Raised by Wolves

MELBOURNE PUNK ROCK QUARTET RAISED BY WOLVES CHATS TO LUKE HUDSON ABOUT RECORDING THEIR STUNNING DEBUT ALBUM EQUALITY AND WORKING WITH VENERATED PUNK-ROCK PRODUCER BILL STEVENSON.

“It all came about very quickly, actually,” singer and guitarist Jesse Pidgeon explains. “We initially started with five or six songs and then after cementing the line up wrote the rest of the record over the space of a couple of months. We recorded the entire album before ever having played live which can sometimes be quite risky. Getting a response from an audience is often your best critic, but in this case we knew exactly what we wanted to do and how to achieve it.
“On the album, we deal with everything from euthanasia to drug addiction. I wouldn’t say there’s any recurring theme but we definitely touch on a few subject more than once. We did all the actual recording and tracking here in Melbourne with JT and Adam Cole of Melbourne band Bugdust and then sent all the masters over to Bill Stevenson (Black Flag, Rise Against Anti-Flag) and Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room in Colorado. It was amazing to work with such a world class producer. It all happened so quickly, also. One minute we were talking to Bill via email, the next minute he’d mixed the album. It was very cool.”
Pidgeon says the band, formed midway through 2008, have an eclectic taste in music that brings a creative dynamic to the composition of their songs.
“Michael, our bassist, has an unbelievable knack for sourcing great bands that I’ve never even heard of, so for me to cite his influences is quite difficult,” he explains. “I suppose Don Caballero and Secret Chiefs 3 would have to be some of the more well known. As for me, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the single most inspirational band to be Farside. Our guitarist Jimmy’s musical taste is super broad ranging from the classics such as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden plus some more modern stuff ranging from The Bronx through to The Presets and Daft Punk. This in itself provides a killer dynamic which I think adds a real spice to the band. I’m always very pleased with what Jimmy brings to the table.”
WHO: Raised By Wolves
WHAT: Equality (Metric/Shock)
WHERE & WHEN: Punkfest at The Jubilee Hotel Saturday April 4 - Time Off

OWEN MORAWITZ talks with RAISED BY WOLVES frontman JESSE PIDGEON about how the band managed to aggravate the online music overlords at MySpace and take the Aussie scene by the balls with their melodic blend of punk rock.
What is the definition of punk? Is it ripped denim and badge adorned vests? Is it a four foot mohawk used in conjunction with a not so subtly raised middle finger? Well, according to Jesse Pidgeon, lead singer for Melbourne punk four piece Raised By Wolves, you can’t get more ‘punk’ than pissing off a massive, online establishment like MySpace and copping an email serve from some guy called Tom. "MySpace got really angry with us. There’s another band called Raised By Wolves in Vancouver, Canada who are actually defunct now. I only found out that they existed about six months after I chose the name. Anyway, I got in contact with them and asked them if they would like to sell us their MySpace URL, so that way we would have just the ‘.com/raisedbywolves’ as our name. The guys were heaps keen because they weren’t using it anymore but I tried to do the right thing and tell MySpace and they just slammed us."
With only a year under their collective belts as a complete unit, Raised By Wolves seem to have attracted more than their fair share of attention. Having already started the recording process for their debut album, Equality, before they’d even played their first show ensured that the band was always going to be prepared for the unexpected. "We’ve only really played about 20 shows, and we started recording the album before we’d even played our first gig," explains Jesse. "So that was a little strange, starting out as a ‘studio’ band. It was a bit risky because you always change things once you play live. But I had a heap of songs ready to go and we originally started out as a three piece. I was doing guitar/vocals and then we had a bass player and the drummer. We probably wrote about 10 songs together. We then tried out a few second guitar players and then started recording once we found our second guitarist."
With a sound that walks a familiar path next to seminal Australian punk acts like Blueline Medic, Mid Youth Crisis and One Inch Punch, Raised By Wolves are part of a new breed of Aussie rock acts; willing to do the hard yards, write catchy tunes and more importantly, put some weight behind their words. "We all had a pretty firm idea of the direction we wanted to go. We’ve all been in bands before. We’re just out to play the songs that we enjoy and have a good time live," he says. "Lyrically, I try to focus on whatever I’m interested or passionate about. For me that’s never really been about girls or relationships. I tend to write more about the stuff that matters to me like politics, family troubles and general day-to-day things. For instance, our first single off the album, Fightback, is written about capital punishment, which is an issue that I feel very strongly about. Punk can be a lot deeper than it first appears on the surface."
RAISED BY WOLVES play Punkfest at the Jubilee Hotel on Saturday Apr 4, alongside The Go Set, Mouthguard, Spitfireliar and Perhaps Maybe?!? EQUALITY is out now through Metric/Shock Records. Check out www.myspace.com/raisedbywolvesrock for more information. - Rave Magazine

Band of the week - Raised by Wolves

Melbourne four-piece punk act Raised By Wolves get the nod this week.

Playing a style of melodic punk/rock that shares similarities with bands like Samiam, Bodyjar and Mid Youth Crisis, Raised By Wolves are launching their debut full-length "Equality" throughout April and June.

Mixed and mastered by the legendary Bill Stevenson (if I need to list his accolades then you need to do your homework), "Equality" is a gritty affair that is sure to please fans of the aforementioned bands.

Check the guys out at www.raisedbywolves.com - www.killyourstereo.com

RAISED BY WOLVES – Equality
(Metric/Shock Records)
Who Goes There?: Another quartet of Melbournian punk-rockers with a fondness for the more melodic side of the force.
How Goes it?: With not even 12 months as a band under their belt, Equality is an incredible achievement for such a young group. Filled with catchy riffs and massive choruses delivered distinctively in a gruff manner to compliment the distorted essence of the tracks, Raised By Wolves are sitting on a sleeper of an album which is not only musically engaging enough to appeal to the punk crowd, but also has a commercial appeal allowing an easy transfer from indie to advertisements. Bravo!
Sounds Like: Gyroscope / Kiai Academy / Lock & Key
**** - Rave Magazine

With a sound that sits in the centre of modern rock’s genre pool, Raised by Wolves have the potential to be many things to many people. They have the energy of pop punk, the emotion of post-hardcore, the big riffs of melodic rock and classic rock guitar solos aplenty. But far from sounding confused or disjointed, their style mashing gives them a strong identity. Recorded in their hometown of Melbourne by long-time Living End associate JT and Bugdust guitarist Adam Cole, Equality was mixed in the States by the dream team of Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore, and mastered by Alan Douches. The result is a world-class debut, and a solid launching pad to a bright future.
-Arlo Stecyk - Blunt Magazine