Artwork: ANDREAS TEICHMANN
LYRICS
down in the garden in the old village square
down amongst the thistles and the homeless at prayer
the wolves tread lightly, the wolves tread fair
as the snow falls…
and out across the plains where the Jylland winds blow
oh out across the plains where the low shrubs a-grow
can you hear the girl singing of the deer and the doe?
she sings for the springtime…
Oh
down in the garden in the old village square
the men they smoke and the men they swear
they cock their crooked guns in the cold frigid air
their stomach’s hungry…
and out across the plains comes a thunderous roar!
the wood huts they tremble and the sleet starts to pour
can you hear the wolves a howling’, can you hear the girl cry?
as the sky turns crimson red
Ooh
BACKSTORY (As told by Joseph)
Let me tell you a little bit about the song. ‘Wolves’ was inspired by an article I read about a pack of wolves coming back to Denmark after an absence of sightings over the last 200 years. This was in 2017 I think. You can google it. I was looking for ideas based around the North Sea theme at the time and this seemed to tie in perfectly.
I imagined the character in the EP ending up very drunk in a little village in Denmark, facedown in the snow, after certain destructive events. The song was kind of formed as a sort of dreamscape for this character to fall into before the redemptive events of the ‘Kraken’ song, which was the last single the band and I released at the beginning of the year.
Originally the song as a very slow atmospheric beast. I was listening to Trevor Morris (the guy who did the score for the Vikings TV show) and came up with something kind of similar on the guitar. I also wanted to create a sort of chant that could be replicated on stage, a sort of prayer, but also have the ability to move into a viking war cry if it must.
When I sat down with Eric and showed him the track. He automatically saw this driving viking side of things and said that the song needed more push. I didn’t think so. But he insisted, and I am glad he did, his electric part becomes a spine to the song.
At the time however, I was hesitant to work further on the band version. When we finally made it to the studio with Felix and Micha, we hadn’t really practiced the song. But they pushed for it and we had the time, so I thought why not! I could always come back and do the acoustic version without trouble (And I have but more on that later).
In the studio, Eric played the riff. I asked Micha to create some sort of war drum percussion thing, and Felix eased on the bass. He also added this dramatic piano thing that you can hear best at the beginning of the song.
Since we were on that road, I insisted that we continue the viking sentiment and add some hectic backing vocals, we layered over 50 different mic tracks to create our Norse choir. When Felix and Micha went home, I added a little banjo, and when I was in Australia I worked with my old pal Jake (Who recorded the Seven Long Years EP) and we worked with Helen on Cello for some extra oomph.
And there you have it.
I should also mention that the song also had a different name, originally the track was going to be called ‘Wolves In The Garden.’ When we recorded the track, in the Watt & Sound Studio next the the North Sea, Eric suggested in passing that I shorten the name to Wolves - keep it simple. So I did.
Musky x
