Wolves In The Throne Room | Interview

In a music industry that loves to categorise and pigeonhole artists, Wolves In The Throne Room are in a rather unique situation. It could be said they hold no place in any of the existing sub-genres of alternative music. They’re a band that plays black metal, but does not see itself as a black metal band, which has resulted in many calling WITTR art house hipsters, with no understanding of - or connection to - the true meaning of black metal.

Yet these people seem to have missed the point. Anyone who was lucky enough to witness there two recent Irish dates (sorry Belfast) will be able to pay testament to the devastatingly heavy, and atmospheric performances that they delivered.

The band themselves don’t care how they are classed, and perhaps any malcontents would be better off taking WITTR at face value rather than trying to tease out their exact philosophical viewpoints on the blacker side of life.

Brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver have helped to create WITTR’s reputation as an iconoclastic and even enigmatic musical creation.

Having just released their latest album ‘Celestial Lineage’ on Southern Lord, and currently on a touring cycle that will bring them into 2012, you’d think that the brothers from Olympia, Washington could have the underground at their feet.

So their decision then to call it a day with WITTR to explore other areas of personal development and fulfilment runs contrary to what many would have expected.
Eoin Foley was able to catch up with Aaron shortly before they played in Whelan’s on Wexford Street in central Dublin - where he tried to get a few answers.

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How did the show in Limerick go, and did you get a good response from the crowd?

Aaron Weaver : “Yeah we had a great time, it’s hard as I can’t see the audience, and the way the lights are set up on stage makes it like looking into a formless void. Nathan and Cody can see a bit more because they are up in front but I am behind a drum set and it is always a bit of a mystery to me what the crowd response is.”

A lot of your fellow countrymen and women claim to have some sort of genetic link to this island. Do you and your brother have a similar lineage?

AW: “Well Nathan and I had a grandparent that was Irish. It was funny as we were in Limerick in a restaurant near to where her family were from and all the old women looked exactly like my Grandma, it is interesting to see, I remember my Grandmother really clearly she was the Grandparent I was closest with and she was really in to being Irish, and so I really identify with that Irish heritage. “

What exactly happened in your failed attempt to play in Belfast?

AW: “The promoter just completely dropped the ball he just didn’t do the show, we showed up and there was a guy who came down who just happened to know the promoter and he told us the promoter isn’t’ coming tonight, he didn’t promote the show, you are not going to get paid and the venue doesn’t even know that you are supposed to be here.”

“It was really bizarre because it has never happened to us before in 10 years of being a band or 15 years of touring, it was quite shocking. We went to look for the guy and he was trying to pass the buck, he sent an email to our booking agent saying that the guy who came down to the venue was actually in charge of the show and that we should talk to him about it. I can’t believe he took it on to begin with if he wasn’t able to pull it together.”

How do you and the band feel about it now?

AW: “We don’t like to get to wrapped up in bullshit and drama, a lot of bands live for scene politics, like who are you friends with and who are your enemies, music is extremely important to us but it is the music that is important to us we don’t give a shit about any scene or any inter-personal stuff that is just not on our radar.

What has been the reaction of your family and friends on the decision to call it a day with WITTR?

AW: “Well it is not the end of the band it is just the end of a phase. We have been doing it in this certain way with this certain set of goals and a certain mindset and a certain spirit for a long time.
And it is defiantly the time in my life and in Nathan’s life to push ourselves in a new direction , because it is so easy to just say in the same rut doing the same thing over and over again and not progressing musically or as people.

How would define the style of music that you play and did you intentionally set out to play black metal?

AW: “Nothing has been deliberate at all, we never really wanted to be a black metal band. We wanted to draw on aspects of black metal but it has always been really important to us to do something that feels very authentic to us.

The thing that I like about black metal is that it is music that rises up from the soil of a place it literally comes from the landscape, and you can hear that in those great Scandinavian bands, it very much sounds like the fjords and the snow and ice and the endless winter and these sort of clique’s, but it’s very true it is music that echoes the occult reality of Scandinavia.

And that is what we wanted to do, we wanted to make music that encapsulates and draws inspiration from the very specific energies of where we live.”

You have previously mentioned that you are deliberately taking a very geographical approach to music is this another example of this?

AW: “Absolutely that is a very important aspect of black metal is being very geographical based and very connected to a specific place. And it has always been a part of our overall life philosophy, because we are people that hate the modern world. We hate everything about it, we hate the idea that individual cultures and individual languages in specific places is all being washed away in favour of a global mono culture and we just want to do everything we can to not be a part of it.”

In regards to your musical output to date do you have a favourite Wolves album?

AW: “The new one is defiantly my favourite album and it is defiantly our best one, and you know with every record that we put out people say it’s not as good as the previous one and that happens every single time and then a year later they say it is the best one. And I think the new record has been really well received. But everyone has their favourites and it is usually the older stuff that is closer to their hearts”

Some people find listening to your music quite a cathartic experience is this something you also experience?

AW: “I would never listen to it, once it is recorded it’s done and it’s off into the world, and it is up to other people to do with it what they want, but we do get those sort of feelings from playing it and sometimes it can be really intense.”

What do you think collaborating with people like Aaron Turner and Jessica Kenney add to your collective voice?

AW: “Aaron contributed a bit but he didn’t really do anything he was just a friend who came by the studio for a bit and helped out, but Jessica is a serious collaborator and her energy and her musicality is just totally crucial to the last record and everything we have done with her previously. She is such a unique person and has such a strong voice and a strong spirit attached to it.

She is a world class musician and she is Professor at a university and teaches Persian classical music. But she has this crazy background as kind of street punk she used to live in a shack for a long time and was homeless all because she is into freedom, and forging her own path and being totally unconcerned with what she is supposed to be doing and that is something I really resonate with as well.”

What sort of lifestyle do you currently lead?
AW: “Well we have our home and our farm and I am married, I don’t drink anymore, and I have a very stable life, but it is totally off the wall. It is very stable but it just has nothing to do with the mainstream.”

What is the immediate plan for after WITTR?

AW: “Well the first thing I am going to do, is I am going to build a big house, I will spend about a year on it ,and during that year I will have got reconnected to home and got out of the cycle of being in the studio and touring which is a totally different mind space.

And after that I will figure it out as things come, I don’t know how long we are going to take a break for we are totally leaving it open, I ran into Randall Dunne who has produced our last three records when were on tour in the States, and he is really excited to do another record and we are really excited to do another record , and we have the inspiration to do it so it is just a matter of knowing when it makes sense to do it.

Perhaps a year from now we will start working on some new music, probably collaborating with Jessica as well, and doing something that is maybe less of the metal and more of the orchestral and the psychedelic and the spaced out drone those are the sounds that I am really excited about for the future.”

- Interview by Eoin Foley ::: 09/11/11