. And it sure made a “newsworthy stunt” hahaha!
CD sales are not as good for a lot of EX-major label artists. But, some of that is being made up for in digital sales. As long as the music is getting out there we really do not care. Independent music seems to be doing just fine though. There is over-saturation of music everywhere. There are some other things to complain about in the industry but it is not worth losing sleep over. 🙂
On a positive side – There is a recent trend happening for collectors of Vinyl. Yeah – thats right VINYL.
So, we are now licensing all our albums to be re-released on Vinyl by a company in Germany known as Pure Steel Records. The first SOTW album should be getting re-released with a couple bonus tracks later this summer.
So – it is obvious that in the music industry there are no set rules and no one can predict anything. Anything can happen. It all comes down to if “people like it” and get “behind it with money” to push it further along.
9. What’s the feedback from mainstream and underground media about your music?
Skully / SOTW – From all the resources we send out to in the hardrock / metal music industry we get great reviews and responce from both magaiznes and radio.
Every now and then we get someone that just plain dose not like our sound or style for whatever taste they have. You can’t please everyone. hahaha! And we surely never have tried and really don’t give a shit. First thing is – if we like it. Then if others like it too that is cool! The new album “Once In A Blue Moon” we sent out the first 100 copies for reviews. 97 liked it, 3 did not like it. We can live with those odds. 🙂
10. Did you even have any interest from labels abou releasing your work?
Skully / SOTW – Back in the early 90’s we sent out lots of requested material to large record labels. That is back when there were more than 3 record labels! hahaha!
None of them were that interested in us then so we just decided to do it all ourselves.
Damned if we were going to wait for anyone else. Most of the smaller labels out there probably figure they can’t do anymore for us than we are doing for ourselves. And if that is the case then we would not want to work with them any way.
Things are changing now though. As I mentioned before we have a good working relationship started with Pure Steel Records in Germany. They will be re-releasing all our albums on Vinyl with bonus tracks over the next couple years. And they have already mentioned they have a desire to release our next new full-length studio album on CD and Vinyl. There has been talk of some tour support to bring us over to Europe for several festivals in 2009. So, things are looking pretty good for this pack of wolves to run in new territoy.
Thanks again to you Billy for the interview opportunity in your Syklight. We apprecaite the years of support. Hopefully someday in the future we will get to play in Greece.
Anyone interested in SOTW can check us out at www.myspace.com/seasonsofthewolf
That seems to have become a good place to connect with fans. Take care. Orna Verum!
