By Keith Walsh
After completing the most recent Weird Wolves’ album My Dreams Are Calling You, singer/songwriter Ava Gore left the duo she created with Raphael Colantonio, who in 2018 recruited her to create music for the video game Prey:Mooncrash from his Arkane Studios. That went well, so they followed up with the soundtrack for another video game, Weird West, at yet another company created by Colantonio, WolfEye Studios. Following the release of the album My Dreams Are Calling You last April, Colantonio recruited Celestina Gravely, a singer/songwriter formerly of Most Modern, as well as Ben Post of Mass Minor, who plays synth for live Weird Wolves’ shows. In June, Weird Wolves released a single, “Troubled Seamless Operation,” giving a hint of new sounds to come. In an email exchange with Colantonio and Gravely I got lots of details about the future of Weird Wolves and some of their creative inputs and processes.
Synthbeat.com: Hi Raphael. Are there any other unreleased tracks with Ava?
Raphael: There are a few songs that were in the work that feature scratch vocals from Ava. These songs will evolve with the new band setup, I might use some of Ava’s vocals for backup vocals, we’ll see… I write in passes, so nothing is lost. For example, I wrote “The Passengers” 31 years ago (yes, 31). I had an old recording and decided to give the song a new life with Weird Wolves.”
Synthbeat.com: Hi Celestina! What are favorites of the earlier WW tracks?
Celestina: Hello! Some of my favorite earlier WW tracks are “Realization” and “Eyes of Orion.”
Synthbeat.com: Moving forward, what new or different vocal attitudes are you introducing, or are you maintaining a style that’s there?
Celestina: I love singing in a wide range from very low to very high, so I’m excited to incorporate that while also staying true to the WW sound. Ava is an amazing vocalist and I’ve really enjoyed learning the parts she used to sing, and I also look forward to adding my own personal touch to the future songs.
“It was a very hard album to finish and release for a variety of reasons. The mood will be different for the next album.”
Raphael Colantonio of Weird Wolves on the making of “My Dreams Are Calling You.”
Synthbeat.com: Will you be playing much bass on WW? Will you adapt the synth tracks or only play occasionally?
Celestina: Raphael and I switch between guitar and bass, so I currently play bass on three of the eight songs in our current set.
Synthbeat.com: I heard that you met Ava and Raphael earlier, so what was the nature of the ‘passing of the torch?’
Celestina: I had met with Ava before over coffee way back in 2018 or so about having me come play bass with them, but I also wanted to sing and was pretty busy with my two other bands at the time so it didn’t work out. However, by the time Ava left the band and Raphael reached out to me I had more free time since my only other band at the time was my solo project. Once we started going over the songs I could immediately tell it was a great fit and found it extremely refreshing to work with Raphael since he’s very organized and has a clear vision in mind.
Synthbeat.com: ‘Most Modern’ really improved on the album compared to the first two singles on Bandcamp. There’s also a romantic darkness there. So thematically is it a lateral change to WW when interpreting lyrics or something different?
Celestina: We recorded that album over COVID only to have our singer quit shortly after it was released, so it was a roller coaster. It was also produced by NITE which was a really cool process and added a lot to the album’s overall sound. I do feel like writing and performing that album was perfect experience for Weird Wolves since I got used to playing with a backtrack and writing dark, melodic vocal parts. With the exception of the chorus of “Caves” I made a point of writing all the lyrics that I sang. It was also a great introduction into the Texas gothic music scene, which I had vaguely known about but go to really tap into and enjoy when we played shows. I’m very excited to reconnect more with that scene as I continue playing live and touring with Weird Wolves!
Synthbeat.com: Raphael, On My Dreams Are Calling You, especially there’s definitely a dark futuristic theme, sound wise because of the grittiness of the textures and of course the lyrics are dystopian. From a literary standpoint, it’s “human against society” but also “human against nature and supernatural forces?”
Raphael: Yes, this specific album’s recurring themes are around existential questions, purpose, and the negative effect of technology on the society, Ava and I connected pretty well around those topics. My Dreams Are Calling You is overall a fairly dark album that was probably therapeutic for both Ava and I. I’m glad we did it, it was a very hard album to finish and release for a variety of reasons. The mood will be different for the next album, I try not to care so much about being “goth”, it’s freeing and allows me to write melodies that are a bit more unleashed,
Synthbeat.com: That parallels the video games you’re doing also right?
Raphael: Touché. To me, videogames are an opportunity, there is more to games than the base layer of fun, I surf on topics that are meaningful to me, and that have a chance to touch the audience at a deeper level. In Prey, we were exploring themes such as what makes you “you”, identity, free will vs determinism, nature of reality… in Weird West it’s all about what makes us humans and the pursuit of immortality… as for my next game… we’ll announce soon 😉
Synthbeat.com: ‘The Wound That Keeps On Giving’…The syncopated bass borrows an EDM technique but not often heard in this style or tempo.
Raphael: Yes, I really like that bass line, the disco feel contrasts with the dark melody…Also the producer of the song (Erik Gustafson) did a good job at mixing it with his own beat and delivering on the dancey vibe I was hoping for.
Synthbeat.com: “A Lovely Day” is maybe your most goth track. BTW what’s the secret of your bass sound processing? This sounds like a bass guitar and “The Wound That Keeps On Giving” sounds like a synth — but are they somehow processed similarly?
Raphael: “A Lovely Day” was produced by Matt Piersall. I sent him my unprocessed stems and he applied his own distortion on the bass. He comes from an industrial techno background, so he’s amazing at those hard yet dancey beats. When I sent him the stems he told me that the song reminded him of 70’s British pop, so that and his industrial vibe might be why it sounds like our most goth song.
Synthbeat.com: What drum VST or machine are you using?
Raphael: Depends on the song and the producer. Matt Piersall (A Lovely Day, The Construct, Shiny) uses mostly the Elektron analog 4, but it’s heavily produced (he’s been doing this everyday for 20 years). As for Erik Gustafson (‘Invisible,’ ‘The Wound That Keeps On Giving,’) he uses a lot of F9’s libraries. Some of our songs also use the fantastic KSHMR Essentials libraries.
Synthbeat.com: What is the difference in general approach between mixes from It All Dies and My Dreams Are Calling You.
Raphael: It All Dies was a collection of songs that we did under the Out Of Line Label, it was printed on a CD for our European tour last year.
Synthbeat.com: Raphael, what’s the official reason for Ava leaving, and what is she up to now? (No need to answer if something personal).
Raphael: I think it’s a question that would be best answered by Ava. All I can say is that she had to focus on personal matters that were much more important than the band.
Synthbeat.com: What are you looking forward to most, Celestina, about Weird Wolves? With Raphael’s connections in France might you tour Europe? Have you been to Europe?
Raphael: I’m very excited to be writing and performing music within this genre again and to collaborate more with Raphael. Of course I’m also really looking forward to finally touring Europe too, which we’re hoping to do sometime next year. I’ve been to Europe once, when I went to Italy and Greece with my middle school art teacher and a collection of other students and chaperones back in eighth grade for ten days. It was such a cool experience and I’ve always wanted to go back as an adult!
Synthbeat.com: Raphael, what does your setup look like now, in terms of analog or software synths, DAW etc?
Raphael: I mostly work with Logic Pro, a guitar, a bass, a Line 6 guitar processor. For synth, I use Alchemy for most songs. I do everything in the box, then I send the stems to various producers I work with, and they process my stems, and add their own: usually they improve or re-do the beat (I suck at beats) and they also add their own synth, including at time some analog gear.
Synthbeat.com: How about the Fender Acoustasonic — those are nice. Still using that?
Raphael: Well, I loved the versatility of the Acoustasonic, especially for when we play live because I didn’t have to carry two guitars since it does acoustic and electric in one guitar, but I was disappointed with the electric sound, so I had a company call Wolfcreek (it’s not a joke) build a custom guitar for me, which sounds much better than the Acoustasonic in every possible way: the acoustic mode sounds amazing (Piezo), the electric mode sounds amazing too (Humbucker pick ups), it also has a midi output, which is fun. The Acoustasonic is nice to have in the house though.
Synthbeat.com: On the second mix of “The Wound That Keeps On Giving” I’m imagining a kind of musical theater sound. Do you have any appreciation of live dramatic performance?
Raphael: We thought it would be nice to have that dramatic opening, in my head I was hearing an old guy telling a story about Cthulhu, haha, it used to be much longer, but eventually we cut half of it. I don’t think long slow intros are still welcome nowadays in the world of streaming where listeners give you 10 seconds of attention before pressing “Skip”
Synthbeat.com: Who does the futuristic album art? The logo design?
Raphael: The original logo was designed by David Heutmaker, he was UI artist on the game Weird West.
As for albums’ art: all of them were made by Emmanuel Petit, my art director at Wolfeye Studios, he was also the Art Director of Prey (Arkane Studios).
Also on synthbeat.com, my review of “My Dreams Are Calling You.”
(Featured band photo by Jay Bratcher, with artwork by Emmanuel Petit.)
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