After A Meteoric Rise It's Time For Windhand To Stop & Smell The Roses

When asked why devotees of stoner/doom (or "stoom", as now-defunct Canberra lords Pod People dubbed it) have remained loyal to the American outfit, Windhand sticksman Ryan Wolfe remarks,"That's a good question. I don't know how to answer that and not sound like a total fucking asshole." 

"When I first moved to Richmond [Virginia], I wasn't in the band and I saw them play. I immediately walked up to Garrett [Morris, guitar] and was like, 'I want to be in the band. I want to be your drummer.' There's just a feeling; it's deep and it feels right. I was a fan before I was in the band, and it captured me so much that I knew I wanted to be in the band. The riffs that Garrett writes... There's something about them that harks back to me in the early '90s as a teenager listening to music like Nirvana and other punk-rock bands. It makes me feel good, but it also has aspects of The Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Sabbath and Zeppelin that I enjoy listening to now."

"Garrett had a child a year or so ago, so with that happening we had to scale back a lot of stuff."

Windhand — although relatively new, having formed in 2009 — are already crafting album number four. The metallers will hit Aussie shores alongside Relapse labelmates and fellow Virginians, Cough, too. But, as Wolfe explains, recent events necessitated re-evaluation of the work-life balance and they decided to make a concerted effort to be more selective regarding band activity.

"Especially this year, we had... A couple of things happen and we had to scale back quite a bit. I know since late summer we've tried to do things that were beneficial for us, scheduling-wise and locations as far as touring. But now, this year, we're about to head off to Australia and New Zealand, which we had planned to do last year but had to postpone. As soon as we get home from Australia we're flying out to the West Coast of the US and playing three shows in the Northwest of the US. This year's a little bit all over the place, but we're doing what we feel like we need to do and kinda [working] out where we need to be, where we need to go; not touring just to tour. Garrett had a child a year or so ago, so with that happening we had to scale back a lot of stuff so he could adjust to being a father and take care of himself and his family."

At one point, Windhand represented a full-time job for the drummer. Nowadays, when not on the road, he straddles self-employment with working for a friend. "We were given the green-light by all of our families for about three or four years, and we took advantage of it; we worked non-stop. It came to a point where it was time to pump the brakes just a little and start getting to where we could play the shows that we wanted to, but in a manner that we were all comfortable. It's a good position to be in."