Firewolfe

Exclusive interview with Nick Layton

Hello! Can you introduce your band for my readers?

Hi! Sure, the band is: Bobby Ferkovich (Pamela Moore, Presto Ballet) on bass, Marco Bicca (Pamela Moore, A Dying Planet) on drums, Freddy Krumins (James Byrd’s Atlantis Rising) on vocals, Michael David (TKO) on guitar, and me Nick Layton (Q5) on guitar.

Let’s talk about some themes, that can be interesting for fans. Powerwolf, Wolf… What`s the meaning of your FireWölfe?

Our name has caused some confusion. Especially for Europeans. We simply thought the words Fire and Wolf sounded cool together. We added the umlaut because we thought looked cool too. And we thought the extra “e” at the end of “wolf” made the name look more classic. But we pronounce the name as “Fire Wolf”, not firewolves as many people think. The umlaut in FireWölfe is in the tradition of bands like Queensrÿche, Motörhead, etc.

FireWölfe sounds very variously! Who is the main authors in band?

I write 90% of the music in the band and the singer will take on the lyrics and vocal melodies.

I think, that roots of FireWölfe`s music lies in some Rainbow and Judas Priest dimensions. So who influent much more to create music of FireWölfe?

Rainbow and Judas Priest are definitely big influences for us, and also bands like Savatage, Dokken, Queensryche, Dio, Accept, Yngwie and others.

Did you made some concerts before covid?

We have not had a chance to play/tour yet as a band. Too many line up changes have prevented that in the past, and then Covid. But we hope to change that in 2022 and get in front of some metal heads and play live!

How did you find Freddy Krumins? I think he is great! Charismatic, strong and beautiful voice…

Freddy used to live in the Seattle area, which is where the rest of us live, but now he lives in Las Vegas. We tracked him down to see what he was up to and after a discussion he joined the band and we began writing new material immediately.

Is there any difference between work of Freddy Krumins and David Fefolt?

Yeah, we really love how Freddy sang on the new album! I think Freddy and Dave are similar in some ways vocally. But they each have a distinct sound to me. Both are great at what they do.

Why David Fefolt left the band? He was good enough!

David Fefolt left the band to focus on family life. We tried to work together again recently but in the end it just didn’t work out.

Why Ronny Munroe did not became new vocalist? Great Singer too and famous even in in Post-USSR countries.

With Ronny Munroe we wrote some songs together, but he decided he wanted to focus on his solo career at the time, so he left the band before we could complete an album.

So «Conquer All Fear». I love it! Its really strong and talented record! I listen to Firerwolfe since its debut CD. I think all its albums very professional and talented. But I think, that «Conquer All Fear» much more stronger melodically, even it’s reminds me style of previous works. So is there any musical difference between «Conquer All Fear» and previous albums?

Glad you like the new album! I think “Conquer All Fear” is a bit heavier, with more uptempo tunes compared to the first two albums. That was intentional. We wanted this album to be more aggressive overall and I think we accomplished. But good melodies are very important to us too, so we made sure the songs were both heavy and melodic.

And my specials question at the end. Heavy Metal is eternal, but does it need some new, fresh things or nothing new under the moon – and heavy metal must be heavy metal and nothing at all?!

I think it’s always good to have new bands in the metal scene come up. The newer bands seem to sound quite different from what we are doing, although there does seem to be some resurgence of old school metal. As for FireWölfe, we aren’t trying to reinvent the wheel, we just create the kind of music we like to listen to, and hope that other people like it too.

Thanks for the interview!

Questions: Евгений "Jackhammer" Молот