We Are Wolves are a Canadian

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand in the early to mid-1980s. Although the term was originally used to describe rock music released through independent reco ...

band, based in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, consisting of

vocalist Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

Alexander Ortiz,

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...

/backing vocalist Vincent Levesque and

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

/vocalist Pierre-Luc Bégin. The band released their debut album, '' Non-Stop Je Te Plie en Deux'' with

Fat Possum Records Fat Possum Records is an American independent record label based in Water Valley and Oxford, Mississippi. At first Fat Possum focused almost entirely on recording previously unknown Mississippi blues artists (typically from Oxford or Holly Sprin ...

, in 2005. They have toured extensively across Canada, the United States, and Europe to support the album and have been playlisted on

CBC Radio 3 CBC Radio 3 is a Canadian digital radio station operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which plays a relatively freeform mix of indie rock, indie pop, alternative hip hop, folk, country and electronic music. The service, which la ...

. They also performed live on the first episode of that network's live concert series, '' CBC Radio 3 Sessions''. Their second album, '' Total Magique'', was released September 4, 2007, with a new label Dare to Care Records.

History

Around 2000, Alexander Ortiz and Vincent Levesque, both from the

visual art The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and texti ...

world, along with Antonin Marquis, formed a band with

synthesizers A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, bass, vocals and drums. In their own words the band likes to qualify their sound as "a post-punk landscape with analogue trees. Like rock after the postmodern explosion". The band remained nameless until 2002; when Alexander showed up at the jam space wearing a home-made shirt with a skull spitting a synth displaying the inscription, 'We Are Wolves', they decided to name the band We Are Wolves. In 2005, they released the album " Non-Stop Je Te Plie en Deux" on the American label Fat Possum. We Are Wolves promoted the album with shows in international festivals including Le Rock dans tous ses états, Les Eurokéennes, Dour Festival,

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

Virgin Festival The Virgin Fest, known as the Virgin Mobile FreeFest in the United States, was a rock festival held in the United States and Canada, a spin-off from the V Festival held in the UK. In North America the Virgin Group, Virgin name, and more recently ...

and Osheaga. They had their first North American tour in spring 2005. They opened for …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and The (International) Noise Conspiracy. In September 2005, they performed at North East Sticks Together. A second tour came in 2006, in which they supported the

Gossip Gossip is idle talk or rumor, especially about the personal or private affairs of others; the act is also known as dishing or tattling. Etymology The word is from Old English ''godsibb'', from ''god (word), god'' and ''sibb'', the term for the ...

in addition to some solo gigs across Canada and the United States. In the summer of 2006, they completed a five-week tour in Europe with Montreal act

Duchess Says Duchess Says is a Canadian punk rock band from Montreal.

. In May 2007, they released the single "Fight and Kiss". This EP also features "Coconut 155" and marks the second chapter in their career. We Are Wolves presented their second full-length album "Total Magique" on September 4, 2007, in Canada and on October 2, 2007, in the U.S. They were well received by the media and were covered in

Pitchfork Media ''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music magazine founded in 1996 by Ryan Schreiber in Minneapolis. It originally covered Alternative rock, alternative and independent music, and expanded to cover genres includin ...

and '' Spin''. After sold-out gigs in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, receiving the M-Galaxie Prize at M for Montreal and participating in four shows for CMJ, the band toured Canada, the U.S. and Europe in 2007–2008. In September 2008, We Are Wolves won a Gémeaux Award for the Best TV Musical Theme for ''Bazzo.tv'' theme. The song "Psychic Kids" is featured on the video game Midnight Club: Los Angeles, and the song "Fight and Kiss" is featured on the video game Need for Speed: ProStreet. We Are Wolves released their third full-length album, '' Invisible Violence'', on October 6, 2009. The song "Holding Hands" is featured in the video game '' Gran Turismo 5.'' Their fourth album, "La Mort Pop Club", was released on February 26 of 2013.

Musical style

Their style is characterized by primal drum sounds, repetitive guitar riffs and bass motives, electronic instrumentation, and male vocals that represent rhythmic, rather than melodic, phrasing. Because of these elements, their sound has been described as "primitive" and this identity is represented by the band's moniker. One of their first shows was held at the art pavilion of

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

. Since then, they have performed in Montreal's traditional venues, loft parties, and

art galleries An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

such as Belgo, Saidye Bronfman Center and Fonderie Darling.

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Non-Stop Je Te Plie en Deux'' –

– 2005 * '' Total Magique'' – Dare to Care – 2007 * '' Invisible Violence'' – Dare to Care – 2009 * '' La Mort Pop Club'' – Dare to Care – 2013 * ''Wrong'' – Fantome Records – 2016

References

External links

We Are Wolves

MySpace

Who are We Are Wolves? October 2008

Interview/Article
{{Authority control Canadian indie rock groups Musical groups from Montreal Fat Possum Records artists English-language musical groups from Quebec Musical groups established in 2000 2000 establishments in Quebec