Wolves at the Gate (WATG), the post-hardcore band based in Dayton, Ohio, has been very active the last couple of years. After starting off with a couple EPs, they burst into the hardcore scene with their first full-length album (reviewed positively by many critics), “Captors,” which showed their maturation over the years since they first demo, “Pulled From the Deep.” Since then, they’ve been that band that often breaks the screaming stalemate at metal concerts by adding rich vocals (most of their songs feature half singing and half screaming).
Post-hardcore band Wolves at the Gate’s latest EP covers classic post-hardcore hits
It’s been over a year since “Captors,” and it’s no surprise many fans are getting antsy, waiting for some fresh music. We caught up with co-founder and clean vocalist Steve Cobucci to get an update on the band’s future projects as well as delve into some of their inspirations and influences.
WATG has been through some line-up changes, switching lead screamers a while back as well as drummers. Most recently they lost their lead guitarist when he got married. “Guys get married and are doing real things with their lives,” Cobucci said. They haven’t replaced him yet which leaves them a four-piece, and has Cobucci playing lead riffs he finds important to the songs. In the meantime, they aren’t in a rush to get a new lead.
“It’s really important to us at this point to get somebody who is committed and solid,” he said. “There are just so many factors. You don’t want to be hasty.”
Their latest EP, “Back to School,” covers post-hardcore founders such as Thrice, Thursday, The Receiving End of Sirens and Blindside – all of which are bands that played a major role in creating WATG. Aside from playing music they love, Cobucci said the EP is to show fans where WATG came from “stylistically.”
“A lot of times kids would ask us who are favorite bands are, and [Thrice and Thursday] would be some of the first two that list, and a lot of times kids are like ‘I don’t know who they are,’” Cobucci said, which he found perplexing. “If there is any reason why you like us it’s because we’re trying to write Thrice and Thursday songs, obviously with our own twist, but [our songs] are heavily inspired [by these bands].”
That’s not to cut TREOS or Blindside short – Cobucci said they are major influences as well. The TREOS cover is a tribute to a band that he felt never received the recognition they deserved, and Blindside is a band he describes was a “gateway” band that got him into heavier rock.
“I’d love if kids went back and checked out those bands and got inspired by them in the same way we did,” Cobucci said.
The songs that were chosen, which include “Understanding a Car Crash” (Thursday), “Deadbolt” (Thrice), “Sleepwalking” (Blindside) and “Planning a Prison Break” (TREOS), are unique for WATG in that they are the first time the band has recorded “secular” music (although arguably Thrice’s “Deadbolt,” like many Thrice songs, has strong religious undertones). But they won’t be dropping their faith-based lyrics in future albums. Instead, Cobucci explained how these are “real” songs that are relatable to everyone that also have solid lyrics.
With Thursday’s “Understanding a Car Crash,” it is especially real for WATG, since they lost a close friend in a car accident years back.
“[The song] is about coming to grips with a tragedy,” Cobucci explained, noting that it was based off a real fatal accident that Thursday’s lead singer Geoff Rickly was in. “Both Ben [WATG’s bassist] and I had a really close friend in college who died in a car accident, and I can relate to [the lyrics] and many people can.”
Currently, they’re on the Rise Up Tour, which ends Oct. 20 in San Francisco. It has thus far been smooth sailing, Cobucci said. The level of cooperation they’ve all experienced on the tour is rare, especially since the bands are fairly diverse. The tour features PVRIS, a heavier pop-rock band from Boston with a female lead (whose vocal talent easily rival that of her female rock counterparts) and I, The Mighty, an alternative rock band which reminds Cobucci of early 2000s rock that he grew up with. Then there is his band, Wolves at the Gate (“a strange breed of post-hardcore”), For All Those Sleeping, who are on the metalcore side, and finally post-hardcore headliners A Skylit Drive.
Post Rise Up Tour will be a busy time for Cobucci and the rest of WATG, as they work on their new album in mid-November to record at the Machine Shop in New Jersey with producer Will Putney (Impending Doom, For Today, Four Year Strong, Texas In July and others) after several months of writing. While not delving too deep in the record’s details, he did say it will rock a different sound than “Captors,” which he said was a little too polished. After months of tours and festivals, he came to the realization that some people were saying their music sounded better live.
“It’s not tooting our own horn, I just think it’s because kids can hear us better,” Cobucci said.
The band fans hear live is the band that has matured after dozens of live performances and is inevitably spilling over into the next album, said Cobucci. Now that they’ve been touring consistently, they’ve altered the music and lyrical content of several songs as they’ve ripened on the road.
“We’re going into the record with that kind of mentality,” Cobucci said. “Because we record once, but we play those songs so many times. That’s how I’ve been training my mind more and more – thinking about the live show because that is where you really clinch your fans.”
They will also be recording and filming some acoustic covers – which Cobucci said has been received favorably by fans and further pushes those aforementioned boundaries.
“I want people to see we are more than just a heavy band.”
The relentless touring has matured his faith, too. From WATG’s Twitter description (“We desire to keep the Gospel of Jesus Christ the focus of who we are and what we do”) to the almost hymn-like lyrics of “Captors,” and then their live shows, they’ve never been shy about their faith. Recently, he’s felt God has been teaching him a new facet of his faith.
“You see the world differently as you meet more people,” Cobucci said. “The Lord has taught me more and more to be compassionate. It’s really easy to have a bold word, it’s really easy to try and say something really shocking or challenging, but it’s a lot more difficult to have compassion on people.”
His focus on compassion has been strengthened from his reading the four Gospels in the Bible, where he sees Jesus was moved to action by having compassion.
In every show, whether they’re at Creation Festival (considered to be the largest Christian rock festival in the U.S.) or touring with secular bands – the majority of what WATG’s tours consist of – they take a moment to give the Gospel of Jesus to the crowd. Often times Cobucci uses a parable of Jesus as an avenue to preach the message of Christ’s salvation, and he gives a unique message each time.
“My goal on a tour is to never preach the Gospel the same way,” Cobucci said. “It would be a terrible disservice to [the other bands] if I just said the same thing every night.”
For the times WATG does play at Christian festivals like Creation – which he says comprises about a tenth of their touring – he says he tends to be harder on the crowds in his messages in between songs, to “wake them up.”
“The standard is so low in for Christians in this country,” he said. “Our standard of being a Christian is just not being like the people at Westboro Baptist.”
Christianity should be more than that, he said, as Christians are held to the standard of Christ, who had no limit in his compassion and sacrificial service.
“There’s a lot of people who profess to be Christians but not a lot of people who confess to be Christians,” Cobucci said. “There’s a big difference between those two words if you look up the semantics. Our goal [when at Christian festivals] is to wake up believers.”
While WATG embraces change, they don’t plan on deviating too far from their established post-hardcore sound. But that’s not to say it’ll stifle their creativity, Cobucci said, since they don’t mind straying from that genre from time to time.
“I don’t want to feel pigeonholed to have to have a song that has half-singing and half-singing,” he said.
In the end, it’s not about what genre they end up in, but whether they stay true to themselves as a band.
“Whatever you think boundaries are, we to push them,” he said. “We’re trying our best to push those boundaries and not fit into a mold and to be unique to ourselves. That’s the goal, and I think we’re getting closer to that on this (upcoming) record.”
