John Boecklin - Bad Wolves 'We Just Can't Help Ourselves from Writing A Lot of Different Styles'
It was back in August when Bad Wolves fans were rewarded with the news that the four-piece would be releasing their new album Die About It. The album comes after the band released Dear Monsters in 2021, and a cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s track ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ in October of last year.Ahead of Die About It releasing on Friday, we scored a chat with drummer Joe Boecklin to discuss the release, genre and touring.So I was listening to the record last night ahead of our chat, and I really enjoyed the juxtaposition between the softness of the intro, before ‘Bad Friend’ kicks in and just hits you in the face.Yeah, it’s kind of, we didn’t plan it that way, but musically it metaphorically speaks to getting stabbed in the back. You didn’t see it coming. About the album, it’s got a lot of different flavours. I think ‘NDA’, ‘Hungry For Life’, ‘Die About It’, those are some standout tracks for me personally. There’s a saxophone solo, stuff like that. Songs like ‘Set You On Fire’ remind me of The 1975. Then you have a song like ‘Move On’ which reminds me of Bury Your Dead. We just can’t help ourselves from writing a lot of different styles you know? I think that writing so many different styles is definitely a positive thing though, right?Correct! It’s also much more accepted now than it was before. We love our heavy metal, and we come from metal bands. Some people say and have for years ‘metal is metal’. Kind of like that Pantera attitude “We’ll stay heavy the whole time”. That’s kind of faded away these days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWISoFoSMywDo you think for Bad Wolves in particular, genre isn’t really something you think about when you’re songwriting?No, certainly don’t. I never think like ‘I need to do a song that’s like alt-rock, or I need to do a song that a hip hop kid would like’. It’s just what I listen to, what excites me then how it turns out is how it turns out. Especially this record. We had the last amount of thought of direction with this record.It’s quite a long album. 13 songs, 12 without the intro. A lot of people are doing 9/10 track records nowadays.I’d have to agree with you, but I got outvoted on that! [We shared a laugh before I added] So you think it’s too many songs?Yes! I mean, they’re all great songs but I just don’t think people listen to a body of work the way they used to. It’s not an argument, I just think it should be a 10 track record at the most but the band disagreed.Well, not to put you on the spot or anything, but is there any songs that you think shouldn’t be on the record then?No, that’s what I meant. That was part of the problem, seeing what songs should or shouldn’t be on it if you want a 10 track record. I can easily dispose of things, and there’s certain songs that I can’t dispose of so other members would say well songs that you can’t live without are songs that I can live without. So it’s a bit like well what are we gonna do? Are there more songs that you guys wrote during this process that didn’t make the record, and you’re a bit like well maybe we can make a B-Sides type deal.Oh yeah, tons of songs like that! There’s probably 10 songs, maybe, there’s a lot of instrumentals that never got touched with vocals, there’s songs that will be part of probably a re-release, like a deluxe edition that aren’t on the album right now. There’s more to come. Do you think that with streaming services, you can do that without people questioning why you’re putting out even more songs after you’ve just released an album?You can overwhelm people, but a band like Bad Wolves, that’s a hard question to answer. At some point, too much is too much. You can’t release a song a day for 365 days, you’re gonna end up, you’re losing people’s attention because it comes not special. But also underplay is leaving people wanting more is the smart thing. I don’t think anyone would have a problem if we released 15 songs in a year, rather than 13. With the way people consume music nowadays, like you said, people don’t listen to music the same way they used to. People tend to just listen to their Spotify on shuffle, they don’t necessarily put a CD into their car stereo. Well, I do, but I’m old school!I don’t think I’ve seen a CD in a car in over a decade. I know what you mean. Even then, it’s just so easy to click over to a different band and a different song. We’re pretty aware that the way the consumer is consuming is always modifying. It’s a process to change a CD, rather than just a click of a button. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pc7rTZejF4Do you have a favourite song on Die About It? I know some people say that’s like being asked to pick your favourite child.Yeah, ‘Hungry For Life’ is my favourite. That’s what I was gonna say!Oh cool, I think for us we broke some new ground with it. It’s got an emotional delivery to it that we’ve never done before. I think it sounds kinda like you’re on a safari in a jungle almost. It’s got a swing to it, and the lyrics are about fear of dying, fair of getting old, fear of becoming irrelevant, getting worried about your checklist of accomplishments that don’t seem to be as much as you had hoped when you get to a certain age. That’s why those lyrics ‘where are all my trophies in life?’, ‘Why is my tombstone blank?’, stuff like that are like, how did I end up here? For someone of my age, I’m a middle age man right now, that connects with me, and trying to figure out how to turn that switch back on to become kind of the thoughtless killer that you were at 20 years old. Where you don’t even think about what you’re doing and you’re just doing it and what’s full energy and full passion. You don’t want to become the sleeping dog. Was it written lyrics or instrumentals first?That’s a song that Seth Evans, myself, and Max (Karon, former rhythm guitarist), kinda of, Seth did a lot of the creative side of that. We, the lyrics were somewhat there then me and Seth finalised them. It was more music than lyrics. You guys do tend to put out music quite regularly though, right?We released a cover song, ‘Mama I’m Coming Home’ last year which we recorded on tour with a ll of our laptops. Programmed drums and stuff, then mixed it, stopped in Vegas to record vocals. But yes, we do pump out music quite often. Does that mean that when you do go into the studio you’ve already got a fair bit of material written that you want to work on, or do you start from scratch?You always think that the songs that were good that you didn’t get around to you’d start with, but it never ever feels fresh. You never like, day 1, how would I put it, it’s like you can date anybody in the world but you’re gonna try your ex-girlfriend one more time. It’s kinda like, it never feels right so you never do it, and then you end up just having old songs that never make the cut. There is one song that I’m still hoping makes it because it is fully done, but usually we start fresh. I think that’s the best analogy I’ve ever heard for songwriting, ‘you always go back to your ex-girlfriend’. Thank you for that one!You’re welcome!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iKEZ0CXcZQI talked to Doc (Coyle, guitar, backing vocals) last year about you guys touring Australia and it still hasn’t happened.It hasn’t! For a multitude of reasons. It didn’t happen on Dear Monsters, and before that there was a member change, and some other member changes. It’s just sad to say that the last time we were there was with Nickleback in 2019. Our agents are aware and we are making it a point to try and hit all the international markets on this cycle. It’s in the works, but no solid plans yet. I love it in Australia, I’ve been there so many times!I think the great thing about Australia is that I don’t want to say we’re deprived, but when there’s such a big gap between bands coming out we turn up.That’s what I hope it is. I’ve been coming there for years, the first time I think was ’05, ’06 with Fear Factory and I did all the, well, not all but quite a few of the Soundwaves, did quite a few headlining tours and yeah, seems like I’ve been there so many times I can’t remember.That’s never a bad thing though!No, and I was always delighted every time except for that plane flight. It’s a great crowd and people love their music there and I dunno, I feel a special bond, bonds the wrong word, I feel right at home while I’m there. That’s what I’m trying to say.Who would be your dream lineup on an Australian tour with you?Oh, bring with us? White Reaper, I’d love to bring with us. It’s really hard because a lot of the bands that are in our genre, or around our genre are as big or bigger so I don’t think they;d come out and support us. Maybe we’d open for them, Papa Roach is a band I always love to tour with, Shinedown, who else. I’d love to go out with Bad Omens. I don’t know how we would fit with them, Spiritbox, those bands are a little less rock radio than we are, but in general. I feel like Bad Wolves, Bad Omens and Spiritbox would be a sick tour.I feel like that would be quite a big one. I don’t know who’d be headlining that one!You could always take it in turns, rotate every show!Yeah right?
[wpadcenter_ad id=170783 align='center']
As always, I finished up our interview by asking John is there is any last words he has for Australian Bad Wolves fans.I’m sorry we haven’t been there since 2019, we are going to come back on this album cycle. We are very proud of our record, November 3rd it comes out. It’s pretty diverse and not just run of the mill rock record. We look forward to hearing some feedback and what the people over there think about it. We worked our asses off on it, just because you worked your ass off doesn’t mean people are gonna like it, but I think people will be pleasantly surprised and enjoy it! Thank you so much for your time, John!Interview by Kelsey Trevan (@kelsey_139)
Die About It is out this Friday November 3rd via Better Noise Music.Pre-order it here.
Bad Wolves – Die About It tracklisting
1. Bad Friend2. Die About It3. Savior4. Hungry For Life5. Legends Never Die6. NDA7. Move On8. Masquerade9. Say It Again10. It’s You (2 Months) feat. KILLBOY11. Turn It Down12. Set You On Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nguJezI6Dos
