DareWolf – Interview

Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (http://petesrocknewsandviews.com)

PD:  How would you describe yourself or your band as an artist? 

Darewolf: Sexy, profane, and humorous. We are a band of brothers and friends talking about mythical battles, beasts and girls while wearing tight leather pants, denim and having amazing hair.

PD: Can you tell us briefly about your background – i.e. where you’re from, how you came to make music, etc.

Darewolf: We come all the way from a city in northern Portugal. All three of the founding members grew up together in a catholic school (how unmetal of us) which was great for education, but severely lacking in rock ‘n’ roll. We did, however, have a deep passion for rock and got together to listen to Metallica, Manowar and Maiden while pretending we studied. Compelled by the power of the thunder and the steel, we ended up us forming a band to rebel, rock ‘n’ roll and get some chicks in the meantime. 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

PD: Who and what inspires you to make music, both in terms of musical and other influences? What do you like to write about in your songs?

Darewolf: Everything!

Although our heart’s fires blaze for the love of Hardrock and Heavy Metal, we are also great fans of classical music and opera, and some electronic music too, and are fascinated by soundtracks and movie scores, as well as many kinds of traditional and folklore music, among other things. In the end we try to condense everything in a concentrated dose of awesomeness. We are influenced by fantasy, mythology and sci-fi whether it’s books, movies, or videogames, we are influenced by nature and stuff we see in day-to-day basis.

PD: What are your aspirations as an artist?

Darewolf: As artists we simply want to touch as many people as possible. We want people to have fun listening to our songs and take them on a journey. It’s the reason why we play songs about a whole lot of different topics. Economically speaking, we just want to make a living by playing good old rock n roll.

PD: What is the proudest moment in your music career so far?

How acclaimed the new album is getting. It was named in the top 3 best metal albums from Portugal on the past year, by one of the most renowned blogs on the genre in the country, Vianoturna, and seeing people enjoying and embracing our work has been… gratifying. It’s one thing when your mom tells you you’re good, it’s something altogether different when you see numbers of people who do not know you personally genuinely appreciate what you have created.

PD: Promoting one’s music is such a challenge these days, especially with so many new artists emerging from bedrooms in the day of the home studio. How is that going?

Hard. We were recording the album before the pandemic hit. Since our country was “closed” for almost 2 years, we couldn’t play live, we couldn’t properly record our songs… it was hard. Home studios are a good alternative but we wanted the “real deal”. We are finally ready to properly tour again and promote our work in the best way to feel rock and metal. Live music with loud guitars and a lot of people jumping up and down.

PD: And how do you book and promote your live shows and tours? Any performances coming up?

We are currently planning a small tour of our country and then going on a European tour playing everywhere we can. We are still an independent band so we are doing it all in a DIY fashion. We are currently in talks with a record label so things will become more streamlined in the near future.

PD: What do you think about downloading music online? What about streaming sites like Spotify?

As a customer, I love being able to be able to choose any band or genre to listen to and have pretty much everything available at the tip of my fingers for free, or almost free. However, I think the fact people are getting used to consuming music for free is leading to a decrease in overall quality of the art itself. I think when people had to spend 20 bucks for an album, they would choose something that had to be good so it would be worthwhile, nowadays the general audience is less demanding of “quality” and more into instant gratification.

PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?

Stairway to heaven – I think it is one of the best songs ever written, it has everything I love in a song. It has great progression throughout, great lyrics, great playing, it starts slow and then ends with a great shot of adrenaline after the solo. It’s just magnificent. That or baby shark seeing as it is the most played song ever.

PD: Is there anything you don’t like about the music industry, which you would change if you could?

I dislike the way the entire industry is built on the back of the artists yet most of the earnings do not belong to them. I know companies have a lot of importance but I think the distribution is severely off balance. This might push a lot of new artists who might otherwise have been unbelievably talented and creative into pursuing another course, which does a disservice to the world of music itself.

PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?

We are rerecording a few parts of our album to properly release it through Wormhole Death label. We will then embark on a tour to promote and we are already writing our next full album.

PD: Where can we learn more about you and buy your music/merch online? 

We are on bandcamp where we have some merch and our CDs. You can contact us through our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/darewolftheband/?locale=pt_PT or Instagram through https://www.instagram.com/wolfkingbay/

DareWolf links:
Band/Artist location – Portugal
Facebook – You Tube – Bandcamp – Merch – 
Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer –
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