FEATURED INTERVIEW: COLLIN WOLF OF SMOULDER!

Smoulder have been making waves touring Europe over 2023 promoting their latest piece of smouldering heavy metal “Violent Creed of Vengeance.” Guitarist Collin Wolf reflects on what has been a very busy year for the band!

Earlier this year I caught Smoulder on their first European tour while I was visiting Bratislava! Not only did I catch the bands electrifying performance but I had a great chat with guitarist Collin Wolf up on the deck of the Pink Whale. And now we are at the end of the year and I thought it would be a great time to catch up with Collin to discover more about how he joined the band, see how the European tour went and reflect on 2023!

So Collin it Is a pleasure talking to you. How have the holidays been for you?

Collin: Hey Robert! The holidays have been pretty busy for me, but good! I’ve actually got two weeks off work now for the holidays so now that Christmas is over I can relax a bit!

I bet it feels good to be able to relax now? What does a typical Christmas look like for you?

Collin: Yeah my week leading up to Christmas was pretty nuts! I work at an elementary school (Kindergarten through 2nd grade) as an aide, and the kids were wild leading up to winter break haha!

Christmas for me usually involves going to my parent’s house here in town and seeing some family (my sister, and my uncle’s family), and going over to my partner Sydney’s family’s home for another Christmas. She has a 10 year old son so he’s always excited for the multiple Christmases ha!

Your job sounds really rewarding, It must bring a big smile to your face! And catching up with family over the festive period is always great. But it can be a bit crazy when you have a lot of family members?

Collin: It definitely gets hectic! Lots of places to go and people to see, but it’s all worth it to get together with our families. However i am looking forward to not having much to do over the next two weeks haha!

So looking back over 2023 how has your year been? There has been a lot going on for you!

Collin: Man 2023 has been a great year for me! The couple years leading up to it were pretty rough (went through a divorce, the pandemic and everything that came with that, deaths in the family, mental health issues etc), but things have really turned around for me this year! I got engaged to my wonderful partner, got to travel to Europe twice with Smoulder, released a great album, and started a new music project that I’m very excited about!

Life throws a lot our way and sometimes not the best things. But we go on and eventually happiness finds us again. It really does sound like a lot of great things have happened to you! Congratulations on the engagement, that must feel amazing! And it sounds like music has kept your 2023 pretty full?

Collin: Yes! Between Smoulder and my other bands it’s been real busy musically which is definitely how I prefer it haha!

I’m currently deep into working on a new project that I started back in the spring, but is going through sort of a rebirth/rebranding that I’m very excited about and can’t wait to folks. I think overall 2023 really reignited the fire for me to play guitar

So let’s talk about Smoulder! Before we dig in to the things that have been going on with the band, it would be great to know how you joined the band!

Collin: So Kevin (our drummer) and I joined the project that was Smoulder back in 2016 (I think!). I had met Sarah watching Pagan Altar at Maryland Deathfest 2013 and had met Vincent a few times through his old bands Gatekrashor and Hrom playing in Chicago at Ragnarokkr festival. When Cirith Ungol first reunited at the second Frost and Fire in Ventura, I had noticed that Sarah and Vincent were looking for people to split a room with. Some friends of mine and I were looking to do the same and reached out to them. We immediately bonded over our love of doom and epic metal and this is where I was first showed some primitive recordings of what would become the first Smoulder songs!

We became fast friends and started contemplating music together. After Sarah and Vincent moved to Toronto, they came down for the first Legions of Metal in Chicago and we all stayed together again. Here they met my drummer from my doom band Olorin and we quickly decided that we should definitely make a project together. That quickly morphed into us joining on with Smoulder! Soon afterwards Sarah and Vincent came down from Toronto to my hometown in rural Illinois to record our demo. The chemistry was great and has led us to where we are today

Wow what an awesome story! It sounds like everything came together really smoothly? It always seems music somehow brings people together! Did the distance between your prove to be a challenge to begin with when you were crafting those first songs?

Collin: Distance has always been a challenge as we don’t get the experience of jamming and writing in the same room. But we’ve made it work somehow! To be honest a lot of the songs on the first record were pretty much written by us previously with some minor edits.

Do you remember what the first songs you guys wrote together? And looking back do you feel that the music and band has developed a lot since then ?

Collin: Illian of Garathorm, Bastard Steel, and Shadowy Sisterhood on the first album come to mind. Kevin and I came in with the music for Ilian and Bastard Steel but didn’t really have much lyrics, vocal melodies, or even a lyrical concept (in the case of Ilian). So having their (Sarah and Vincent’s) additions made the songs the way they are now.

As our development as a band. I’d definitely say we’ve come quite a long way since we first put it all together. We’ve all become immensely better musicians and writers since then. We’ve become much more intentional and conceptually-minded with our songwriting and album craft. For Violent Creed of Vengeance we wrote a lot more than ended up on the album, only choosing the tracks that we were unanimously 100% sure on.

And it is great to see that some of those early songs are still in the set lists today?

Collin: Oh yeah they’re still a blast to play!

Let’s move forward to the latest album “Violent Creed of Vengeance.” From looking at the news feeds on line it seems to be popping up in many top albums of the year lists! How does that feel?

Collin: It’s really amazing! I’m very proud of the album and would be just the same without the acclaim it’s received. But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t an incredible feeling! I’m just thankful for all the positive feedback it’s getting as we really put our hearts into this one.

It deserves its praise! It’s a great album and has loads of killer tracks that old and new fans are going to love! So what can you tell us about the album? When did the writing sessions begin for the record?

Collin: I guess writing started in earnest in 2021 we’re writing all the time), but in 2021 we started consciously putting things together with an album in mind.

Do you remember the first song that was penned for the album? And where did the inspiration for it come from ?

Collin: I honestly don’t know haha. However I guess if we want to get technical that would be Spellforger; it was the first song Kevin and I ever wrote together back when we were in college! Just so happened to work for the album!

Oh wow that is awesome! I presume the version that is on the album is a later version of the one initially wrote ?

Collin: Beyond the vocal melody and the solos it’s pretty much exactly the same honestly.Even most of the lyrics came from back then I believe!

So how did the band decide on the direction of the album? Did you all have a clear idea on what themes you wanted the album to explore?

Collin: Yeah, all the songs we were writing turned up the complexity and intensity from the first album. We were definitely approaching it from a more visceral perspective, with Sarah’s lyrics though very referential to fantasy and Sci-fi having a much more personal and emotional touch. Coming off of the pandemic and the international rise of far right politics definitely impacted the whole of the album.

You can definitely see how the music you guys have created with the new album has evolved since the early days of the band! And as one of the guitarists in the band how do you feel you have evolved especially on this album?

Collin: Between the two albums I definitely had to step up my playing, and honestly since we recorded last year I’ve gotten even better! The album coming out like it did really reignited the fire that I have for the instrument!

It always feels great when you find that creative spark after a long period of struggle. And listening to tracks like “The Talisman and the Blade” you can certainly feel that fire burning!

So Michael Whelan created the killer artwork for the album which I feel is one of your best so far! I’m really intrigued to know what the artwork represents and if it is connected to any of the tracks on the album in particular?

Collin: It’s not really in reference to any track in particular though I personally think that it conjures the title track the most. Warrior women brandishing steel against their foes!

Warrior women brandishing steel against their foes grabs your attention straight away that is for sure!

So finally before we move on, are there any tracks you would highlight to old and new fans? Any personal favourites?

Collin: I’m a really big fan personally of Path of Witchery. Definitely one of the sleepers on the album and one of the hardest to nail down haha (a 5/8 thrash song is quite challenging hahaha). It’s also about the Dune universe which I’m kind of obsessed with and I think the song does a great job of capturing the atmosphere of that series. Plus there just needs to be more Dune metal out there! Also Victims of Fate cause that song just fu*kin slaps hahaha!

Great choices, “Path of Witchery” is certainly a beast of a track and “Victims of Fate.” Dune metal in all fairness would be pretty awesome? Maybe that could be something for your new project as well?

Collin: Well this new project isn’t exactly metal haha. Definitely metal adjacent but more heavy rock. We’re taking a lot of cues from Thin Lizzy, Zeppelin, early Pentagram, Sir Lord Baltimore, Budgie, The Obsessed etc

Sometimes it can be good to break away from the music you love and explore other areas of music! It certainly helps to develop your skills as a musician!

Collin: Definitely and this is kind of the music I grew up on so it’s a natural fit!

Where do you see your new project going next year? Will we all get to hear some of it?

Collin: Hopefully some cool gigs and an album! I’ve got a great feeling about it. And definitely yes, new demo coming out soon!

Now finally I would like to look back at 2023 and talk about your first ever European tour! What made you decide it was time to go on tour and pretty much organise the whole things by your self?

Collin: Well it kinda all materialised when we got booked for Storm Crusher and Black Forest Festival. We got hooked up with Doomstar booking and were able to come up with a tour. It was great for us, something I’ve always dreamed of doing for sure!

It must have been pretty nerve racking! From what I understand you were sharing driving duties throughout countries?

Collin: Yeah Tatu (our Finnish live drummer) and I handled all the driving. I honestly enjoyed it. I found it relaxing, got to see a lot of Central Europe that I might have missed otherwise!

The band members live in different locations! How did you coordinate everything to make the tour work?

Collin: Adam and I both flew in to Helsinki a week before the tour to rehearse. I had to take some time off of my job to make it happen but my boss was very understanding so there wasn’t any problems there.

Our drummer Kevin couldn’t make the tour as him and his wife had just welcomed a new baby right before the tour was set to start. I think one of the biggest challenges was finding the right drummer to fill his shoes which Tatu did amazingly!

I saw tatu do an amazing job in Bratislava! The whole show was full of energy! How did you put together the setlist considering you have so many fan favourite songs?

Collin: The set lists for this tour were really mostly based around making sure we made it through all the dates with Sarah’s voice intact

We made sure to include something from every release and keep the fan favourites!

I could see that! Watching her perform, I witnessed how she put her all in to her performance! At times she looked like she was in a trance!

Collin: Definitely, she’s a force onstage

Joining you on tour were some killer support bands. Sadly Tower who I hoped to see left the tour before Bratislava! What was it like to play with these bands?

Collin: It was great! Tower is a force to be reckoned with live! So much energy and very tight playing. Great tour mates too! Definitely catch them live if you get the opportunity. We played with so many great bands on the tour. Some of the big highlights for me personally were Anatomia in Kiel, Metallus jn Warsaw, Fvneral Fvkk at Storm Crusher, Flame Dear Flame in Kassel, Goat Explosion in Weimar, and Trespasser at Black Forest Fest.

So apart from the amazing bands you played with what have been the highlights from the tour? Did you learn anything along the way or visited a country that you ended up having a real connection with?

Collin: Just getting to play heavy metal in Europe is a dream come true for me. Never thought it would get this far! I have a huge affinity for travel and experiencing culture throughout the world so for me it was doubly amazing. As for favourite places, Bratislava was probably my number one! We had a night off before the gig there so we rented a nice apartment in the old city and were able to explore a bunch. The city is absolutely gorgeous and fascinating, and I can’t wait to return!

Weimar was also a big highlight, we played in the cellar of a tower in the city’s old fortress to a sold out crowd so that was amazing! Also the city itself was gorgeous!

So now you have been out on tour and conquered Europe, what is next for 2024? A UK tour maybe? Or are you keeping things more local for a while?

Collin: I’d absolutely love to come to the UK (and i think that might be in the works…), but not much set in stone yet beyond Hell over Hammaburg and Steel Held High fest in February.

So before I finish up this interview with a few last questions, do you have anything else you would like to share about the album or tour?

Collin: I’m just thankful that we got to do both the tour and the album. Definitely a lifetime goal of mine! I really just want to thank our fans all over the world for making this whole thing possible!

So the biggest question is what is next for Smoulder in 2024? Do you guys have anything planned?

Collin: Coming up in February we have Steel Held High festival in Braunschweig and Hell Over Hammaburg. Other than that not too much set in stone yet, but lots of things in the works!

Well thank you so much for this really great interview! We can not wait to see what is in store for Smoulder!

Where can fans grab your music and merchandise?

Collin: Thank you Robert! It was a pleasure chatting with you again, hopefully we’ll see each other soon!

Our Bandcamp page has all our merch if fans want to grab something. Our first album Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring was just recently reissued on pink vinyl, so get them while you can!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SmoulderDoom

Anything else you would like to mention ?

Collin: Cheers and thanks! Hoping that everyone has a great new year!

(December 2023)