Wolfmother - On the prowl

Rolling Stone marked them as one of the “10 Bands to Watch” in early 2006 – “An Aussie trio comes bearing monster riffs” the influential music magazine proclaimed. Now, for these three boys hailing from Sydney, perhaps they finally have a moment to stop and take stock of where they are at.

“Everything happened really organically – 20 people to 20,000... everything happened naturally... five years hanging out jamming... we don't have anything to prove to anyone....practice makes perfect,” says one third of the band, Chris Ross (bass and keys).

Last year was big for Wolfmother. Their self titled debut album, released in Australia in October 2005, debuted in the charts at number 3, and quickly reached platinum status twice over.

The album was recorded in the legendary studio, Sound City, in San Francisco Valley, Los Angeles. The studio's walls bear witness to the creation of albums like Nirvana's 'Nevermind', Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumours' and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers' 'One Hot Minute'.

In late 2005, the band won the 'Album Of The Year' award from national radio station Triple J.

“That was fantastic... oh yeah it's cool... I grew up listening to Triple J... Must have been a panel of people - music lovers... to know that they came to an agreement – recognition from people who know what it's like,” he says.

Now 2006, sees their album released to the masses in the US and UK, with Wolfmother currently bringing it live to the stages in the US and Canada.

In April, Wolfmother played at Coachella in Indio, California, playing in the company of Depeche Mode, Daft Punk and Franz Ferdinand.

“It was awesome... was done really well... Everything has its good and its bad aspects... for us it was all well organised, clean, there was a signing tent, manicured lawns, very LA in that way which is a good and a bad thing... still cool,” Ross says.

What did Wolfmother get up to whilst at the two day festival in the desert? “We got to see Daft Punk – they had an amazing light show, robot costumes, a huge audience... and the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs.... hung out with Infusion.”

Wolfmother recently appeared on Letterman. “Everything is going really well (in the US). Heaps of people coming down and going crazy (at Letterman),” Ross says.

“It was pretty weird... all day sitting around for a 3 minute performance. He came up after we performed and shook our hands...”

The band also played the post-show party for the MTV Movie Awards earlier this month in Los Angeles, which was captured by the cameras. “That was pretty cool.... felt like a TV circus... already so over the top, we decided to go all out. We gradually took them out of the tv geed-up,” Ross says.

Wolfmothers 'Love Train' features in a new advertisement for Apple's Ipod and at a recent gig, Chris heard a crowd member refer to the song as “the Ipod song”!

The awards continue for this talented trio, winning APRA's 2006 'Breakthrough Songwriting Award' which Chris described as “great” and “not at all expected”.

Next up for the trio are a string of festivals in Europe - Southside and Hurriance Festivals in Germany, St Gallen Festival in Switzerland, Rock Wertchter in Belguim, Roskilde Festival in Denmark, Quart Festival in Norway, Oxygen in Ireland – then the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan and Lollapoloza in Chicago's Grant Park.

They return home to Australia in July for a number of shows, including Splendour in the Grass at Byron Bay before returning to the US. “Were going to come home for 2 minutes... We should have our own airline!,” he says.

When I ask Chris about whether he is missing home, he replies “Yeah... desperately... I am looking forward to beers in the backyard... and a good coffee... No where in the world makes coffee like Australia!”

Wolfmother are set to support international acts the Flaming Lips and Sonic Youth in early August, then Pearl Jam in the Netherlands and Belgium.

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