Interview by Kyra-Jade Coombs
Only recently I celebrated my five-year anniversary with HEAVY Mag and over the years I’ve had the privilege of meeting and interviewing some of the world’s biggest music stars, living out my wildest music nerd dreams. Nerves come and go depending on who it is that I’m interviewing, and ‘normally’ I hold my shit together. Today? Oh boy… Don’t get me wrong, I jumped at the opportunity to have a chat with Wolfgang Van Halen, although it wasn’t until I somehow blasted through THREE, yes three, whole pages of questions I wanted to ask that I sat back and reflected on the gravity of the occasion. I thought about what his music means to me, what his family’s music means to me, and how insane it was that I would be casually chatting to Wolf from my little office in Australia.
Wolf’s newest album from his band project Mammoth, The End, is due for its release on October 24, and this was a major topic interview. I wanted to know how this recording experience at the legendary 5150 Studios varied from his other Mammoth albums and what it was like to work with Robert Rodriguez on his self-titled film clip that honours the 1996 Quentin Tarantino horror film From Dusk Till Dawn as it celebrates turning 30 next year. If you haven’t already, do yourself a favour and watch it. Many Easter eggs await to be spotted… I’ll wait, hurry back...
Being a man of many hats, or instruments rather, I felt I already knew what his stance would be about this particular question, although trying to be a good journalist, I wanted to ask about AI/technology and see how he felt about its place in the music industry. His answer was pretty much F$%K AI. "There's no soul or heart behind it. It makes hot dogs - it’s all gross stuff and none of it is real". Great answer, and honestly, if I’m going to trust anyone’s opinion on the matter, it’s going to be the guy who’s taught himself instruments without asking a computer to ‘fill in the gaps’. AI has its place in mundane tasks, not in our creative community.
This was such a fun interview. We covered a lot of ground mapping out his music journey this far, dropping cool stories and treasured memories from over the years that only a Van Halen fan could subtly sprinkle in. Look, I could carry on all day - this is only meant to be a quick summary, go ahead and check out the video below and have Wolf tell you all about it himself!
Get ready to have your f*#$king socks blown clean off. The End is near, and for once, everyone is running towards it. Be prepared to turn it up LOUD with your air guitar and drum sticks ready on stand by.
Bye, legends!
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