Dirty Wolves On Wolf Masks, Polyrhythms & Writing Songs Backwards

Given that Dirty Wolves' striking press shots feature the duo wearing wolf masks, we can't help but wonder about the logistics of lupine performance. "We're really trimming the masks back so we've got the freedom to play," Dirty Wolves guitarist/vocalist Alex Hermes (aka Skuewolf) illuminates, before stressing it's important for the audience to "get that visual effect of the ears". "'Cause Dirty Wolves represents the corruption of the world... it's supposed to be, like, a reflection of what's going on," he continues. "So we wanna keep the look, but it's been really difficult to pull it off."

"Say if you've got a small circle and a really big circle, and the small circle's sorta ticking at 12 and the big circle's ticking at 12."

Performing in costume demands corresponding production values, so what do Dirty Wolves have planned to set the scene? "We're doing 3D animation," Hermes reveals before specifying "that's for the Opera House show". The duo are also "getting a specialist light show built" to maximise the impact of their gig at Sydney's iconic venue. "With the smaller pubs we probably won't be able to go that far," he acknowledges.    

Dirty Wolves' latest Creation & Chaos "took about three years" and Hermes points out, "We came up with a concept before we even wrote the album." The album "is supposed to be [about] the beauty of creation and the chaos of man," Hermes chuckles. He cherry-picks a couple of album tracks for further investigation: Eleven.Eleven is about "Albert Einstein's string theory" and Leviathan explores "the Book Of Revelation, and Christianity, and the impact that religion has had on man".

After making sure "all the topics" were covered, Hermes shares, "Getting into it [writing] was really, really difficult because we wanted to write it backwards." "It's written from drums first because of all the odd timings and the polyrhythms and things like that," Hermes clarifies. This technique was something Dirty Wolves utilised to develop "a more unique sound". Trying to find your own niche as a band is "the hardest thing", Hermes opines. "Not saying we succeeded, but we're trying," he laughs.

So how are they going to recreate it all live? "It's been really, really, really hard," he allows. "Well, as a two-piece, it's sort of just been a big job. And we're bringing a lot of samples in because there's a lot of timing changes... you can't miss a chord or a beat."

Give their album a listen and you'll understand exactly what Hermes means. "Polyrhythms get really, really difficult, because say you've got two odd timings running at the same time, simultaneous. So say if you've got a small circle and a really big circle, and the small circle's sorta ticking at 12 and the big circle's ticking at 12; eventually - you know, after so many rotations - they'll both tick at the same time. And then what that does is it gives you that [makes a sound like a distant blizzard] - it's like a vortex effect."

Red Sea are supporting Dirty Wolves on these upcoming dates and they've actually utilised this band's singer, Erica Bowron, for a couple Creation & Chaos tracks. Hermes particularly commends the "massive effort" involved for Leviathan, which required that Bowron sing in Latin.