Interview: Salem Wolves on creating ‘Hostile Music’ for a hostile world
Listen to the fiery lead single and title track from the Boston psychotronic heathens' forthcoming EP
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Album art by Scafarella
OUT NOW: Listen to ‘Hostile Music’
Salem Wolves’ new EP ‘Hostile Music’ arrives this spring
“‘Hostile Music’ is as direct a statement of purpose as you can find. We make hostile music for a hostile world. The world is as vicious as it’s ever been and we’re all barely keeping up. So this is us announcing our renewal, our focused aggression.” _Gray Bouchard
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INNSMOUTH, MA [January 19, 2022] -- One of the great dichotomies of modern life is our urgency to move forward at a time when we have no idea where we are going. The impact of the past two years, on every human level, cannot be understated, but what’s perhaps more terrifying about where we’ve been is the lack of understanding of where we’re headed. It’s created a tightness to the right here, right now, and the tension it’s creating throughout society is becoming increasingly hostile. Salem Wolves have captured that paranoia and agitation through their ferocious new record Hostile Music, with its title track crashing the streams to a massive reception, including its debut on SiriusXM.
The five-song EP, set for release this spring after a monthly rollout of singles (the fiery “Hostile Music” this month; psych-rock tumbler “We Aren’t Your Friends” in February; and the haunting “Breaking Grounds” in March, completed by live versions of Wolves classics “Titanium” and “Turn to Gold”), center around the people we’ve changed into, and the myriad ways that isolation and fear can change and distort a person. The feeling rings through in true psychotronic fury for the New England quartet, with their first new music since last year’s 617Sessions with the Boston Music Awards (“Paraffin”), where they were nominated for Rock Act of the Year. They didn’t win, but these days, few do.
The Hostile Music EP finds Salem Wolves at a fully-realized state. Following the release of last year’s Never Die!!! EP, and their 2018 debut album Shake, Bouchard reloaded the Wolves lineup in late 2021 to feature drummer Don Schweihofer, bassist Justin Tisdale, and guitarist Sam Valliere. He calls it a more ferocious and versatile lineup, with the basic core of Salem Wolves – loud, emotionally urgent music – still intact. This is still a band that writes the songs that they want to hear, but there’s a deeper, more complex craftsmanship and arrangement to Bouchard’s primal slash-and-burn tendencies, as if they’ve abandoned the suburban garage for an urban military bunker. And that rings true in the Hostile Music EP’s title track, perhaps the band’s most incendiary work to date.
We caught up with Bouchard to get the word on this new single, the new EP, and the reloaded and recharged Salem Wolves.
publi*sist: What is Hostile Music?
Gray Bouchard: Hostile Music is about the feeling of hostility that’s all around us right now, trying to explore and unpack what it feels like to live constantly under siege by a toxic culture and society. “Hostility” is probably the behavior I’ve struggled with the most in my life, especially the past few years – people being hostile to me, me being mean right back. “Hostility” isn’t rage, it isn’t righteousness, it isn’t indignation – it’s distrust. It’s not a particularly useful feeling – hostility doesn’t change the world, it can’t make anything better. It’s a behavior that separates us.
I felt compelled to write about the feeling of hostility, from within and from outside, to give a form to that sense things aren’t getting better and we simply can’t keep it up like this. We’ve never been much of a kumbaya, ‘everybody get together, love one another’ kind of group, but I do think if we can give it a name, we can try and fight it. Writing it is exorcizing that demon as well as reflecting the dark place we’re at now.
How does “Hostile Music”, the song, reflect or address our lives in 2022?
With so much of our lives lived in isolation these days, it’s easy to breed hostility. When all we have is a screen to look at the lives and thoughts of others, that little window doesn’t allow for much humanity to shine through. We judge folks harshly. We set up walls against people and behaviors we find unsavory. Maybe there’s some wisdom and self-care in that, but the feeling of anger and distrust against someone itself is toxic. It eats away at you. The song is a wake-up call: We can’t live in this state of hostility all the time.
How does this song reflect where Salem Wolves are right now?
The song represents a more fully-realized Salem Wolves. We’ve always been drawn to exploring complicated, unsavory characters and feelings. Both the music and the ideas of “Hostile Music” evoke that: We’re not here to save the world, we’re here to reflect it – unflattering angles and all. The song is dark and desperate, but also a soaring plea to come together. We know we’re not alone in feeling crushed under the weight of hostility, so we’re hoping this song gives some relief to the folks who feel like us, something they can sing along to, to know the world doesn’t need to be so lonely.
How does it fit into the EP overall?
“Hostile Music” kicks off the EP and we always knew it would be the leadoff. It has that driving, insistent thing to it, like trying to white knuckle down an icy hill (in case you didn't know, we’re New England drivers). It really sets the mood of the EP – dark, desperate, more than a little paranoid.
How would you say Salem Wolves' songwriting has evolved over the years?
In some ways, our songwriting is the way it's always been: Write the songs we’d want to hear, songs we’d want to sing along with. I think over the years we’ve gotten better at that, more in control of the stories we want to tell and how we tell them. Before it felt like we were always closing our eyes, slashing at the canvas with a paintbrush, and we’d be lucky to come out with something compelling. That kind of process is fresh and exciting in its own right, but these days we’ve got the power and know-how to craft things a little more, really dig into an idea. And it shows – this EP has some of the most exciting songs and arrangements we’ve ever done.
How does this new lineup enhance the band's sound and impact?
The band is more ferocious and versatile than it's ever been. Sam, Justin, and Don are all amazing musical thinkers when it comes to writing and arranging. The basic core of Salem Wolves is still loud, emotionally urgent music. But with this crew, we’re pulling in different influences and styles, so the songs and performance is more dialed in.
Can rock and roll change the world? And more importantly, does it even want to?
Sometimes I don’t even think people can change the world – even with all our best intentions, greed and indifference tend to win out. The best music of any genre can do is allow us to connect with each other, to communicate across the barriers that tend to set us against each other. Music can bring folks together, change minds and hearts, make us a little less indifferent towards suffering. That doesn’t belong to rock and roll – it belongs to people who are brave enough to be vulnerable and make emotionally earnest music. It doesn’t matter what genre, it doesn’t matter what instruments you use: If what you’re doing comes from an emotionally real place, it can connect people. And that’s more important than ever.
Contact michael@publisist.co or salemwolves@gmail.com for more information.
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Salem Wolves are:
Gray Bouchard: Vocals and Guitar
Don Schweihofer: Drums and vocals
Justin Tisdale: Bass
Sam Valliere: Guitar
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Hostile Music credits:
Recorded with Erik Von Geldern at Berlin Audio Productions
Mixed and mastered by Jay Maas
Album art by Scafarella
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Salem Wolves press photo :
Photo Credit: Erin Patton
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Media praise for Salem Wolves:
“Amidst a flurry of riffage that creates an incessant buzzsaw-churning wall of sound sits Salem Wolves’ vocalist Gray Bouchard whose delicate delivery against the brash bombast is just the kind of cathartic contrast the Boston Rawk quartet need to deliver their most hard-hitting and hook-laden track yet.” _Rock & Roll Fables
“Hostile Music for hostile people” _1st 3 Magazine
“There are two wolves inside you. One wants to tear through town on a hate-fueled rampage. The other wants to chill the eff out and listen to the cautionary wisdom of ‘Hostile Music.’” _Vanyaland
“[T]he song's title is indicative of the fast and furious nature of the sound, which dabbles in the early ‘00s emo-rock pool to give the song some flare and pizazz that makes the song a fast mover… An outstanding effort that has the potential to be one of the most enduring releases of the year.” _Music Box Pete
“Salem Wolves certainly get after it on their new track ‘Hostile Music’ which is a combination of something that starts off sounding like a classic Billy Idol song and breaks into a big early 2000’s emo era chorus in the vein of My Chemical Romance or The Used. The vocals come off more masculine though and have a great rough edge to them.” _Blood Makes Noise
"‘Hostile Music’ is still that arena rock ready garage rock that we know and love, but the band has injected a tiny bit of metal into their sound… ‘Hostile Music’ is one of the heaviest and oddly pleasant songs to come from Salem Wolves to date!” _If It’s Too Loud
“Salem Wolves… add some punk fury to the darkness. What begins as a quiet, mutative track blooms into a rampaging rock ’n’ roll rave-up [‘Titanium’]. Ugh, we need club shows to return and Salem Wolves to headline them so we pump our fists and shout, ‘Cold as titanium.’” _Boston Herald
“Massachusetts-based psychotronic rock band Salem Wolves pull out three exclamation marks!!! on the title track from their new EP. A great sound -- I just ‘discovered’ this band, but they have apparently been tearing up around New England for some time.” _Ear2TheGround
"Salem Wolves bring a mix of garage-y noise, distorted witchy psych sounds, and pop sensibilities to life on Black Books. The more I hear it, the catchier it gets... Trashy garage pop at its demented best." _Anngelle Wood, WZLX
“Once the force of 'Titanium' picks up, the best you can do is hold on for dear life... It's a huge, slick, loud, and heavy rock song." _If It’s Too Loud
"Salem Wolves are here to summon out your inner ache for rugged, and damned riffs that ride out into a thousand sunsets.” _Impose Magazine
“That rumbling heard off in the distance is Salem Wolves. Debut EP ‘Black Books’ [is] a garage-pop and surf-rock mixer that puts a fresh spin on tested sounds... a gritty, hip-shaking number that tumbles along to the imagined sights of a bonfire beach party” _Vanyaland
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Press contact: michael@publisist.co or gray.bouchard@gmail.com
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