Get to know our newest Center Stage band Lunatic Wolf- A contemporary folk-rock band from Johannesburg, South Africa. The band was formed in 2012 by Gavin van den Berg and Richard Oldfield who had been writing music together since their high school years. van den Berg and Oldfield explored various musical directions together, before settling on their current sound which has been likened to groups such as Death Cab for Cutie, Noah Gundersen, Mumford & Sons and Sufjan Stevens.
Lunatic Wolf's debut release "To the Adventure" was recorded at High Seas Studios in Johannesburg and was co-produced by Gavin and Jacques du Plessis (producer for Wrestlerish, Desmond & the Tutus, Shortstraw). The album captures the duo's transition to adulthood, exploring themes of growth, childhood nostalgia and the end of life and love.
Describe your sound in one ramble-on sentence
Alternative Folk-rock that evokes feelings of childhood nostalgia, sentimentality, romance and drama.
What inspires you to make music?
The ability to be able to communicate and express our thoughts, emotions and feelings in a way that we are not always able to do.
What aspect of making music excites you the most right now?
The thought that people can “connect” with our music and draw inspiration from it.
What are the biggest challenges you face as a musician?
Finding the hours in a day to do all the things that we would like to do!
What's one of your all-time favourite recordings?
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours.
Name three people who have influenced your music, and tell us why- Living or dead.
My Dad, for the folk influence he has imparted on me.
Ryan Adams, for the ability to compose hits with such ease.
Conor Oberst, for just having a way with words.
Do you have any recent or upcoming projects you'd like to share with us? Tell us about it.
Our new album “To the Adventure” has just been released and is available through most online digital retailers and through the Lunatic Wolf online store. We are currently exploring the possibility of recording and producing a new music video through online collaboration.
What is your ideal or target audience?
Women, aged 18-34, who live in South Africa and enjoy listening to Mumford & Sons. At this stage, this is what the data is telling us. :)
Do you write your own songs? Briefly describe your songwriting process.
We have an initial key focus on basic chords, structure, melody and lyrical direction. Lyrical direction is very important to us as it sets the tone for the rest of song. From there we flesh out our ideas, taking our time and working through as many ideas as possible. Our songs go through various iterations and the stronger ideas generally become something more concrete. This was the basic approach to the songs that you hear on our debut album “To the Adventure” and is the approach that we are currently taking with our new material.
What do you like the most about Radio Airplay?
Radio Airplay allows us to profile our target audience in an extremely cost-effective manner. The site’s reporting capabilities then allow us to put our music in front of this audience, ensuring that we get the most “bang for our buck”!
Youtube video