Interview: Wolfsbane
It’s the magic that happens when these four people are in a room together. It's a band, and it's those four personalities and the way they interact, that's what really makes Wolfsbane.
Wolfsbane recently revisited their 1989 debut album with a newly recorded version called Live Faster (Live Fast, Die Fast – Re-Imagined, Re-Recorded) and it marks a new lease of life from the beloved Tamworth hard rock heroes. Gavin Brown had the pleasure of catching up with Wolfsbane vocalist Blaze Bayley to talk about the new album and how it came about, the original recording with Rick Rubin and tales of Wolfsbane both past and present,
E&D: The new Wolfsbane album, Live Faster (Live Fast, Die Fast – Re-Imagined, Re-Recorded) has recently come out. Have you been pleased with the reaction to it so far?
Blaze: Yeah, the most important and dreaded response was from fans who have been living with the album from 1989 and that’s what we were very nervous about, will they like it? Will they hate it? Will it be too different? Will it be a waste of money, whatever? So far, the reaction has just been fantastic. A lot of people that have lived with the original album, and it’s an old favourite, they’ve really enjoyed the new version. It’s not so different, but it is a reimagining in some ways. There’s a few little changes that might not hit you straight away, but luckily nobody that is really upset by it has told us, and it’s been a fantastic reaction from all of the fans, and that’s the most important thing for us. We thought it was something that was a bit of a risk, but we really wanted to do it because there were no masters anywhere. You can’t put it on Spotify. A lot of the fans of bands of our era will listen to something on Spotify or on iTunes and then go and see the band and buy the album. That’s the way it works for a lot of artists like us. So, yeah, we were so nervous, It’s quite an experience doing it and a lot of second guessing, but in the end, we just went with our guts, let’s put that into these songs that we still love.
E&D: How was the experience of recording the album?
Blaze: Well, we’ve done a few albums together. We got back together a few years ago, and we did Wolfsbane Saves The World and the Did It For The Money EP. It was a case of, we had time to do it. It’d been a long time. We’re all still alive was an important thing as well. We thought, well, let’s see what it’s like. So we did a reunion gig. It went absolutely great. There was so much good feeling. We just thought, we’ll just keep it going now, and it’s been great. Every so often, we’ve all got time to get together, and it’s the magic that happens when these four people are in a room together. It’s a band, and it’s those four personalities and the way they interact, that’s what really makes Wolfsbane. The l sound of Wolfsbane and the way that we arrange the songs is very particular, because we all have different influences and it was just nice to have that feeling again, and we all decided to to keep going. Its the original lineup. It’s never been anybody different in Wolfsbane, and from 1989 that album is all the same people, and it’s the same people that play live, and it’s the same people that recorded the album. So it’s a really nice feeling.
E&D: Did you want to capture the same energy as the original Live Fast Die Fast recordings?
Blaze: Well, hopefully this doesn’t sound arrogant. Excuse me, if it does, but we wanted to get more energy into it. We felt that’s what we’ve been doing since that album was released in 1989, what we’ve brought to our songwriting, and what we’ve learned about performance, then we’ve got a bit more that we could put into a record as well as that. Jase Edwards has got his own studio. He’s a record producer in his own right as well, and he had a few ideas about how he’d like to do things and get a bit more meat into the sound. So we thought, well, since we’re going to do it again anyway, why don’t we try and put what we’ve been doing since we’ve had our reunion and been playing gigs together, what we do live? Why don’t we put that into the album, try and get some of that energy in there. And I really think it’s worked,
E&D: What are your main memories of, of working with Rick Rubin on the original album?
Blaze: It was a culture shock, absolutely for us. We’d never been to America before, and a lot of people in the US said at that time, California is a different country, not just a different state and a different way of looking at things. I think with the way that we spoke and everything, what we found is on a brief trip that we had to New York to do some promotion, everybody understood us the way that we spoke. When we were in LA, we had to learn to speak in a slightly different way. Slow everything down. It I think Steve Danger adapted best. He actually learned to speak with a Californian, not a US accent, and he learned all the words, and no-one ever said to him, excuse me, what did you say? He got on great, but that’s what it took to be understood. We are a very urgent band, and we had a lot of angst. We were four young men with a lot of ambition, and California was very laid back, and LA had a different way about, so we had to adapt to that. That took a week or two to get into, then you’re in a rehearsal room and you’re in a studio. Working with Rick Rubin, it was the first time we’d had anybody really take songs to pieces and say, well, try this order, try it that way. Does that make sense? Or why is it this way? And that was very disconcerting. Also working with a producer. I think any producer, it would have been that way, and I think particularly with Rick Rubin. You can see by the artists that have gone to him after Wolfsbane to get a particular treatment of their songs, he has a different way of looking at things, and that’s the way that he looked at Wolfsbane. So a lot of our songs, we rearranged and put together and we wrote some while we were there in Los Angeles as well. The city had an influence on our writing. It was a different experience. Here’s the thing though, what we learned during that time working with Rick Rubin and the success that he had and the way that he did things. We took that and when we started our next release, All Hell’s Breaking Loose At Little Kathy Wilson’s Place, those lessons that we learned on that first album, Live Last, Die Fast, we took that into our writing and started doing it that way. We were very, very lucky to work with Brendan O’Brien, who’s an incredible, incredible producer, incredible musician, guitarist, great singer as well. We worked with him after Rick Rubin. I think this was a great education and learning experience for us, because now all of those things, those enormous lessons that we learn, we put into our next album, and we put into redoing and reimagining the Live Faster album.
E&D: Is the title of Live Faster an apt name for the album and something the band live by?
Blaze: Well, yeah, we talked about it a lot and a lot of different titles, and should we just call it the same but put the year on it. But in the end, we’re old. We’re dinosaur age but we’re still going and you look at it and go, well, actually, live faster. Just pack more in. Don’t waste the days you’ve got. I think we’ve all learned that in the band, each one of us. Don’t waste the time. Pack more in, make the most of being alive while you are alive, because you start to see friends go, family members go, and people that you really, really miss. So it’s not die faster. It’s live faster, pack more in. Make the most of it and celebrate small things in Wolfsbane. We’ve always tried to make the most of any good thing that happen. We’ve been a band that even though some of the songs we’ve done are very serious, passionate, emotional, dark, we’ve always tried to have that presentation where we go, You know what? Just forget your life for 90 minutes, a couple of hours, and just be here in this room with us, with this music. That’s a part of it. Our sensibility is going way back to a combination of the Sex Pistols, Motörhead, Van Halen, Ozzy/Sabbath, the Ramones, all of that’s where we come from. We were listening to all that when we got Wolfsbane together. So tinges of that run through our music and our attitude.
E&D: Was the original album subtitle, Wicked Tales of Booze, Birds and Bad Language a testament to the debauchery of the band at the time?
Blaze: Yeah, I think that’s that attitude, rock and roll meant something different. Arriving at the gig after the van has broken down and all you’ve had is half a can of warm lager to keep you going, you still managed to get on stage, lose yourself, go absolutely crazy and do a good gig. That was what we called rock and roll back then, and I think it was for a lot of bands from our era of the late 80s. It was a nice way to look at things, whereas I think rock and roll started to become unwanted. Times change, we’re very much here now in 2025, very proud. We love the fun songs that we have and the serious songs. We never really glorified booze in a way that was said, Hey, we should all have a drink, we always looked at that other side as well, of why are you drinking, and what do you need to drink for to escape this reality was always a subtext, however fun we put that soundtrack behind it, there’s always that subtext of, why are you drinking and what are you trying to forget?
E&D: Are you excited about the band playing the Live Faster album live?
Blaze: We’ve done two so far. I can’t tell you the feeling, if the government knew how good it felt, they would stop it, or that would tax it! It was fantastic. We’re very, very excited. The first two shows went really well. and we can’t wait to do the next shows coming up. We played it in order. It just came together. It just made sense. It was a great order.
E&D: How does it feel to be to be back playing live and making albums with all the original members, forty years since the band first formed?
Blaze: It’s a great feeling. The things that are different are nearly all good things. One massive difference is we’re all so much more chilled out and relaxed. The writing process overall is much easier because everybody’s like, Oh, I’ve got this idea, why don’t we do this? I’ve got this idea. Well, I’m not sure it’s metal enough, or I’m not sure it’s this. We don’t even worry about that. Now, if someone in the band came up with the music. Well it’s Wolfsbane, isn’t it? Because we’re all in Wolfsbane, and that’s a benefit I never expected. What we’ve come up with on the last two albums is just wonderful. If you like the old Wolfsbane, then you’ll like the Genius album as much as you like All Hell’s Breaking Loose Down at Little Kathy Wilson’s Place and the new one. So many people don’t know about the 1989 Live Fast, it didn’t get a wide release, you know, so it’s not in any shops now. If you were interested in Wolfsbane, you wouldn’t even be able to stream that album until now. So we’re very, very proud of it. We still live by the songs and playing them live. They’re just wonderful as they were. ‘Manhunt’ is a song that we’ve had in the set since the first demo that we did. First demo made it onto the first album. It’s always been in the set as well. It’s just a fun song, and it just so catchy. It’s gone great for us, so it’s something that we’re very, very proud of. We’re starting to get played on the radio now, which is very unusual for us to be regulars on the radio.
E&D: You’re supporting The Almighty as well on their Three And Easy tour in November. Are you looking forward to that and what are some of your favorite memories of playing with the band in the early days of both Wolfsbane and The Almighty?
Blaze: Well, there were great days, because that was the scene then, just before grunge really took over. It was still okay to have a good time, have a laugh, jump about, scream your head off at the gig, rather than start telling everybody how miserable they should be, just great times that we had. Of course, we got along really, really well. So we’re very, very excited about touring with The Almighty. It’s going to be absolutely huge. We’re absolutely mad in Wolfsbane, as creaky and old as we are, we are still insane and The Almighty are still playing incredible. So I think it’s going to be a really great tour, whether you were there in 1989 or you were born since then. I think it’s going to be a great so we are so excited about it!
E&D: You are playing at Nottingham Rock City on one of the nights, will you be doing the track ‘Rock City Nights’?
Blaze: I don’t know. You know, that’s a great idea. We’ve got rehearsals on Thursday, so I’m going to mention that to everybody. It’s a great song. Jeff Hateley did most of the lyrics for that song. He just worked out so well with it.
E&D: You’ve played at Rock City a lot over the years. What are some of your favorite memories of playing there?
Blaze: We just had some great, great times there. One time we did a thing where we split the audience in two, and Jeff Hateley got up on one side of the PA, and I was on the other side of the PA. We go all right, my side, okay, Jeff’s side, seeing who could scream the loudest. Just absolute madness. We had so many great nights there. It’s absolutely brilliant.
E&D: What have been some of the other most memorable gigs that Wolfsbane played over the years?
Blaze: Well, we supported Ozzy Osbourne, at the great British music weekend. That was incredible. It was Magnum, Ozzy Osbourne. I think Litter Angels were on as well. That was incredible. We were live on Radio 1 as well and that rock day was just was wonderful. Supporting Iron Maiden of course, with thirty something sold out shows. It was the last time that Iron Maiden would ever play theatres in the UK. Now they do arenas and stadiums. So that was incredible. That was a wonderful tour. We’ve done some great tours. We toured with Motörhead. We had a great tour with them, and Anthrax, we toured with. Going way, way back , we had some really crap rides in the van before we were signed up, but I remember that we played Poole Arts Centre, sold out, that’s 300 people, and we had no record deal. We were just selling our own tapes and T-shirts and the feeling of playing to those fans. We weren’t big stars. We had no videos or anything like that, was something very, very special. Coming all this way, it feels like that vibe again, because we’re independent, we produced the album ourself. We’re putting it out ourself. So we’re completely independent. We haven’t signed up to any record deal or anything. So it feels the juice and the life of what Wolfsbane began as, it feels like we’re there again. We have that juice of that life, because it’s just like when we started in that transit van and we turned up and just played our songs and people liked it and bought it or they didn’t, and we we got more and more fans, so that magic feels like it’s happening all over again now.
E&D: Were Wolfsbane ever close to playing Donnington in the Monsters of Rock years?
Blaze: We were always talked about. The way that Monsters of Rock worked back then, and possibly the reason that it stopped when it did, was the two big agents in the UK, they decided who was on the bill. So one year it was one agent, the next year it was another agent. So you had to be on one of those big agencies, really. And we kind of fell through the cracks of that system. We weren’t with one of those big agents at the time when it would have been right for us to play.
E&D: How was the experience of you coming out with Disturbed at the Download festival at Donnington to play ‘Baba O Reilly’?
Blaze: Fantastic! I had a lot of experience by then, but they were such lovely, lovely guys. The thing that got me more than anything was the height of the stage. I’ve seen big crowds before. I’ve played to big crowds. I’ve done festivals before, but the height of the Download stage, you look at it and I’m thinking, Oh, and it was a bit wet and a bit slippy! The guys from Disturbed, I know John Moyer, the bass player very well. We’ve been in a band together. I just thought, man, they’re going to be damaged or a potential death there if they fall off this stage. But yeah, it was an incredible experience. A lot of fun, and what a wonderful bunch of guys.
Photo by Kate Ross
