INTERVIEW: Tatius Wolff

A few days ago I had the pleasure of reviewing "The Relapse", the conceptual debut of Australian one man band Tatius Wolff, and founder and sole member Stephan Wolff was more than willing to satisfy my little curiosities.

SN:
Could you first of all tell me a little about your project? When did you form the band? What are your inspirations and influences that made you the band you are today?

WOLFF:
In 2015, after 17 years of not playing guitar or writing any music, I decided I wanted to start playing bass. I bought a cheap bass and joined an internet community called Wikiloops, where I collaborated with other artists (https://www.wikiloops.com/artist/Wolffy_au.php). This is where I first started learning to record and mix. In 2016, my old band from Malta, melodic doom death metal Oblique Visions asked if I could start writing music with them again. We did this for a year and did a 20 year reunion gig in Malta (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlM2-N_ZqJOaGzNVwSb5k-PNBQ4FUiks-). But by the start of 2017, I realised this couldn't be a long term solution because of the distance. I was very insecure about my song-writing capability, my audio production skills and my voice - but I found the courage to go solo anyway.
I officially started Tatius Wolff April 2017. This is when I went public, created the Facebook page, started writing my blog (https://tatius-wolff.blogspot.com/) documenting my journey into the unknown.
I have a blog post about influences (https://tatius-wolff.blogspot.com/2017/08/my-earliest-influences.html). I can go back to listening to Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and Carlos Santana as a kid - albums that belonged to my mum. I got into Van Halen and Guns N Roses as a teenager. I learnt to solo playing along with Pink Floyd's Delicate Sound of Thunder on repeat for months on end. I then switched to metal after a friend (the drummer of Oblique Visions) took me to a metal gig and they played Sepultura's Troops Of Doom. Pretty much the next day, I got myself a copy of Arise and Entombed's Left Hand Path - I was hooked and the rest is history. My biggest influences are Type O Negative, Tool, Deftones, Nine Inch Nails and early Entombed. Lately, I've discovered Meshuggah and Mastodon, whose influences are definitely shining through in my music.

SN:
How would you describe your music? What are your ideologies with the music you make?

WOLFF:
Man, such a tough question. It's definitely heavy, but I would believe the genre could be anything from progressive rock to Djent(ish). When I quote genre's for my music, I'm just recycling the genre's of my favourite bands, because I really don't know where I fit in the scheme of things - alternative metal, gothic metal, industrial metal and progressive metal.
For the first 3 singles in 2017, I was doing the social justice warrior themes - neo conservatism, the right wing movement, the miliary industrial complex, money in politics and indigenous people's issues. But I found that my music wasn't vulnerable enough. There was emotion, but it wasn't personal enough. I thought about the two greatest concept albums in my collection - Pink Floyd The Wall and Nine Inch Nails The Downward Spiral, and I decided I wanted to write a concept album about something traumatic I had been through. And so The Relapse was born. Althought it's about getting sick and recovering, themes are quite broad - everything from personal struggles to bullying and grief.

SN:
What is the meaning behind the "Tatius Wolff" name? What made you choose that particular name for your project?

WOLFF:
It's a combination of my nickname and a Roman name that sounded good with it. The Roman Standard Bearer logo of the band came first, and I just looked for a name that fit the character in the logo. I believe "Tatius" means founder.
As a high school teenager in Australia, I had a friend call me "Stephan Wolff" after Steppenwolf, Born To Be Wild. This continued once I was living overseas in Malta, where everyone in the metal scene just knew me as Wolff. When I was thinking of a band name, I wanted the word Wolff in there, but it needed something more because there were already a bunch of bands with Wolff as their name.

SN:
How do you write material? Can you describe the creative process?

WOLFF:
It varies. It could start with a bass line, a guitar riff, a scrawl of lyrics or I'll plan the whole song out on paper beforehand. I'll also take notes of songs that I really like sections of, and go back to them to see if something similar would fit into what I'm writing.
Then I put down simple drums first as a framework to track against. I'll customise snare and kicks appropriate for the riffs. I'm not too fussed what goes down initially because I'll iterate and make incremental changes to the song hundreds of times before I'm anywhere near the mixing stage.  But I do record my takes, like it's the recording that will be on the album - because quite often it will be. Nothing worse than being at the mixing stage and hearing electrical hum or sloppy chord changes. The last check is the static mix because if the song sounds good raw with no effects, then it's probably ready for mixing.

Stephan Borg

SN:
"The Relapse" is a concept album, as stated in the EPK. Could you tell us a bit more what the story is about?

WOLFF:
In October 2017 I found myself suddenly hospitalised with a bowel infection. After years of never being sick this was a huge shock to me. I didn't take this incident serious enough and when I returned home, I didn't treat this issue with the respect I should have. 5 weeks later, I was back in hospital with a bowel obstruction, a lot of vomit and a pipe into my stomach. Those 6 days really hit home how out of control I was with this health issue. At the lowest point, I thought I wasn't going to get better anytime soon and I felt like complete shit. Feeling insignificant and irrelevant to the universe, I realised it was all completely out of my control. And that's the story - shock, recovery, false hope, relapse, trauma, torment and despair, all wrapped up in an album.

SN:
Judging from the fact that this is a rather personal album, concept wise or not, and myself also making the same kind of album earlier, I imagine it must be a relief to finally have finished it. Was it a difficult album to make? It must have been a therapeutic experience to make this kind of album?

WOLFF:
Being my first solo album, it was an amazing learning experience. I no longer have aspirations of becoming a rock star, so for me this is a personal development journey of writing, recording, mixing, releasing and promoting music.
As a novice audio engineer, I could tweak these songs forever, so at some point I had to make the jump and commit to releasing my baby into the big bad world. It was primarily difficult because a lot of what I was doing were firsts for me. And as time goes by, there are plenty of things I could go back and change - but I have to let it go, and get onto the next big adventure.

"The Relapse" album cover

SN:
Are you sticking to the digital format for your album, or will there be a physical release as well?

WOLFF:
For now it's digital format. I've had requests for physical CD's and t-shirts, so they are on the cards to make if there is enough demand. But for now, it's just a digital release.

SN:
You do everything on this record, from writing and composing to production. For gear and hardware geeks, what kind of gear do you use to form your sound?

WOLFF:
Haha - the shittiest and cheapest gear I coud find and only free audio plug-ins. Let me explain.
For quite a number of reasons, I wanted to prove to myself and to other upcoming artists, that without money, having amazing musical instruments, the best audio equipment or expensive plugins, that releasing a good quality album can be done. You can produce something that's a level of quality worthy of public release. The flaws you hear in my audio production are my fault, through lack of experience and skill not the fault of my equipment or free plug-ins.
So if you're an upcoming artist, without any cash to buy an amazing guitar, or the latest audio plug-in - don't worry, you can make good quality music without them. Just get that music out to the public and start building your audience as soon as possible.
If you're still wondering what I used, here goes. First model Ibanez RG8 (with the shit pickups), Chinese Monterey MBE-40BK bass, Ibanez 540P, the cheapest mic on Amazon, Neewer NW-800 and a pair of AKG K702 headphones.
Free VST bundles I can't live without - Variety Of Sound, Antress, Dead Duck Software FX and Instruments, Ignite Amps, MT Power Drum Kit 2 (groove library), Nick Crow Labs, LePou's Amps, Tokyo Dawn Labs, TSE, VLadG, DSK Synths, YouLean and Steve Slate Drums 5 (free). I also use SM Drums and The Metal Kick Drum drum samples.

SN:
Are you planning any live performances with the project?

WOLFF:
Unfortunately, I have not found the courage to go play solo with backing tracks yet. And all my efforts to find a band since Oblique Visions have failed. I haven't given up yet. I may at some point try playing live solo, but it's not a priority for me at the moment.

SN:
What are the future plans for Tatius Wolff?

WOLFF:
Another album of course! Just trying to work out what concept theme I'm going for. I've had quite a few thoughts - a very dark story about a local tragedy, social justice and political warrior, relationship challenges - just not sure which one to go for yet. We'll just have to wait and see!

Check out Tatius Wolff 's discography and pre-order "The Relapse" at https://tatius-wolff.bandcamp.com/. If you're a fan of Meshuggah, Type O Negative, Deftones and Nine Inch Nails, you'll discover a fine blend of these bands when you lend an ear to Tatius Wolff.