After taking on the world with their self-titled debut album, Wolfmother returned to the native country Australia, after years on the road, to a long awaited homecoming. Sadly, that was the last show founding members Andrew Stockdale (guitar/vocals), Chris Ross (bass/keyboard), Myles Heskett (drums) would ever play together.
Three days after the show, Chris and Myles would leave Wolfmother, citing “irreconcilable differences”. In wake of the break-up, lonely vocalist Andrew Stockdale struggled deciding whether to leave Wolfmother behind him or forge on, even if its was by himself.
Luckily for us, Andrew decided to bring Wolfmother back from its early grave.
“For a while, I was thinking of not going forward as Wolfmother … but then, eventually, I decided just to do it” Stockdale stated in an interview with MTV.
“I decided to answer those challenges, for one, because I can’t help myself, but also, because I’m the Wolfmother guy all the time. I’m the dude from Wolfmother. It confronts me all the time. I didn’t want to justify myself to the press, or explain what happened, or what didn’t happen, or who said what, or why. … I didn’t want to get involved in all that. So I thought the best thing to do was just make music and let that speak for itself.”
Wolfmother’s return to the music scene will not go unchallenged, as pressure to live up to the past album will undoubtedly mount itself onto all future endeavors of the band.
“It’s a bizarre situation, because you’re making new music, but you’re also connected to the first record, and the new people are replacing people. It’s not a new band with a fresh slate.”
Still, Stockdale admits and accepts these challenges as part of the musical path he has chosen.
“I used to think musicians were like monks … and music was like a religious path, because it tests you. It tests your ego, your jealousies, your competitiveness — all those things. How it’s going to consume you. If you can keep writing songs. It tests you in so many ways.”
Though it may not have been the easiest path, Stockdale is now continuing on the Wolfmother legacy and wishes to only focuses on the future of the band.
“The past is the past … that’s over. Even when we started, people were like, ‘Oh, you sound like this, you sound like that.’ Well, it’s like, ‘You can’t go see Led Zeppelin tonight. You can’t go see Black Sabbath. We’re here, we’ve written these songs, so whatever, you know, like Jimi Hendrix ain’t here, and it’s all good and well for everyone to have these high standards and ideas, but, like, it’s not real.”
Wolfmother has already scheduled dates for the upcoming, New Moon Rising Tour, which will kick off in Brisbane, Australia. Their new album, Cosmic Egg is due October 13, and their new single can be heard on their MySpace page.