Do
I really need to do an introduction for this band. OK. Ladies and
Gentleman – Wo Fat!!
Wo
Fat have just released their incredible new Live Album - Live Juju:
Wo Fat at Freak Valley – It's one of the best live albums you will
hear in years. What else do you expect from one of the best Stoner
Metal bands currently out there.
Captured
at Freak Valley in 2014 when Wo Fat were tearing Europe apart with
their good friends and brothers in arms – Mothership – on the
mega-successful European Tour they called – The Texas Takeover
Tour.
Here
is what I said about the album:
“If
you’re already a fan of Wo Fat then Live JuJu: Wo Fat Live at Freak
Valley is a must have album to add to your Wo Fat collection. If
you’re a first time visitor to the world of Wo Fat then this is the
best place to start. The album sounds incredible from start to
finish, it really does. Did we expect anything less? We all know how
great Wo Fat records sound. Well this is no different. This is a must
have live album.”
You can read the interview I carried out last year with the guys here. Now
time for this interview:
Hi
guys, Thanks for doing this. How are things with you today?
Thanks
for asking us to do this. Things are going very well.
Before
we get started talking about your excellent new Live album. You had a
great year in 2014. Another critically acclaimed album with The
Conjuring. And a stunning European Tour with Mothership. Was that one
of your most successful years as a band?
It
was definitely our most successful year so far. The tour with
Mothership was killer. They’re good friends of ours and we were
really happy we could make that tour happen with them. All of the
shows were great and the fans really supported. It was our second
time to come to Europe and we were pleased that it surpassed our
first tour of Europe, in 2013, which was also very cool. We had
some more fans this time and were able to hit some places that we
didn’t go the first time around.
The
reception to The Conjuring has been awesome. We were thrilled to
make it on to a number of the year end best of lists and we got some
recognition in places that we didn’t necessarily expect, like
landing a spot on the NPR radio Top Ten Metal albums of 2014. NPR is
a very well known, nationally syndicated radio station in the US and
we were really surprised that we got noticed by somebody that’s
part of that at all. It felt pretty good and seems to be an
indicator that at some level, The Conjuring is reaching a wider
audience than we have previously reached.
What
were your personal highlights from 2014?
There
were a lot of highlights from the year. Getting to be a part of
Freak Valley was definitely one of the highlights. Not just playing,
but also getting to hang with a bunch of great people and watch a
bunch of great bands. We were only able to be there for one day,
but it was bad ass. We also had a couple of beers named after our
music. A brewer in Baltimore called Oliver Ales has brewed a couple
special batches of beer in tribute to us. One beer is a hopped up
black ale called the Black Code, which was mighty tasty and strong as
well and the other is a chipotle red ale called Noche del Chupacabra.
It
may not seem like a big deal, but to us, who are all big fans of good
beer, it is one of the coolest things we could think of – having a
beer named after your music. Pretty bitchin’. If you’re in the
Baltimore area sometime, go by the Pratt Street Ale House and they
might have one of the beers on tap.
It
was also cool to get to go to some places I’d never been before,
like the south of France and Spain and Poland. Getting to spend a
little more time in London this time was really nice.
That
European Tour you did with Mothership – The Texas Takeover – was
one of the best gigs in London I went to last year. I have spoken to
a lot of people across Europe and they all said the same thing. Did
the response from the European Fans surprise you in anyway? It seems
you got a heroes welcome everywhere you went.
First
off, thank you, man! I’m glad you had a great time at the London
show. We did too and it was great to hang a bit with you before the
show. But yeah, regarding the reception for the tour, although it
didn’t surprise us too much, it sure felt good. I knew that we
have some solid fans in Europe and we had expectations of having some
pretty good gigs, so it was nice to see that that was true and that
the fan base had grown some since our first time in Europe in 2013.
I also had a good feeling that Mothership would go over really well
in Europe, which they did.
They’ve
been touring monsters in the US and when they got invited to Freak
Valley, being friends of ours, we thought it would be cool to share
the experience together.
What
was your favourite gig from that tour and the reasons why?
In
some ways Freak Valley was the favourite, just because of what it was
and, like I mentioned earlier, to be a part of that super cool lineup
was awesome. But there were some other shows that were my favorites
for different reasons. Our Paris show was absolutely insane, which is
the second time Paris has rocked incredibly hard for us. The crowd
was just killin’ that night. It was early in the tour and I kind
of messed up my voice by just going for it too hard that night, which
negatively affected my singing the rest of the tour a little bit, but
that’s the price you pay sometimes when you’re in the moment and
we try to give it all we’ve got every show. It’s rock and roll
after all.
I
don’t know what it is about Paris, but both times we’ve been
there we’ve had, arguably, the most passionate crowds that we’ve
ever played for. We didn’t have a bad gig the whole tour really.
We met great people and had a good time everywhere we played.
The
last time we spoken you told me it was hard for you guys to tour
more regularly in USA due to factors such as cost. Have things
changed then. Do you think Wo Fat will ever do a more expansive tour
in the USA by visiting more cities where you haven’t played
before?
It’s
hard to say. We’ve done a handful of road gigs this last couple of
months with Mos Generator and on with Elder and they were all great
shows, but the reality is, that it’s harder for a band at our level
to cover just the basic expenses of being on the road in the US.
There are a couple of things that make it harder, one of which is the
distances that need to be travelled, especially out west, between
cities can be pretty far. Also, the venues/promoters here, in
general, don’t have the same philosophy or approach that
venues/promoters in Europe regarding touring bands.
It’s
a much less supportive attitude here and a lot of venues won’t do
much, if any, marketing or promoting on their own. They won’t book
similar local support acts to help the draw. A lot of times they
make you feel like they’re doing the band a favor by allowing them
to play in their trashy club rather than an attitude of working
together for a successful show. This isn’t true of every venue or
promoter, because there are some great people out there that are
putting together good shows because they love the music.
Also,
the US doesn’t seem to have the fan base that comes out to shows
and supports like Europe does, and I don’t know the answer to this.
Again, this isn’t true of everyone, because there are a lot of
hardcore fans of heavy music in the US that do support, but I know
that it can be really tough to play a Sunday or Monday night almost
anywhere in the US and count on enough of a crowd to make your
guarantee, whereas in Europe, there doesn’t seem to be that
problem.
I
do think, however, that there is a shift – maybe a sea change,
happening here in the US now, regarding heavy underground rock and
specifically stoner/doom/heavy psyche music. Just look at the lineup
for the Psycho California Festival that’s happening in May. It’s
a lineup that you would see at Roadburn or Desertfest. I’ve never
seen a lineup like that here in the US. There have been cool
festivals before, but not to that degree and also the fact that I
think it may be sold out, is very telling and I think possibly
indicative of things changing here.
All
that being said, though, there are a lot of bands touring in the US
and making it work, like Mothership and Elder for example. We could
probably make it work too, but we’ve also got some other factors in
play that limit our ability to tour, one of which is the fact that
the three of us run our own commercial recording studio together,
which is how we make our living, and we can’t be away too long or
the business will not survive, so because of this we try to be very
strategic about going out on the road.
Now
let’s start talking about your new album – Live JuJu – Wo Fat
at Freak Valley. It’s a stunning live album that manages to capture
the Wo Fat energy. What can people expect from the album?
The
album is a snapshot of an hour in time that happened at Freak Valley,
and I hope that people listening to the record will be able to pick
up on the special energy that was part of Freak Valley that day.
Did
you guys know before you performed the set at Freak Valley you would
be releasing it as a Live Album?
We
knew that the Freak Valley people were going to being doing a
multitrack recording of the set, so we figured that if it was a good
set, then we would probably release it. We’ve wanted to do a live
record for a while, so this turned out to be a perfect opportunity,
especially considering it was a high profile show that a lot of
people were at and it was being recorded for us.
Did
you record any other shows from the European Tour in case Freak
Valley performance didn’t turn out as you expected.
Haha!
We did luck into getting multitrack recordings of a couple other
shows from the tour because the sounds guys at a couple venues
recorded them and gave us the tracks. Originally we considered doing
an album that had some tracks from a few different gigs, but in the
end it just seemed cooler to keep it just the Freak Valley
performance. We might still use some of the other recordings for
something else in the future, though. Who knows…
It’s
a great setlist that you performed that day. As you picked the
standout songs from your last few albums. Was it a hard set to
choose especially if you’re performing to both new fans and
die-hard Wo Fat fans?
It
has gotten harder in some ways, to come up with set lists since our
catalog of songs has gotten to be pretty big over five albums,
especially for bigger gigs like this where, even though we want to
maybe focus more on new stuff, there also is an obligation to play
old songs too. We tried to include songs from a number of albums,
but we also always try to write a set list that flows well and that
can take you on a little journey. I’m still not exactly sure what I
think is best in terms of new versus old songs in the set list.
That
reminds me of seeing a show from a band that’s been around a while
and that I’ve seen a number of times that had just come out with a
new album but that focused more on playing older songs and only
played one or two from the new record, and to me, that was a big
disappointment. But by the same token, I know a lot of people want
to hear older songs from a band’s catalog, so it can be hard to
decide sometimes. Usually we just end up playing songs that we enjoy
playing.
Before
we did the tour we actually did jam on a lot of older tunes that we
hadn’t played in a long time and picked a few that we dug playing
again the most and that kind of fit with our current vibe the best.
Bayou Juju is a good example of that. We hadn’t played that song
in a couple years but it felt good to jam on it again. It’s got
good potential for craziness and whenever we play it, it’s just a
song that lives right on the edge. Like running on a tightrope. For
the most part, though, we play newer songs in our set list.
What
was the whole Freak Valley experience like? It sounds the audience
give you guys a great reception.
The
audience gave us a great reception. The whole day was awesome, from
the moment we arrived it was a busy day of hanging with people we
knew as well as meeting new people and doing radio interviews and
things like that and the whole time, trying to check out whatever
killer band was playing and also buying cool merch from the other
bands and trying not to spend too much money on records. Like I’ve
said, it was a pretty bitchin’ experience. And the whole day was
topped off by a kick ass set by Blues Pills, who I had never gotten
to see before.
Is
the Live Album the proper recording of what was performed that day?
Did you guys do any professional wizardry in the recording studio to
make the album sound better?
It
is a proper recording and documentation of what happened that day,
and you can hear that in my voice, which, like I said earlier, I had
kind of messed up in Paris, which was two nights before Freak Valley.
I tried to give it a really powerful mix to help impart the feeling
of being there. And no, we didn’t overdub anything.
Are
you fans of Live Albums in general? If so what are your favourite
ever Live Albums. My favourite Live Album is Thin Lizzy – Live And
Dangerous (Though I know it’s been overdubbed to heck. And is made
up of about 3 shows). Though your Live Album is one of the best I’ve
heard in years.
For
certain bands I definitely dig live albums. Probably one of my all
time favorite live albums is John Coltrane “Live at Birdland”.
It’s not a rock album but is still one extremely heavy record. I
also really love all of the live Hendrix recordings. When it comes
to Hendrix, I like the live stuff better than the studio recordings
because he stretches out and jams so much more. One live record that
I have been listening to a lot lately is Johnny Winter “Captured
Live”. Man, it just destroys. Side B with Highway 61 Revisited and
Sweet Papa John has maybe some of the best guitar soloing, especially
slide, ever.
Seriously.
Some more of my favorite live recordings would also probably be
Tommy Bolin with Energy “Live at Ebbet’s Field,” Live at
Tulagi” and the “Radio Broadcasts.” I’m a big Tommy Bolin
fan and I think that his best stuff was done with Energy. Speaking
of Tommy Bolin, I also dig the live Deep Purple from Long Beach with
Tommy playing. He sounds great and Ian Paice is killin’. I’m
not really interested in hearing a live album from bands that play
things exactly like the record. I like to hear the spontaneity and
“in-the-moment” stuff that happens when improvisation is part of
the equation and aesthetic of a band, which is why all I dig all of
these records so much.
That’s
the cool thing about a lot of the live records from the 70’s. So
many of the great heavy 70’s bands had that mentality of freedom
when it came to playing live.
You’re
releasing the Live Album on Vinyl which a lot of people have
pre-ordered already. Has the response from people buying the album
surprised you?
It
has surprised me a little because we’re almost sold out and had
actually sold most of the pressing in pre-sales and distribution
orders before the actual release date. It’s been great because we
decided to release this record ourselves so it was a big upfront cost
to press the vinyl and we weren’t exactly sure how well it would
go, but it’s been all we hoped for.
You’ve
included an extra song on the album with the Digital Download
version. Dark Snow. What a great track that is. When did you guys
write and record that track. Was it an easy decision to include that
track with the new Live Album?
All
along I kind of wanted to include a bonus track of some sort and last
November we were in the studio rehearsing and, as we always do when
we rehearse, we recorded it, and Dark Snow was just a jam we did that
night that turned out really cool. We thought about using another
live track from one of the other Europe shows, but I liked the idea
of giving people an entirely new song as a bonus so we decided to go
with the Dark Snow jam.
Some
people may not know this but you all own a recording studio where
you record many artists and bands dealing in a wide range of
different genres. How is the studio going at the moment and how much
time does it impact with your personal lives and your time with Wo
Fat.
Yes
we do. The studio is how we all make our living, so it is a full
time job for all of us, which, as I mentioned earlier, is partly why
we don’t spend a whole lot of time on the road. The studio, which
is called Crystal Clear Sound, is one of the oldest studios in Dallas
and I’ve actually worked there as an engineer for 17 years. A year
and a half ago, the opportunity arose for us to actually buy the
place, so we did. It’s going really well and it’s something
we’re very proud of.
We
take a very classic, analog approach to recording and we’ve got a
nice big tracking room as well as a bunch of great analog gear and an
absolutely killer vintage SSL analog console. It is something that
is very convenient to have when it comes to Wo Fat for sure. All of
our records have been recorded there and we have the luxury of having
a great rehearsal space, although sometimes our schedule as a band
gets put on hold depending on the schedule and what’s booked I the
studio.
What
does the next 12 months have in store for Wo Fat? Any new albums or
tours in the pipeline?
We
have some cool shows coming up in the next couple of months
stateside. We’re playing the Psycho California festival that I
mentioned earlier in May that will be pretty amazing. I’m looking
forward to seeing Sleep play, among a whole list of other bad ass
bands.
We’re
also getting to play the art opening for David Paul Seymour Rock and
Roll Art Show in New York in June. David did the art for Live Juju
and we’ve become friends and as well as mutual fans of each other’s
work, so we’re honored to be a part of that.
We
will be doing a short European tour on August. This one will only be
a handful of days and I apologize in advance to our fans for not
being able to be in Europe longer. We’ll be playing the Sylak Open
Air Festival in France as part of that tour on August 8.
We
have also just begun writing new songs for a new album that we hope
to release spring 2016 and we are planning a longer European tour to
coincide with that.
Well
guys thanks for doing this. Do you have anything to say to your
fans?
I
would just like to say thanks to everyone that has supported us on
this journey and also that support underground rock/metal in general.
Keep Rock alive! And thank you, too, Steve, for all that you do to
further the cause of this music that we love.
Thanks
Guys and thanks for doing the interview. Right folks - Live Juju: Wo
Fat at Freak Valley – is available to buy now.
Words
by Steve Howe and Wo Fat
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