Photo:
Deep beneath the ever-so curious pub-fronted space that is Farringdon’s Betsey Trotwood, in a dark and misty air where one can feel the Hammersmith and City line tubes literally ride above them with only minor brick-layering to divide, three chums who go under the name Peter and the Wolf sit in front of Gigwise, all good and proper to tell the story of their past and hopes for the future…
Sergei Prokofiev’s composition, ‘Peter and the Wolf’, is a story about a boy who ignores his grandfather’s warnings to save his animal friends from a wolf (Thanks Google). The band, Peter and the Wolf, have gone through many a stage to find their sound and identity, disregarding what’s front-covering the music press to create a natural blend of acoustic-pop with not a single boundary in sight.
Meeting and assembling at university in the city of Liverpool, lead singer/guitarist Marc Sunderland lived two floors above drummer Donna Dosanjh, who reveals "We started hanging out and writing songs, playing open-mic nights at a couple of bars." The trio was complete after double-bassist Hugo Harrison met Marc studying for a degree in Music.
After years of what Marc describes as "lots of fun in my bedroom", practicing and rehearsing in the gear up to numerous gigs far and wide, a mini-album was released earlier this month through Elbow front man Guy Garvey’s Skinny Dog Records. "We played in Manchester a few times, and some of the label came to see us" states Marc, "But when we played at The Crypt, which is under The Metropolitan Cathedral, the whole of the label came down, and after the show they gave us the indecent proposal."
Featuring six tracks, ‘Storyteller’ is filled with brief charming slices of light-strumming bliss. "There wasn’t a sound we tried to create with it. We just had so many songs and it was just a matter of deciding what to go on" says Donna. However, one common aspect of the Wolf’s resonance is despite an upbeat and melodic bliss of light strumming, rather dark lyrics feel the need to direct the songs into slightly gloomy places. Mini-album track ‘Tommy’ contains the lyrics, ‘What have I done? What if I break down and kill someone?’, on top of a sweet-sounding tune, but it does create an interesting blend nonetheless. Hugo tells us, "It is quite a usual Peter and the Wolf thing to do that, like we’ve got a song called Euthanasia." So does that come naturally? "Yeah I suppose it does. It’s not like we think 'Oh this is too poppy, lets make it darker with the lyrics', but maybe we need to write sad songs with positive lyrical content" Marc jokingly replies.
For a wide barrage of influence and inspiration, the band delve deep into the spheres of country and blues, and tend to stray far from alternative rock. "The thing with rock music is that you hear it wherever you go, so you sort of absorb it anyway. I don’t really buy it, simply because it’s always there" says Hugo, before Marc and Donna list off a few of their favourite artists, "Sam Cooke, Hank Williams, Paul Simon, Mississippi John Hurt, people like that, also Gillian Welch."
Despite the fact neither member is originally from Liverpool, that distinctive Liverpudlian sound of soothing vocals and rhythmic beats certainly come across within Peter and the Wolf. "Really?" Marc responds. Yeah really, Gigwise nervously replies. "We have lived there for like seven years, so I guess in a way we are all plastic scousers." Moving swiftly on, the largest pitched bowed string instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra (Thanks Wikipedia), the double bass, seems to be popping up here, there and everywhere far as rock and roll is concerned, what with the Guillemots also comprising of one. "Yeah, the return of the double bass" Hugo excitedly states, "I hope it is though, because there’s not enough of us." One can’t help but notice the sounds of a cowbell as well, leading on to the question of ever being tempted to drive off into a disco direction, very much common to the scenes of now. ‘We do actually have a song called ‘Peaches’, featuring the cowbell which is quite disco. "That’s something I never thought we’d do," says Marc.
Whilst on the subject of the scenes of now, Marc is keen to point out that "We don’t have to keep up with the scenes really, it’s not necessary for us. We like to be a band that’s always there" to which Donna adds, "But I mean it’s not that we ignore the scene, we just do our own thing, and the let the scene do what it wants to do." One scene they are apart of is of the numerous amounts of bands in Liverpool just waiting to explode, such as the likes of Eugene McGuiness and Alterkicks. Marc believes, "There is a rich music scene in Liverpool at the moment, with very different bands and very different sounds, and everyone’s good friends." Just check out their Top 8 friends on their Myspace page to see.
Counting off their New Years resolutions, Donna says, "We’re going to start recording again in January, though the album is pretty much written. It’s just a case of new songs coming better than the old ones." Any other plans for next year? "Yeah, we’ll keep doing at least a gig in Manchester, Liverpool and London every month, and then hopefully a full tour will be in place by Easter.’
As Peter and the Wolf head on stage in what’s labelled as ‘the smallest proper music venue in London’, tonight genuinely does breed the essence of before-they-were-famous.
