They released three great albums and they already have a long existence as
a band, but it seems a lot of people into metal don't know them, which is
a shame considering the top quality music they deliver on their albums. So
here is a chance for you... read this interview, go on their website and
then get their albums of pure dark epic heavy metal... Guitarist Barry "Skully"
Waddell answered the questions.
At first, can you tell how you got into music and which bands inspired
you to pick up an instrument ?
I started playing drums ...but, quickly picked up
guitar instead. Later on I was also lead vocals in a few bands just because
we could never find anyone.
Way early hardrock such as Alice Cooper, Steppenwolf, Hendrix, and Pink Flyod
was a big influence. Heavy Metal was just being born when I started playing
and I eventually moved towards it because the bands which I was already listening
was moving more to it.
When was born SEASONS OF THE WOLF ? Why did you choose that name ?
Ocotber 1988 was the first real line-up for Seasons
Of The Wolf.
We chose the long phrase name because we wanted to be different from all
the one and two name bands. Also we were wanting it to have the wolf in it.
We never wanted to sound commercial.
Are Barry Waddell (guitar), Wes Waddell (vocals), Wayne Hoefle (drums),
Dennis Ristows (keyboards) and Phaedra Rubio (bass) the original line-up
? Or were there other musicians before this line-up ?
The original line-up had Clay Yeagley on bass and
Dwayne Brier on drums.
We recorded a couple albums back between 88 and 91 and released them on cassette
tapes only in Tampa Bay area Florida.
We will be re-mastering and re-releasing some of that material in a couple
years for the die-hard SOTW fans to enjoy.
Did you record some demo tapes before your first album ?
Not really. We did make a cassette tape with only
5 songs on it and shopped it around just a bit in 1994. But, we were never
into demos. We figured why not just record a full length album and go for
it on our own label. Build it up over time and give a shot at being successful
on our own terms completely without outside corporate bullshit telling us
what to do.
It has been a rough road. Very hard to make a proper tour without the financial
help that a major label could offer. But, we can't get past the kind of stupid
bullshit the major labels pull...so we take the hard road instead. Many times
it is much more fullfilling at the end of the day.
You released your first self-titled album in 1996. It was a self-financed
one too. This cd obviously showed the potential of the band. Did you get
a good response for this first coming ?
Yes we did. But not until 1998. We were already
in recording the second album "Lost In Hell" in our own studio. At that time
we marketed the first album to college radio across America and it did pretty
good concidering the music enviroment at the time. Songs "October Moon" and
"Victim Of Darkness" were in several top ten charts and became favorites
with the fans as cult classics. It was a nice ground work to then release
"Lost In Hell" in early 1999.
Why Phaedra Rubio left ? Did you easily find Chris Whitford ?
She left to get married. Still friends with her
and Curt Sigurdsen of High Voltage Radio in Oslo, Norway. She met Curt while
he was visting us here in Florida back in summer 98.
They hit it off and well....we lost a bassist.
Chris was working with the band as camera man and lighting tech. He already
had a good grasp on the SOTW songs so...he jumped on board to give it a shot
and it worked on the next 2 albums. He has recently left the band for another
career though. We have Bill Bois filling in on bass for live shows right
now. We met Bill in the studio while I was co-producing his solo release.
Bill has taken a big interest to stick with us for the next album. Who knows...he
may end up a permanent member yet.
How did you get in touch with Adrenaline Records from Italy ? Was it a
good deal for your second album ?
Adrenaline heard about us from a underground magazine
in Milan, Italy called Darkness Attack, and some radio show. They asked us
to be on their Iron Maiden Tribute album "Children Of The Damned". They did
a nice job on the package and then asked to do a licensing deal for a European
version of "Lost In Hell" So, we did. It definitely got us a lot more contacts
and the music of SOTW spread around more.....but, they have not done a good
a job keeping up with financial obligations. We also recorded a track for
their Queen Tribute "The Attack Of The Dragons" They asked us for a licensing
deal on our 3rd album "Nocturnal Revelation".
We turned them down. We have never seen any money from the Tribute albums
either.
Not a bad bunch of guys at Adrenaline....but, if we are ever to work with
them again they must make good on their end of the financial obligations.
"Lost In Hell" was released in 1999, but I only saw it in the good european
metal mailorders at the end of 2000 / beginning of 2001... So was Adrenaline
bad about the distribution of the cd ?
Yes indeed. They had great intentions but they never
seemed to be able to get it together in full-on promotions or distribution.
We have not heard from them in a long time. It is like they dropped off the
face of the earth.
The "Lost In Hell" cd is really a masterpiece with killers songs as such
as "Lost In Hell", "Vengeance", "Voo Doo Master"... I would like to know
if this second album was well received, because in my opinion this is a classic
album which is essential in every records collection of a metal defender...
Thanks Patrick for the good word about Lost In Hell.
We marketed it to college radio in the USA during fall 1999. It beat out
Dream Theater in radio ads the first week and several tracks from the album
made it into heavy rotation and college top ten charts. During a 8 week period
that fall we were getting quite a nice buzz going in the undreground metal
scene. Unfortunately we were not able to follow up with a properly financed
tour. But, it certaintly helped us to get better distribution contacts all
over and SOTW began to pick up a more interest from around the world.
One more step in the building block. We concider it a success and it is still
out there picking up sales 3 years later. I don't think it has run its course
yet. SOTW is snowballing more fans with every release.
There is a great live song, "Land Of The Dead", at the end of the cd.
Was it really previously unreleased or is there a studio version recorded
somewhere ?
No. No studio version of that song yet. We may do
a studio version for the next album simply because so many people seemed
to really like that one.
I think the keyboard parts of Dennis fit very well with your dark epic
heavy metal. But don't you have some problems to be accepted as everybody
knows the keyboardist is not the favourite musician of the metalheads ?
We get mixed reactions to keyboards. There have
been some people that don't like keyboards that actually do like the way
we use keyboards. Dennis has a very different way about his playing arrangements
that don't overkill and soften the edge. We all love really hard edged guitar
and work towards taking heavy metal into the future. Keys works great to
set the dark moody SCI - Fi / horror film atmosphere. We don't really run
into a problem with it.
We are not working to please everyone. SOTW has a sound all its own and a
big part of it is the blend of Heavy guitar riffs and Dark keyboards.
In 2001, you recorded your third album, "Nocturnal Revelation", which
is again a great one. Are you satisfied with this album ?
Definitely. Yes. We got a much tighter drum sound
and found a even more edgier blend between the keyboards and guitar. My brother
Wes's voice shreads through and rips your head right off.
The big difference between "Lost In Hell" and "Nocturnal Revelation" is the
length of the songs.
"LIH" had a few more longer tunes and more diverse tempo changes from slow
to fast.
"Noc Rev" only had a couple songs like this such as "Skulls". At that time
we seemed to be writing shorter and more simplistic in your face songs.
Never fear though.....hahaha. We got the best of both worlds coming up on
the 4th album.
Some of the stuff we have been coming up with lately is blowing our mind
...I know our fans are gonna like it.
It seems the cd is self-financed and Snakenet Records is a distributor.
Am I right ?
All 3 of our releases are self-financed. No, Snakenet
is not a distributor.
We put the Snakenet logo on our albums to try and help make people aware
and create curiousity to the best damned Heavy Metal Internet Radio Station
there is.
You have to check it out sometime. SnakeNet is one of the fastest growing
supporters of true underground metal in the US. Great way to find out about
lots of cool metal bands.
Jerry Storch (AKA Snake) has helped support SOTW
by making all our releases available for purchase through the Snakenet Metal
bible and we in turn try to bring more attention to Snakenet.
It is a great metal community on the Interent. We have sold our CD's to about
a hundred members so far. I guess you could say it is one of our many small
distributors.
Running our own label "Earth Mother Music" over the past few years we have
built up about 36 distributors from around the world. A few of them are larger
ones such as MUSEA in France, and 101 here in the USA. (They get our releases
into the stores) Hellion Records in Germay have been very good for SOTW as
well.
We have several smaller distributors around the world that purchase wholesale
direct from us such as JoeMetal.com on the Internet, and mailorder companies
such as Generations Underground, Midwest Metal, and Metal Age Productions.
There are many more.
Did you have tour a lot in the U.S. ? How is a S.O.T.W. concert ?
Unfortunatley enough SOTW has never toured outside
our own home state of Florida.
The opportunities are getting much stronger now that we have 3 releases out
with another on the way.
All the shows have been concentrated mostly on the west coast in Tampa Bay
Area, Florida.
Now and then we go south to Fort Myers and mid-state to Orlando.
There are not many venues large enough for us to move around and do the kind
of live show we are best at. SOTW is a very energetic, theatrical band on
stage. We like to put on a show.
Will you tour in Europe soon ? Or did you already play some gigs in Europe
?
Not Yet. We hope that in a short time to come we
will create the demand necessary to bring SOTW to Europe. There have been
several inquires lately. I think things are heading in the right directions
for it. We are hoping by next year that business will be good.
S.O.T.W. appears on various compilations and movie soundtracks. Do you
think it is a good way to promote your band ? Which compilations and soundtracks
would you recommend to the readers ?
By all means it is a great way to get more exposure
and build allies to help out down the road. Especially the movie soundtracks.
We are a bit burnt out on contributing to Tributes. They were fun, and good
for exposure but we really like recording our own material much more. SOTW
has been on 3 so far.
Iron Maiden "Children Of The Damned" - Queen "The Attack Of The Dragons"
and Black Sabbath "Dehumanized Witch". There is a lot of cool bands on these
tributes and I suggest them all to the die-hard metal fan.
So far we have had our music featured in 6 films. "The Distributor", "The
Seekers", "Time Enough" from the Alien Conspiracy series, "Underbelley",
"Berserkers" from the Goregoyles series, and a another short film called
"Betrayal"
10 SOTW songs are in the film "Time Enough" and I really like that one. It
is tripped out Sci-Fi Horror flick.
Looking at the coverarts of your cd's and at the lyrics, I guess you are
into science fiction and fantastic movies and novels. So which are your fave
movies ? fave novels ?
Yes, you have that right on the mark. hahahaha.
Anything by John Carpentar, George A Romero, Dario Argento, and Ann Rice.
We have a very long list here. Actually just about anyone that writes good
Horror, or Sci-Fi material.
You are working on music videos and a S.O.T.W. rockumentary for a VHS
and a DVD. This is very interesting, but I would like to know why did you
decide to go for that ? I mean we don't see metal bands music videos on TV,
so will it be more something for the S.O.T.W. die-hard fans ?
It is a way for exposure for SOTW. It is for the
die-hard SOTW fan...but, it is going to be a rockumentary film of sorts with
interviews and backstage scenes ....that a lot of people may be interested
in seeing. Lots of eye candy.
From a struggling underground metal band point of view it will be a collection
of the many adventures in our world. Lots of things of the real world that
many people don't know about the goings on behind the scene of a band such
as SOTW.
What do you think of the current metal scene ? Which new bands do you
like ?
I have been sticking close to a good handful of
peers such as Twisted Tower Dire, and Jag Panzer. I would like to see bands
such as this soon have a larger success.
Running our own label I don't have much time to listen to as many bands as
I would like.
So I stick with SnakenetMetal Radio to find the cool stuff.
The current mainstream scene in the USA still sucks ass as far as I'm concerned.
The underground is very cool...BUT, all the bands are starving for more success.
That is the way I see it. Bands get taken advantage of and screwed at almost
every turn and unfortunatley most of them have become complacent with that
fact. Most just simply can't make a living at music.
Which are the ten albums in your records collection that you consider
as being the ultimate classics?
Well that is a very big question. I find it hard
to pick just 10 from my collection having listened to metal since the begining.
I'll take a stab at it for today. I would come up with something different
depending on what day it is. hahaha Some of these may not be concidered metal
by todays standards.
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies,
Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties, Utopia - Oops Wrong Planet!, Deep Purple
- In Rock, Montrose - Paper Money, Scorpions - Virgin Killers, Black Oak
Arkansas - S/T, and every Thin Lizzy album ever made. :-)
That can make up for my last 2 choices. hahahaha
Can you give us some interesting infos about the fourth album ? How will
it sound ?
As with every SOTW album it will be stranger and
more un-expected twisted tales of horror, Sci-Fi, and other various universal
adventures. There will be a couple of instrumental tracks as we always do.
There will be mid-tempo, up-tempo, slow tempo heaviness. More tripped out
atmospheric keyboard sounds and arrangements. The guitar riffs and leads
will shread, and my brothers voice will powerfully shreak out over it all
singing words that we feel need to be said.
Thank you very much Skully for taking the time to answer. Good luck for
the future ! If you want to add something, feel free...
Thank you Patrick for the opportunity to be a part
of IRON WOLF.
We like to have direct contact with our potiential fans...so feel free to
visit our website
and sign our guestbook and send us an email anytime. Questions? Ask away.
We are always looking for more small distributors and exposure support anywhere
we can get it.
Thanks again
interview by Patrick Lefevre
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