Young Bloods

Formed in a town in Geleen in The Netherlands in 2007, when the three members – singer and guitarist Pablo van de Poel, younger brother Luka van de Poel and Robin Piso – were just 16, 14 and 17 respectively, DeWolff are channelling the kind of music that first exploded out of the UK in 1968. From Cream to Deep Purple to Led Zeppelin, it's always a heady, potent mix that every few years seems to find new life, whether in Canada through The Tea Party or here through Wolfmother.

“A lot of our songs tend to lean more towards the English vintage rock sound than the American rock sound,” Pablo admits, on the line between sessions recording bands in his own studio in Holland. “But right now, for the last year, I think, I've been listening to American music only – southern rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, bands like that – so the next record's gonna be more vintage American,” he laughs.

At school, Pablo found himself something of a loner, only able to share his musical passions with a couple of other guys. “What I love about this music is that it is so pure – it's heavy but it's still pure. You know, 90% of the heavy rock bands nowadays put out a record which sounds like a bunch of computers playing heavy metal. What I love about music is the human touch, in all kinds of music; in old soul music, old rock music, old country music – I just love the human aspect of it. It sounds like a bunch of guys sitting together; that's what I love so much about it. Zeppelin albums, they really sound like four guys playing together in a room and that's, in my opinion, what music should sound like. I don't know – I just like raw music.”

There's inevitably a touch of the Silverchairs in the DeWolff story: releasing an EP within a year of forming; critically acclaimed television performances before releasing a debut album, 2009's Strange Fruits & Undiscovered Plants; having chalked up more than 100 performances; European tours; playing to 10,000-plus at Europe's oldest music festival, Pinkpop, in 2010; a second album, Orchards/Lupine, in 2011 – they've even had a documentary made about them. As it happens, Pablo, who wrote his first, admittedly “not very good”, song aged 11, started playing guitar in a grunge band when he was nine.

“I was listening a lot to Metallica and after that I listened to Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins – I was really into them. The first song I wrote was kind of Nirvana style. And then I discovered Hendrix, at the age of 11, 12. Then came Led Zeppelin, The Doors and all that stuff – and now I'm listening to Leon Russell! No, sorry, at the moment Lynyrd Skynyrd,” he laughs again.

DeWolff are hitting the country just as not only their third album, mischievously titled DeWolff IV in deference to Led Zeppelin's IV, is being released locally, but also their back catalogue in a special Australia-only double album package. “When we had our first DeWolff rehearsal, jamming,” van de Poel recalls, “it felt so good, everybody was on top of it – Robin was playing his keys like a mad man, he was giving everything he had, and so were my brother Luka and I – it was insane. Everybody was doing their very best to create such a cool sound, for me it was like, 'Wow, this is it'. We were really 'doing it', giving everything we had, and it's never changed since then.”

DeWolff will be playing the following dates:

Sunday 17 March - Transit Bar, Canberra ACT
Wednesday 20 March - Oxford Art Factory, Sydney NSW
Sunday 24 March - Old Manly Boatshed, Manly NSW
Tuesday 26 March - Macquarie Uni Bar, Sydney NSW
Wednesday 27 March - Newcastle Leagues Club, Newcastle NSW