Getting to Know… Circus Wolves | Interview 🎤

On the 144^th interview on The Musical Hype, we get some awesome insight from Manchester, alt post-punk collective, Circus Wolves.

“Emotive and frenetic, their post-punk sound is the soundtrack to love, loss and alternate realities, where northern heritage meets modernity.” Welp, that sounds like awesomeness totally epitomized if I (we) do say so myself! For the 144^th interview in the Getting to Know… series on The Musical Hype, we welcome the Manchester alternative post-punk band, 🎙 Circus Wolves, the source of that totally lit quote. Circus Wolves is a band that should appeal to fans of bands like Ist Ist, Interpol, White Lies, The Cure, The Smiths, Joy Division, The Strokes, and Foals among many others. The collective is comprised of 🎙 Guy Wynn Davies (vocals), 🎙 Cameron Tetlow (drums), 🎙 Ben Dodson (bass), 🎙 Jack Taylor (guitar), and 🎙 Jim Ker (guitar).  

We could provide more background via this introduction. However, how about we let the men of Circus Wolves speak for themselves! Without further ado, The Musical Hype unleashes Getting to Know… Circus Wolves: Interview 🎤 # 144!

Starting things off right, for those who may not be familiar with Circus Wolves, what would you say makes your band distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

🎤 Circus Wolves are an adrenaline shot of brooding Manchester-made alt-rock. Emotive and frenetic, their post-punk sound is the soundtrack to love, loss and alternate realities, where northern heritage meets modernity.

“Circus Wolves are steadily building a great case for themselves to be Manchester’s next stadium export.”

– Design a Gig

Formed in 2013 at the University of Leeds as Plastic Rabbits, the band spent their formative years on the Leeds scene before relocating to Manchester, their hometown, where they resurfaced as Circus Wolves. With a mix tape of David Bowie, The Strokes, The Smiths and Joy Division as their inspiration, the band quickly captured the attention of local tastemakers.

“Melodic indie rock and roll certain to capture live audiences with their energy and knack for an anthemic chorus.”

– Mark Lippman, Founder of Scruff of the Neck Records

The band’s early demos enjoyed support on BBC Introducing and XS Manchester, and support slots with The Amazons, Red Rum Club and The Slow Readers Club earned them a sold-out headline show at Manchester’s Night & Day Cafe. Circus Wolves bring a commanding stage presence in a live setting and a tangible, electric energy to their performances which will leave a lasting impression.

“The brooding bass lines manage to transport listeners back into a Thatcher-era concrete factory.” – GigRadar

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did your band form and what were some of the goals or the visions you had as a band early on?

🎤 We formed while at the University at Leeds in 2013. Originally consisting of band members Guy on vocals and Cameron on drums, the band moved through a number of different players in the early days, performing as the outfit, ‘Plastic Rabbits’. Jack joined Plastic Rabbits on guitar in 2013 and the group performed throughout the Leeds university scene with varying success. After some further internal changes, Jim took up guitar duties alongside Jack in 2014 and the band began to work on their new sound. Post-university, the band returned to their hometown of Manchester and began working on their presence within the vibrant Manchester music scene where they remain to this day. After working with several different bass players, Ben joined the band in 2019 to complete the current outfit and complete the sound for the latest EP offering.

Let’s talk more about goals. Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

🎤 We’re a band that loves to gig, so right now, it’s a bit naff for us as we really want to show off our latest ep with some live work. We’ve always had the goal of playing some of the well-known Manchester stages like Deaf Institute and Gorilla. We’ve actually nailed a couple of these, but there’s a few left that we’d like to tick off the list too!

In terms of changes of perspective, I suppose the main thing would be that adult life has hit us all. We started this band in university and life was a lot simpler then. Nowadays, we all have to work hard to balance home life, work life and band life. We all still love it though and that keeps us strong and ambitious for the future. As long as we’re still writing tunes that we love and (hopefully) playing them to our fans, we’re happy.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

🎤 We’re a Manchester band through and through. The Manchester scene has a well-deserved reputation as home to some of the best acts going. The music scene is just as amazing as it always has been. There are so many great artists basing themselves within the city. You’re really spoilt for choice! Bands like Kashmere, Ist Ist, and Saytr Play are definitely ones to watch! In terms of some bigger names out there, Radiohead are a huge influence on our style for most of us. The Stone Roses also really hit home with us all.

Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance? Feel free to be creative.

🎤 Our very first gig was like something from Spinal Tap. We had played in Liverpool and were driving back in a van we’d acquired. We didn’t know when we got the van that it was only three seats. However, we had no choice but to risk it so two of us sat in the back with the gear. The van was pretty old and apparently, when driving back at 2 in the morning, quite suspicious… We were pulled over by the police. Jim, who had agreed to drive, was put in the back of the police car and breathalyzed as well as questioned. Squeaky bum moments!

Thankfully everything was legit, all the police needed to do was check the back of the van and all was golden. Of course, We had two people in the back without seats. Thinking that the two in the back would have thought to hide, the back was opened. Unfortunately, the bright ginger hair of the one and only Cameron was too bright to hide and he was spotted.

3 points and a £100 fine later, we are told we can no longer travel in the van and we needed to “seek alternative transport.”  So, we’re now stuck in the middle of the motorway somewhere between Liverpool and Manchester at 3 am, thinking of a way to get back. And that was how the first gig went….

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

🎤 Jim Ker (guitar): My absolute favorite song that we’ve ever done is 🎵 “Pulling Teeth”. I’d had the main melody around for ages and we’d tried loads of different ways to get a song out of it, but it just wasn’t happening. We’d come up with some really ‘out there’ ideas for the song structure, but nothing really worked. Eventually we just went about jamming/warming up and the Cameron just started playing this beat. I thought, “that’s it.”

We played around with it and added Cam’s beat to the melody and some cool chorus ideas and then it just went off from there. We jammed so many cool riffs and ideas after that. Everything just seemed to come at once and it worked so well!

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

🎤 We’ve all got loads of different hobbies outside of Circus Wolves. There are some big football fans within the band, so that would certainly be up there. A few of us are keen record collectors too, which really gets the creative juices flowing when it comes to new music. Jim practices Ju-Jitsu, Ben’s into cycling, Jack’s into design and animation, Guy’s addicted to Manchester City and Cam knows his way around a kitchen.

Closing things out, what is Circus Wolves currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

🎤 Our latest EP, 💿 This Is Something You Can’t Replace is our baby at the moment. We’ve so incredibly proud of it. The amount of work that’s gone into that EP is the most effort we’ve ever put into a record. The response has been amazing too! We’ll be pushing that for a while yet. We have another single coming out from the EP and that the plan for releasing that is wicked. Watch this space!

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[📷 : Circus Wolves, Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype; Icons made by https://www.flaticon.com/authors/freepik (Freepik)]