A Chat with Wolf Light (27.06.2020)
Wolf Light is the electronic music project of artist and producer Jason Wolfe. The project came to light in 2019 to accompany a series of abstract digital artworks. The projects latest track ‘Cut My Body Down’ featuring John Nolan has now been released. We sat down with Jason Wolfe (JW) to talk about the new single, his music and much more!
OSR: When you create music, what is your personal purpose or goal?
JW: I have always been interested in music that can influence and affect my mood, as well as build a ‘world’, so I strive to create songs that people can get lost in. It’s somewhat cliché but I also primarily make music for myself. These are songs that I want to listen to.
OSR: What is the biggest hurdle you have had to jump so far?
JW: Having no formal musical training and having to teach myself how to use various different DAWs and instruments. I’m currently learning how to mix and master properly. This is all part of the joy, but it’s certainly limited what I have been able to achieve at times.
OSR: What is the backstory of the new single ‘Cut My Body Down’?
JW: I had a sparse instrumental track almost fully complete but it was lacking something. I had recently started speaking to John (who features on the track) a lot and we were sending each other songs and videos of ourselves playing. John sent me an acoustic track that he was working on and I knew pretty much immediately that I wanted to feature the vocals on my track.
I was quite nervous about asking and setting expectations too high, so I separated the vocals from his guitar and put together a rough version of the finished song to surprise him with. We both liked the song so much that we decided to release it. The vocals you hear in the song are the original vocals ripped from the iPhone video that he sent to me, with some very minor tweaks to the sound. His acoustic guitar can also be heard faintly throughout the song.
OSR: What was it like collaborating with another artist?
JW: It was very liberating discussing the song and shaping the sound with another artist. John makes music that is very different from mine as well, so it felt like two different worlds coming together. I have worked with other producers before but never a vocalist, so it was a very insightful experience and one that I am keen to repeat.
OSR: What does your music say about you?
JW: A lot of the music that I produce sort of sounds like the inside of my head! I don’t want to attach too much meaning to anything though, as I think that the best music often allows the listener to create their own narrative. I think instrumental music, in particular, can do this in a very surprising way sometimes.
OSR: On a scale of 1 to 969, how much fun did you have producing this single and why?
JW: I’m going to say 968. I’ve docked one point for the frustration that I felt on the day I was submitting the track when I spent a good two hours obsessively trying to eliminate a clicking sound that I couldn’t put my finger on! Overall though, the experience was a very positive one and I learnt a lot about how to work with vocals.
OSR: What inspires your music?
JW: I’m really interested in sound design and I try to incorporate a lot of ambient sounds in my tracks. Naturally, the state of the world right now is weighing heavily on my mind and this is coming out in my music as well. Creativity comes from many different places for me, so there are periods of time where I will only listen to pop music or music that I used to listen to as a teenager and I’m always surprised at how music that is very different to my own can still influence the choices I make when I’m producing.
OSR: Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians who want to follow in your footsteps?
JW: It can be really hard having a ‘vision’ of what your music should sound like but being unable to create what you are imagining if you don’t have the tools to hand. I have learnt that you can create a lot with very little, though. My first EP was produced entirely in the iPhone app Auxy and I still use this for programming all of my drums. My advice would be to forget about releasing anything and just focus on honing your skills as a musician first. The rest of it will come naturally. Don’t stop making music, even if you think it isn’t very good, because you don’t know what you might come back to for inspiration.
OSR: What draws you to your preferred genre?
JW: My favourite musician is probably Burial. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to music that has the ability to conjure up images and emotions quite like his songs do. I think that in itself is highly aspirational, and so I try to do the same with my music. I can listen to his music at any time of the year, day or night, and I am still transported to this very specific world that he has created.
OSR: Where are you going from here?
JW: I’m working on another solo EP which I hope to release in the next two months. The response to this latest single has been really positive so I’m also working out how I can collaborate with other vocalists. I always saw myself as a solo artist but it’s been really fun working with someone else and I would like to explore that more in the future.
Thanks to Jason Wolfe for chatting with us! You can find more about Wolf Light on his website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
