Bio We Are Wolves

We Are Wolves… Around since the tidal wave of electro/art/dance/punk broke at the beginning of the year 2000s, they’re the only ones left standing. The wolves are still on the prowl.

This is a band that have cut their teeth and have nothing left to prove. WRONG – the new album, soon to be released on fledgling Montreal label Fantôme Records – sees We Are Wolves wiping the slate clean, on the hunt for new musical prey. But between their raw beginnings reminiscent of Suicide and this, their more pop-oriented fifth album, there has been no lack of sweat, passion and aggression, lots of noise and, above all else, a whole load of fun.

Flashback: Non Stop Je te Plie en Deux, a kind of savage letter of introduction that knocked listeners off their feet, seduced hordes of punk fans addicted to the dustbin blues of Fat Possum. It was back in 2005 that WAW’s first album appeared on this most legendary of American record labels. The trio, made up of bassist and vocalist Alexander Ortiz, keyboardist Vincent Levesque – both visual arts students at the time – and percussionist Antonin Marquis, then went on to take North America and Europe by storm. The wolfpack toured non-stop, terrorizing small venues and artist lofts as well as huge international festivals such as Osheaga (Montreal), the Virgin Festival (Toronto), SXSW (Austin), the L.A. Weekly Detour Festival (L.A.), CMJ (New York), The Great Escape (UK), Dour Fest (Belgium), Eurockéennes and Le rock dans tous ses états (France). Sharing the stage with acts such as And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, The Gossip, Gorillaz, Muse, Indochine and Bloc Party, the band grabbed the attention of the rock press, from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork via Spin and pretty much all the cool media publications. The wolves’ mixture of electro-punk left no one indifferent.

Then it was back to the studio. After the hit single Fight and Kiss, We Are Wolves were at it again in 2007 with Total Magique, having switched to Montreal label Dare To Care, which also put out the follow-up Invisible Violence in 2009. Same story as before, WAW were lauded by the local and international press and their albums garnered a number of awards and widespread acclaim, confirming the trio’s notoriety on the international music scene. Once again they toured Canada, the USA and Europe.

In 2012 the pack of wolves divided: Antonin Marquis being replaced by ex-Polipe member Pierre-Luc Bégin. With touring over, the band headed back to the studio to record La Mort Pop Club, which was released in February 2013, also on Dare To Care. More tortured and disturbing than its predecessors – dark, shadowy post-punk mixed with an almost brutal minimalism, their fourth release yet again got the attention of the press both here and abroad and saw the band hit the road for another series of concerts.

A rumour began to spread that La Mort Pop Club would be the final We Are Wolves album. WRONG, which is due for release in the fall of 2016 on the enigmatic Montreal label Fantôme Records, proves those rumours to be exactly that… wrong.

WRONG. One word: short, sharp and cuts right to the chase – that even arouses a certain perplexed curiosity. With this, their first album to have an English title, the band unashamedly shows off its pop side, that until now we’ve had little more than a whiff of. Rock solid thanks to a flawless career spanning fifteen years, the band are more confident than ever and have been rewarded by a success that mocks their critics. WRONG is a fundamentally positive album that sees the Wolves explore new hunting grounds, revealing a more mature band very much at the height of its powers.