Editor’s Note: It was honestly one of my favorite interviews that I have conducted with this four piece band out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. To Speak Of Wolves, who have released “Dead In The Shadow” via Solid State Records was getting ready to provide direct support for He Is Legend and Islander at the Amsterdam Bar & Music Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota and I have found this band to be incredibly endearing and extremely down to earth when it comes to their craft. In this interview, so many topics were discussed, well you will just have to read it. Visit To Speak Of Wolves at the following social media locations: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Without further delay, here is my conversation with To Speak Of Wolves.
M.T.C.: Thanks for taking the time to interview me, what’s going on today?
Gage(vocalist): I’m Gage, and I’m just hanging out today.
M.T.C.: What do you like doing while you’re hanging out?
Gage: I like to read a little bit, I love coffee and I love Starbucks.
M.T.C.: What do you like to read?
Gage: I like to read books by Al Andrews, he’s this therapist that I really like.
M.T.C.: What does he talk about in his books?
Gage: Well, he’s my therapist so he talks about my life, which is good, there’s a lot of mental health stuff to process through in order to navigate through life.
M.T.C.: How critical do you think it is to have that conversation especially with the passing of Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington?
Gage: I think its super critical actually, it’s important not just for artists but for everybody, everyone has had some sort of trauma, it’s good to talk about it and talk it out and not letting it fester.
M.T.C.: You guys are on the Hot Like Sauce tour with He Is Legend and Islander, what’s your favorite hot sauce or spice to put on your food?
Gage: I haven’t really done any hot sauces. He Is Legend has and they’ll order a smorgasbord and they’ll have all of these hot sauces.
Drew(tour manager): There is this hot sauce called “The End” and it’s six million scoville units. The guy that sold it to us, gave us a waiver that they have to sign, we got it as a tour present for them.
Gage: It’s a big deal, I couldn’t do it.
Drew: I’m going to watch them do it.
M.T.C.: July 21st, To Speak Of Wolves released “Dead In The Shadow”, tell us about that record, just whatever comes to mind.
Gage: I say that “Dead In The Shadow” is dark and it talks a lot about the current things that people have to deal with, it’s that and it’s heavy and fun.
M.T.C.: Give me an example of a couple of topics that this record touches on.
Gage: Depression, child molestation, questioning things, it gets pretty deep.
M.T.C.: You all recently released the single and music video to “Enemies To Everyone” take us in that song and video.
Gage: It’s dealing with depression and isolation. It also deals with vices, it deals with being on my phone too much or being like the devil before I wake up and have my coffee.
Drew: When he wakes up, whether we’re in a Wal-Mart parking lot, he’s like, “find me the nearest Starbucks”.
Gage: As soon as I have the first few sips of that coffee, the horns, the tail and the pitchfork disappear *laughs*, there’s that along with isolation and bad habits, it’s almost like trying to self-destruct.
“Enemies To Everyone” by To Speak Of Wolves
M.T.C.: Do you notice the cell phone addiction at concerts? Let’s say I’m in the middle of the crowd while you’re performing and I’m Facebooking and texting the whole time, how do you react?
Gage: It used to really bother me, it’s like I’m up here performing my art and you are on here on your phone, now I just don’t care, it’s like, “if that’s what you want to do, you paid money to be here and you just wanna sit there on your phone, cool”, if that’s how you want to experience this, awesome, but for me being on stage is very therapeutic and if I’m too busy figuring out what everyone else is doing, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve gotten more confident on stage.
M.T.C.: Do you feel that’s how you’ve grown as a vocalist?
Gage: Definitely, along with also seeing other bands, you kind of take stuff from every band that you tour with and kind of mold it and create your own monster, I think being on the road and being around good dudes and good people, along with my band pushing me to be a better vocalist.
M.T.C.: To Speak Of Wolves has also released the lyric video for “Haunt Me”, take us into that song, I gather that it’s really about how insignificant we can be in the grand scheme of things.
Gage: I like that! That song is talking about the cracking of the seams before the whole foundation falls, what we were lacking was a good foundation, we gained what we were lacking in fraility, to me it’s about how you had a shot to rebuild this thing and you chose not to, it’s about that lack of attention and affection that it needed, then it just continues to break away.
“Haunt Me” To Speak Of Wolves
M.T.C.: Give us a day in the life of the recording process for To Speak Of Wolves, in particular for the “Dead In The Shadow” record.
Gage: A bit of whiskey flowed a bit. But I will lock myself away in a room and I read Psalms 88 over and over again in the morning. It’s two Psalms in the Bible that speak of hopelessness and despair, it was one of them that says, “darkness is my only friend”, I read that and looked at a picture of man that jumped out of the Twin Towers on 9/11 and then I read people’s suicide notes, I drank my coffee, wrote my lyrics, and when the lyrics were done, and if I wasn’t crying when I finished reading the lyrics, I would tear them up and start all over, and rewrite like that. I would go in and track the vocals, I’m really weird when I track vocals, I just want it to be me and the producer, so when I needed help with counting, I would call Andrew, and I would ask Andrew what to do and he would say, “try this, this, and this”.
*Andrew Gaultier, guitarist of To Speak Of Wolves, joins us for the interview*
M.T.C.: Nice to meet you Andrew, in terms of your guitaring, what are some influences that you draw from in your playing or on “Dead In The Shadow”?
Andrew: Honestly, my favorite guitar player is Brad Paisley from country music. I try to add a little bit of country flavor to my playing, to where I notice it but some people might not notice it, I think it’s cool because I have a few metal bands that I like to listen to these days, but I don’t get completely immersed in metal these days.
M.T.C.: Fun question, in your contract, you have to do a song with a country music artist, who do you pick and what would the song title be?
Gage: Hank III.
Andrew: Definitely, Hank III.
Gage: Hank III and the song title would be “Sons of the Blood Fountain”, that just sounds cool.
Andrew: Rattlesnakes and Sons of the Blood Fountain.
Gage: When we perform that song, we go backstage and have these huge-ass rattlesnakes.
Andrew: We will have this loud rattle coming out through the PA.
M.T.C.: One reason why we should see To Speak Of Wolves in concert.
Gage: We’re fun!
Andrew: We’re gentle on the eyes.
Gage: We just like to go up there and have fun. Call people out for being on their phone.
M.T.C.: Did you used to do that a lot?
Gage: We used to do that pretty regularly. I would go through their contacts find “Mom” on their phone, hit send, and be screaming into their phone.
Andrew: Do you remember that one time in the pit where the kid was trying to tell us that he was having a conversation with his dad?
M.T.C.: Compare To Speak Of Wolves to a planet or something from outer space.
Andrew: That’s actually one of the coolest questions that I have ever heard, I would say that water planet from “Interstellar”, where that tidal wave happens, that’s how I would describe it. I also like thinking of Mercury because its so cold and yet its so hot.
*Seth Webster, bassist of To Speak Of Wolves, walks into the interview.
M.T.C.: What’s the plans for the rest of the year for the band?
Gage: Our plans for the rest of the year, we got a couple of festivals that we are doing and we’re going out to Germany in December.
M.T.C.: Have you all played in Europe before?
Gage: We haven’t but Seth has.
Seth: I have with the two previous bands I was in, which was Spoken and Upon A Burning Body.
M.T.C.: You know Juan Hinojosa, he’s a friend of mine, he was in Upon A Burning Body.
Seth: I know PBiddy! What’s he doing now?
M.T.C.: Drumming in Shaping The Legacy.
Seth: He’s still in San Antonio, that’s what I do know. He hit me up when he started with that band, he didn’t know at the time that I moved to Nashville, he’s a good drummer! He’s hysterical.
M.T.C.: What was playing in Europe like?
Seth: The first time was amazing because we were with As I Lay Dying and Trivium, they were co-headliners and we opened, so we had a blast every day, we’ve never been to any of those places. We did U.K., we did Germany and all of these strange little stops like Finland, and we went all the way to Austria and down into Spain, I was getting to do stuff that I thought I would never get to do, and with Spoken, it was little bit more interesting because we were doing a combination of an EMD/punk rock tour, so that was fun.
M.T.C.: What’s the one thing the band is looking forward to in Europe?
Andrew: Just looking forward to being there, I’m a history buff.
Gage: We’re really big on views, if there is some scenery with a beautiful view, we always pull over and take some pictures and try to take it in for a minute, then back in the van we go.
Andrew: It’s kind of fun with him being that way, because before it was kind of split when we had guys who just wanted to get where we are going, but he’s so enthusiastic, it’s really rubbed off on us. Going through Yellowstone Park was really fun, getting out every couple of miles. Mount St. Helens in Washington is awesome too.
Gage: The two sister mountains up there are incredible.
Seth: It’s absolutely fun to see all the architecture, the plant life, and stuff like that as well.
M.T.C.: Any last word because I know that you have to get ready for the show tonight.
Gage: You can find us on all of the socials, just type in “to speak of wolves”, thanks to the fans for buying the new record and for singing along to the songs every night we play.
M.T.C.: Thank you for taking the time out for us!
Gage: Thank you man, we do appreciate it!
And there you have it! Go pick up a copy of “Dead In The Shadow” via Solid State Records wherever music is sold! Special thanks to Amy and the tour manager for orchestrating this interview! For more information about the band and the album, click here.
