Refining The Formula – Salem Wolves Dish on Band Growth, New Projects and a BIG Announcement

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Salem Wolves is one of those bands we’ve been watching out of the corner of our eye. Kicking off the year with their dirty, reverb-saturated garage music featured on the 4-song EP 'Black Books' (MegaHex Records), the band has developed their sound at an accelerated pace with the premier of two additional tracks this summer. Their second single release “Teenage Wonder” (follow up to July’s “More Weight”) pulls in influences from doo-wop and soul while staying true to their lo-fi foundation.

"We think being a singles band in 2015 is evolutionarily the best thing for most bands. [But] as for pitfalls, I think it changes the way you write and possibly weeds out some more challenging ideas you might come up with."

"It’s hard to say if we're "progressing", but I do think we're refining the formula," Gray Salem (vox/guitar) tells Bishop & Rook. "Recording 'Black Books' was just such a different experience than recording the last two singles and the mood was overall different. These were both written and recorded in the spring and came from a more joyful, optimistic place; versus 'Black Books' that was written and recorded in a more "winter of our discontent" mode and definitely has a real dark, grimy vibe."

Getting on board with the recent trend to record and release singles rather than a full album, the band told Impose Magazine earlier this month "...we realized that (for merch/biz as well as aesthetic reasons) we wanted to be a singles band." While there are benefits and potential pitfalls of not releasing an EP or full-length, we wanted to get Salem Wolves' full perspective on the move. "We think being a singles band in 2015 is evolutionarily the best thing for most bands," Salem elaborates. "For us, especially, since we tend to focus on writing song-by-song versus for a larger concept or record. From an aesthetic perspective, it allows you to be light and quick on your feet and pivot as you need to. We like a variety of different kinds of songs and it allows us to put songs out when we feel like they're ready. It allows for more continuity and puts our work into a larger narrative (i.e. "this is what Salem Wolves was in October of 2015"). From a business perspective, if you're self-financed and self-releasing (which we are) it's just cheaper and easier. From a culture perspective, it makes sense because things are very content driven these days and the buzz cycle is short. People expect you to be pumping out new content on a regular basis and there's not a huge premium put on sitting with a more long-form piece and digesting it for awhile. Besides, singles are all that the band has the attention-span for anyway. I've always been a "songs over albums" kinda guy, hooks over a jam. As for pitfalls, I think it changes the way you write and possibly weeds out some more challenging ideas you might come up with. As as much as I like to think I enjoy concise statements, I do miss the "album" experience. Sometimes that 6th or 7th song on a record is something a little different or something that only works in the context of a flow and you don't get that from a single or even a series of singles."

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Sticking with the idea, the band plans to return to Hanging Horse Studio in Norwood, MA for a live-in-studio session to record the rest of their unreleased material. Look for those sessions to filter out slowly over the coming months. "We also have a BIG announcement for November that we can't talk about yet, but it involves us expanding into a unique (and prominent) interactive opportunity to better enjoy Salem Wolves. That's all I can say, under penalty of torture."

You can catch Salem Wolves tomorrow, Thursday, August 27th at Great Scott with Lee Preston & The Ghetto Buddhas and Today Junior - presented by Bowery Boston and MegaHex Records, September 29th at O'Brien's Pub with Grenades int he Archives, Dead Beggars and Courters - presented by Lysten Boston, as well as A Spooktacular Halloween Show at the Petty Morals HQ with Tenafly Vipers and a gig at Opus with The Devil Twins.

Grab all Salem Wolves' tracks over at Bandcamp and follow the band on Facebook and Twitter for upcoming announcements.