It's about two years ago that this guy Wolfskind came on the scene putting out a special kind of atmospheric melodic deep house tracks. He's been evolving his style ever since, remixing the likes of FEDER and Hozier (the one a bit more official than the other) and with quite some original works up his sleeve, the big breakthrough could be closer than ever. In cooperation with Selected Sounds he is now releasing his latest track. Time to find out more!
So, who’s the guy behind Wolfskind?
I am Lucas, 18 years old and I am still going to school in Lüneburg, Germany. I’m writing my final exams in 2 months. I am playing hockey and doing a lot of sport, but i love going out and drinking beer with my friends as well. Oh and I love movies! More then books! I could watch netflix all day long, if I wouldnt do music instead haha!
Why “Wolfskind”?
You know Mogli? He is a wolfskind in German, raised by animals. I like the idea of not being raised and influenced by the "normal", away from the mainstream. The same goes for my music, I don't want to make music to blow up, i want to make it for myself, and as I taught it all myself, learning by doing, Wolfskind seemed pretty cool to me.
How much of your time do you spend on your music?
I spend around two hours a day, if I have a creative phase I sometimes sit down working for about six to seven hours, or even a whole night to write down all my ideas. I am definitely planning to increase my effort and time I put in music after school, but as I will be travelling a lot I think it will be more like: producing for a month and playing shows, travelling and playing shows, producing, and so forth.
Traveling and playing shows? That sounds like quite the life!
Yeah, after exams i will work some jobs besides making music, to finance traveling that I start in September. I will fly to New York and travel all around the country and then to Middle America, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and all those wonderful places. While doing that I hope to play as many shows as possible where ever I am, at house parties, universites, clubs or parks - it doesn’t matter for me. After that, I will come back to Germany, focus on music again and also apply for university. I would love to study design and/or music production, but I am also interested in sound engineering so i think that will be the direction I will go. To be honest, I hope to find out what I really want while traveling, maybe it will be educating children somewhere in Costa Rica, maybe working in a surf shop, I don’t know yet and I think thats quite good!
Are you playing many gigs already?
I recently met a manager and booker and since that my gigs are increasing, but I wasn’t playing many due to school and my young age… I did play several times in different German cities such as Munich, and also once in France. Next month I will play my first show ever in Austria! Can’t wait for that one! My best one was a gig in Munich, it was quite a bad festival but the people were great and really celebrating my tracks! My dream is to play my own concerts, not DJ gigs, with singers and other instrumentalists! That’d be sick!
How is your sound evolving?
I am still developing a lot of different sounds, I’ve got projects with trap, techno, future bass and drum ‘n bass on my hard drive. If you listen to my oldest tracks and my newest on soundcloud you can definitely hear that I am still trying out, and I think will never stop trying as I don’t want to rely on one genre.
Which artists inspire you along the way?
Flume is my biggest hero, he has the most unique sound I have ever heard. But also guys like Lemaitre and a lot of the “Next Wave Records” crew inspire me every day. However, I think I get the most inspired by non-electronic songs. I listen to a lot of indie and rock, but also blues, and I have a fable for old classics, such as Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone, just to name a few.
Will you keep focusing on remixes?
No! I definitely want to put out an EP when the time is right. I am collaborating with some amazing singers and songwriters from all over the world and I am pretty sure the next original will come out quite soon.
What is the best reponse you ever received on your music?
I got supported by Tiesto and Oliver Heldens, which meant a lot to me, but my tracks were also played on the radio quit a few times, which made me really proud. However, the best things still are the personal messages I sometimes receive from people all over the world! I love to read them and always try to reply as fast as possible!
If you could collab with any other producer, who would it be?
I would choose Jerry Folk, I think his style is what my newest productions come close to. Another direction would be Saint WKND. I am dreaming of collaborating with Flume one day… you know, dreams are there to be dreams.
You were asked to do an official remix for FEDER. Did it come as a surprise?
It was definitely a surprise. I would have never thought to be asked by such a big artist and label. It was a great experience! I sent my first demo and they loved it, but wanted to correct some parts in the arrangement, as I didn’t know much about that back then. I was happy to get help and it sounded a lot easier after it, but it was not such a big change.
You’ve had some trouble with SoundCloud strikes, like most of us. What do you think will happen?
I don’t think SoundCloud will ever be the same. Ii heard rumors about a new platform, which is definitely needed, but I am not quite sure if it can gain the same amount of users that SoundCloud has. right now all the artists are depending on it and I think it will go on for that for a while. I do think however that the mentality will change when it comes to remixing, only official remixes will be able to be released, which is very sad… But people will always find away around that. I am sure bootlegs, edits and remakes will always be a big part of the electronic scene.
One of your deleted tracks and by far the most succesful, was your remix of Take Me To Church by Hozier. Did you try and reach out to make it official?
I did a dozen times… but I never even got a reply, which made me very sad. But when I am now listening to it, I am almost happy that it happened because I learned a lot and my sound is on a whole new level now, which is exciting to see. And as I want to focus on originality and new genres put together with deep house, it’s quite good to not be known for that “one big track”.
And now you’re releasing your new track together with Selected Sounds!
Yeah, pretty excited! It’s called “Black Swan” and it’s a remix of two different songs: Skyfall by Adele and All Under One Roof Raving by Jamie xx. I started the track as club remix of the Jamie xx track, but I felt that it needed some vocals. While browsing the internet, this acapella came to my mind and it fit perfectly. I only used the passages I liked the most and created Black Swan. My intention was to make a track that performs well on the dancefloor, that is very emotional but also pulsative and energetic at the same time.
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