Like A New Moon Rising - Wolfmother

Andrew Stockdale is scanning the glamorous, shiny bedroom of a central London hotel looking for somewhere to sit. Considering there are only two options – neither of which includes a bed (curiously, the room appears to be lacking one) – it’s not a decision the Wolfmother frontman is taking lightly. He puts his hands on his hips and emits a sigh, which is followed by another one. Then – finally – a breakthrough.  “There,” he says intently, before marching over to what he labels the “psychologists couch”. 

It turns out to be an apt choice for Stockdale, who is in town to preview Wolfmother’s forthcoming second album ‘Cosmic Egg’ at an intimate pub gig. As one would expect from a band whose 2005 self-titled debut was both praised and maligned by critics for its grandiose, Led Zeppelin-echoing classic rock riffs and emphatic vocals, ‘Cosmic Egg’ is a bold, brash and blisteringly loud – very loud – listen. But it almost never happened at all. After three years of constant touring and acceptance speeches, the highlight of which came at the 2007 Grammy Awards when the band collected the award for Best Hard Rock Performance, Stockdale suddenly found himself on his own last summer when fellow Wolfmother co-founders bassist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett quit citing “longstanding frictions”. While the departing pair outlined plans to form an a new band, Stockdale vowed to continue with a new line-up – or, at least, that’s what his record label said in a statement at the time. In reality, it appears the singer was actually unsure as to whether to continue Wolfmother or not.

“Well, um, yeah, I guess I just became overcome with strategy, eh,” he says, deconstructing the situation. “Psychology, politics and strategy from all these different angles. And then I was just like, man, it’s just music, eh. I remember New Years Eve at the end of 2008 and I was like, I am so glad 2008 is finished, that was a tough year.”

He’s not kidding either. Although Ross and Heskett officially announced their departure in the days immediately after the group’s fraught set at Byron Bay’s Splendour In The Grass festival in August last year, the origins of their decision, Stockdale says, can be traced back to when Wolfmother re-grouped in Sydney following an eight month break to begin work on their second album. Even then, there was a lot of “confusion and uncertainty”, according to Stockdale, who eagerly flew down from Brisbane as soon as he received the call from his bandmates.

“We were almost there, eh,” he says, recalling the period. “It was like the last day before we sent the demos off to the producer to start the record that Chris just decided he wanted to do something else. So I was just like…at that point I just didn’t put up any resistance, I was like, 'Cool man, I’m glad you made a decision'. Because we were just…”

In limbo?

“Yeah, sure. Even if it was just a matter of, like, making coffees in a café or something. At some point I just needed to know what I was gonna do, rather than just waiting for the phone to ring or someone to kind of say, 'Yeah, we don’t know.'”