Nick Reese (Joyous Wolf singer)

Welcome to the Chuck Shute podcast. Thank you so much for listening or watching, I appreciate the views, slash listens, quick shout out to the people on the YouTube channel. Since we've had a couple recent episodes, they're cracked 1200 views. That's a lot for me. And that's not even including all the listens on the audio podcast formats like Spotify and Apple podcasts. So thank you for that. Anyways, my guest today is Nick Reese. He is the singer of the

I'm doing good. You know, another day,

another day? Are you pretty slow down with a pandemic and all that stuff? You can't do shows? Right?

Not quite know. Things are starting to move a little bit more in that sector. I mean, especially for you know, groups my size, you know, we're not, we're not selling stadiums out. So I don't think we'll be that delayed for much longer. I think I think you'll start seeing a lot more shows. In the next, probably the next 3040 days, you'll start seeing things start to crop up. And I think by next year, you'll start to see like, you know, not normal shows, but social distancing shows. Sure that

have you seen those like bubble suit shows where people were in the bubble suits?

Not quite that level. I'm talking about normal social distancing. That would be

nice. Yeah, I think it was the cutaways. I'm forgetting based on the name, but some band did that. And everyone was wearing the bubble suits. Like I think it was real so

I don't know it was real. Okay. It was it was definitely real, but that wasn't you know, that's but extreme.

Yeah, no, yeah. No, for sure. So yeah, let's talk about you and your your background is interesting because I interview a lot of musicians and you know that a lot of them say the same influences. I haven't had too many people with the influences the same ones that you've had, you know, like I interviewed the guy from bad finger I don't know if you know that bands like a

I just my parents

record store.

When I was probably three or four years old, it was in a place called the orange circle. And they always had this RCA Victor dog sitting out at the front little you know, little pound you know, that they have on their CV or stuff. And he they had this little dog that would sit there and I would was playing with the dog in the record player that was outside was playing a BB King record. And I just remember being transfixed with it. I didn't leave that area, even when I was

yeah, you just have such interesting influences. And then also like, besides that older like the Johnny Cash and the James Brown, I was reading like you said, like, Prince and Michael Jackson and actually has a lot to do with your stage moves, which is also interesting for rock band to hear that.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's just all of this stuff, you know, like the James Brown was what broke my entire like, mind when I when I saw him, there is a thing they were doing. The Tammy show they had this documentary about something I actually showed it on TV when I was a kid. And I was watching it and James Brown comes out, you know, when he does his legendary performance. And I am not kidding you. I just, I stopped the world stopped as I watched this guy do something I

Mm hmm.

It's almost like he revealed something.

That's really cool. And then later, it wasn't until later, you're about 1314 that you started listening to the more modern rock like Rage Against the Machine and Allison chains and some of the heavier stuff, right?

Yeah. You know, I didn't start. I kind of made my way through the decades. Like, when I started getting into music, I started like looking at music myself, like 12 I like to around 12 is when I'm like, Well, you know, we got our first component computer and I was like, What do I do with this thing? You know? And I was like, looking up Elvis songs and whatever. And it was kind of like songs that like my parents played that I like, I'm like,

That is a luxury you guys have our generation didn't like we there's albums that I would see and I was like, I wonder what that sounds like you couldn't just go on the computer and look it up. It's kind of cool, though. Yeah, wasn't around this time to that. The sick the first day of sixth grade orientation. This is an important day in the history of the band. You bet you met your

Don't you worry Dude, I got beat up.

Did you really

rigo I there's no so crooked it's not just because of stage stuff. Oh yeah, I know plenty. I got my ass kicked a lot in middle school in high school.

You and I could have been friends if we were in middle school. I think we both rockers and yeah. I don't

I believe it. I mean, I've always been, I would have been a weird cat. And I never really

never really

fit the mold. Sure.

So how did you What did you how did you meet Robert? Like, how did you guys click? Was it were you wearing band shirts? or How did you guys get along? Well

See, the thing has been like this long I was. I was a listener, I wasn't a musician. I listened to a lot of music because my family just listens to a ridiculous amount of music to this day, music is so important to my household I grew up in. So it was just kind of this thing where, ah, I would say he and I were just two weird guys. We're in kids. And it was literally by the chance that our last names are right next to each other. Ah, it was our homeroom class. And he was

So yeah. So that's how you met the drummer. And then you guys would actually ended up going to different high schools. And then just by chance, you ended up meeting your guitarist Blake Allard, at a Guitar Center, and you started jamming on ccrs born on the bayou. And you say that you had like kind of an instant dynamic?

Yeah, it was it was we were just I met him and he was trying to tune this guitar. He was killing time. And he had this crazy hair. And I don't know, I just decided to like I brought my tuner from home. Mm hmm. I'm glad that I did. Because I threw it to him. And he was able to tune up and asked me if he wanted to jam and we jam a little bit. I sing a little bit and he liked the way that I sang, according to him. And I don't know, like, we didn't see each other again for

Okay.

And then that band I was in ended up breaking up a couple months later. And

was that the punk rock band? What was the punk rock band? Yeah, that was your first band that you're in right?

It was like a punk rock ease. Well, no, like the first bands I was in were like, the scream me like I don't like you mom bands are like, when I was like 16 so this is like when I'm, this is what I'm like 19 years old, about to be turned 20 when I met Blake, I was like into so many different things. I was in alternative bands. I was in like, Coldplay s band. Like I was just anything that anything that people were doing. I was involved in MX.

Okay. So then you reach back out to Robert and then he had found the bass player Greg. And so then the four of you guys came together right?

Well, no, there was another guy who was there for Greg for a couple months and then that guy ended up wanting to go pursue something else and kind of like you know what, we're all cool with that we were all friends you know and, and but but around that time is when I like, but because Rob had like this other thing he was doing with two of his friends. Then I went and hung out with him one day and this other guy was there you know when he was six foot five and had his bass up this

Why are you saying most people just they don't they just play a couple notes. This guy's is he like slapping it like fleeing and stuff or was just, he kept the rhythm.

He did everything. You could do anything. Okay. Wow. He could do anything. They when he when he came to play with us for the first time. You know, Blake, I remember was like on the fence, you know, blixa Blake was definitely by far the most proficient musician of the have us back then. You know, and not not anything gets me and Robert, whatever we just he just he just, he was different about it than we were, you know, he

Wow,

that's hard and yeah, no he he can play that shit like like it's nothing. And a good thing about him is that I always thought was great about him is that he doesn't want to do that he doesn't want to be flashy. He does what he feels in the moment. And that discipline was really great for us as a group because he could lay the foundation he knew how to play

Yeah. So days before your first gig. You guys are gathered in a restaurant you realize, Oh, we probably need a name. And so this is a funny story. You guys actually used an online band generator for help in some of the names like global death and intense resentment. You didn't like that. You were like crying laughing It was so terrible. But then joyous wolf came up and that's and you guys all liked it.

They pretty much there was like there was like, it's been so long now. I think I think we don't even remember. Yeah, exactly what the name was, I think if my memory serves, right was like, silver wolf.

And then like, Joy is something Ah, so you just put the two together?

Yeah, I was like silver wolves. Joy is something Joy's wolves. And we're like, you don't like the wolves. We don't want people to think that like it's about the animals or anything. We're like, this is a good name. Joyce wolf. Sounds like a name.

Yeah, no, that's great.

Well, we'll change it later. And they never did.

That's awesome. No, I love it. And then this is interesting, too. So explain this, like pay to play that bands do and you guys swore off. You said you would not do this? Because there's a thing that like I know the black moods, they toured with Whitesnake, and they had to pay to get on the Whitesnake tour and you guys said, we're not going to do that. We don't care how long it takes. We don't care if we we'd rather do shows for free than to do the pay the pay to play.

Yeah, we were we were very much anti that we had all had experience with that Blake and I am more than the other two. But like, especially myself, like I had been doing that since I was 15 years old. And wow. pay to play is just pay to play to me is like is one of the worst things that's happened to music because what sucks about it? I mean, is that before in the past when you wanted to play somewhere, you had to go like, show them your stuff and

yeah, you said you, you played the Viper Room a lot. And this is interesting. You said you played a half empty or like totally empty shows. But the interesting point was that you said you played with a lot of bad bands. And that makes it hard because the venue will clear out by its time by the time you guys play. Oh, and it's also hard to play with good bands, because they're so good that they overshadow you. So it's like, it's kind of like, caught between a rock and a hard place.

We had the mentality of and we took it. We took it really seriously. You know, we were like, okay, when we go out there. No, it doesn't matter who's gonna play after us. You know, that was our that was our thinking. And I start thinking now, you know, yeah, we opened fucking Deep Purple and under the Deep Purple. People tend to deeper people out of the Deep Purple fans wanted to see us. They didn't care about that.

Yeah. And was after was the aftershock festival it was that kind of your first big break.

No, we played a sonic boom festival first.

Okay.

Then we played a lot of in life the next day. Then we played a rock allegiance that was going on that year. And then we played aftershock festival. So we went on, we went on a crazy run. And we had a couple little shows in between whatever. But you know, we just had to buy a van, we bought a van we shoved all of our shit into it. You know, we I slept in the crawl the leg space in the

And you guys, there's a little bit of competition for you guys. Right? You got to be you wanted Road Runner, that was your first choice.

There was a couple of choices. Road Runner was the only place that didn't want to change us. That didn't that, you know, I remember the very important thing at the time was was that the guy Dave Rath assigned is he was the first guy from one of these label dudes to come up to me and say, I really loved this about your band. You know, there are a lot of guys who, you know, they come up and they compliment me and they say, oh, we'd like the way that you

It's a band. Absolutely. Yeah. So you know, I think was this the first song that you guys released? Was the cover Mississippi queen? Or did you?

It was the official Yeah, the first official like label release was Mississippi Queen with our song slowhand as the beside.

Yeah. And so you said that you you're kind of like, I don't know, it's like I hear you talking about this. Like you were kind of annoyed that you say you don't want to do any more covers.

Well, yeah, because that's like the schlocky bullshit.

Like, fuck yourself

kind of shit. You know? Like, I mean, if all you're doing is covers, and you think oh, cool, I'm like a real rock band. Now. If you're, you know, and I'm in that boat. It's like, I'm in this boat that I'm currently talking shit about. where it's like, you know? Yeah, like, where, you know, we didn't want to do it. We were pretty much told we had to do it.

Hmm. By the record company, or?

Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it's not like it was like a direct order, like do this or die, but it was like, one of those things to where you want your record out, don't you?

Okay, fair enough. I mean, is it Are you happy with the way it turned out though? I mean, it's a good version of the song.

I mean, I don't think that the song is bad. I don't think our cover I think our cover is probably in my opinion, the most truthful cover of the song You know, you're looking at all these other covers of it and it's people down tuning in and and i'm not saying that's bad. I'm just saying when we first made it remember they want to be like at some harmonies, this isn't like I'm not pissing on the Mona Lisa. Like, you know, the song

Okay, what about the song mother rebel? I really like that song. That's a it's an interesting, it's kind of like a pre Civil War. America is talking about the north and the south Are you explain it, but you probably explain it better than I can.

Yeah, mother rebel is a really cool track. I mean, that tracks. You know, it's funny, because we that was a song guys, and I originally wanted to have that be the first single from the record. And, you know, not everybody was cool with that. And of course, you know, then suddenly, it just ended up, you know, are the big station here. And so Cal Kalos picked the song up, you know, bless them. And after that other stations around the country started picking the song up and

Yeah, I love that. I love the slide guitar on that. Whose idea was that Blake's idea to do the slide guitars that the producer,

any guitar stuff? Anything? Is his idea. He just

does what you want. That's cool. That's awesome.

Yeah, no one no one helps us do any of the creative. We do that ourselves.

Now. That's really cool. Talk about some of the other themes. For the album placement isn't an album would you call an EP?

It's an EP, okay. No, it's right on the cusp of, you know, technically it is. But you know, it's an EP, we call it an

EP, okay. Yeah, cuz I got yelled out. It's one of those somebody I forget who I had on. They had like, nine, eight or nine songs and they said, that's an album. I was like, okay, sorry. Like, so yeah, here's a seven. I was like. It's on the cusp. But

yeah, so I'm not that I'm not that passionate about. Obviously, I'm passionate about, you know, making a career off covers. That's

something I'm passionate about. About not doing it. It sounds like

Yeah, not do it. Don't do so. You

would never do another cover. You did say that you might do Black Sabbath fairies. fairies were boots. That'd be kind of cool.

That was a long time ago. I mean, we play it. Yeah. Okay. I mean, you're talking about playing it live. Yeah. We never want to record it. Okay. Yeah,

that makes sense. I think doing them live is totally cool. It's totally different than, than reality.

We don't, we don't like it's not like, we don't like to jam other people's songs. Okay. We, I mean, we were doing set it off by audio slave, we were laying that it's for fun, you know, and it's one of those things like, but the thing is, is like, we just don't want to make career up doing covers, there's so much of that crap. Now. You know, again, this thing that I read forever ago was this, I can't even remember now is years ago, and it's stuck with me and I will hold it in my

no, but you're right.

Yeah, it's, I mean, I'm not saying they're not great songs. It's like one of the best bands ever but I'm saying like when it says new alternative and that song goes on like that, or Weezer or something. It's like,

no, I agree. That's why I reached out to interview because I love the new rock. But you mentioned rival sons. I like the black moods. I know you're not a big fan of greta van fleet. They're pretty popular. But

see, that's that's not that's not entirely true. Pete when people p see people take shit and they and they do shit with it. I would I all I have ever said about that is like, is it's not something that I put on? Sure, sure. It's not. And to be honest with you, most new rock I don't put on because I appid my musical appetite is a little different. You know, I I don't listen to a lot of rock music. Really? I mean, I do but but it's not the majority of my diet. Is there

any new rock bands that you're listening to besides rival sons?

There are a lot of great ones. I mean, like dirty honey

is right.

And again, rival to me rival sons deserves the crown if anyone's gonna give credit to why new rock even has a place it's because of those guys. They did all the heavy lifting for the younger cats like us and gretta and fucking dirty honey and you know, south of Eden and stuff. You know? I like that song by South of Eden a new band south of Eden. Yeah. What about those guys for a bit and

a different name? Because they had a song I was like, Yeah, I love that song. I only had the one song and now they have more. And they changed their name. But yeah, remember?

Yeah, the song The talk is like, as to me, I think is is a solid tune. I dig it a lot. Um,

but you really hate the term throwback, right? You hate that some of these bands are being labeled as a throwback.

Because it just takes away it just takes away any momentum, any momentum from younger rock groups. Like, you know, it gives them in the past again, it's like I always say it's like...when Soundgarden came out... or literally any rock that follows any generation, they weren't saying, this is a throwback of the 60s, or a throwback of the 70s, or

that's interesting, because you do a lot of crazy stage moves. And I think I think that's cool. Like that makes it more interesting. Did you find that you kind of had to do that at the beginning to kind of get people's attention?

Yeah, most definitely. That was exactly why I mean, I started doing like the backflips and the splits and stuff. Because I was thinking, like, I'm going to be festivals for the first time. I only get this chance once, right? You know, so I'm gonna make sure that whatever I do, people are watching. That was kind of the whole thing my guys are like, are the again, I'm biased as hell are the best. My guys are the best players, but throw anybody at them.

That's all. They can handle it. I love your

loyalty. You said you're also a fan of sia. You said you really like her soul the way she like expresses them and that's unusual influence for rock singer to.

Sorry, who would you say?

sia, right? Didn't you say that you really liked? Yeah,

yeah. Yeah. I love you. Yes, I do. Um, I love voices that express emotion. Yeah, you know, I love emotional voices. I love soul. And there's a lot of not a lot of soul. And you know, people are like, Oh, why don't you like, you know, the indie rock stuff for this or that like, because there's a lot most of the time there's it's so processed and, and produced to the point where any life or personality that's in it is just

ripped away. Oh, yeah, it's gone.

It's shaved off. You know, like, when we recorded our ladies like even on recording the EP, we had a lot of struggles with the production of the EP because it wasn't done the way that we wanted to do it. When we record an odyssey that was the first time I've recorded a song where we did it to tape and we did it live. And you can feel it. There's so much more feeling in that song than in the stuff we did on the EP we tried our very hardest to give it

next single?

I can't tell me I can't. I

can't really talk about it yet.

Have you done? Have you done a lot of writing and recording since I mean, you guys can't tour obviously,

a lot of writing, writing and a lot of like, Hey, we got something Hey, we got something here. We got something. Okay, now we all hate it.

Who does most of you guys all right, or who does you write all the lyrics? Right? We

write we write together right together. The I do lyrics and the vocal stuff with me. And sometimes I have little guitar things here and there. But most of the time, it you know, we have we're all in a room together. And you know, we just we actually were just in Joshua Tree for a week writing. All just locked ourselves into this ranch house with like pigs and stuff on the property and whatever, just to kind of get out of our comfort zone a little bit.

And you guys, you guys take a bunch of like psychedelics and shit while you try to help inspire you

know, okay,

I don't know, I'm not in Iraq, but I mean, some people. I talked to guys who like boring, we're boring. Okay. I don't know. It's boring.

Playing video games, mostly. Super Smash Brothers. Really? That's funny. And play? Yeah. You know, like, I mean, yeah, well, we're not really we're not really into drugs much. We drink though. Okay. There's this there was an alcohol for sure. But, but not like during, like, work? You know? Whatever.

Right? Yeah.

Yeah, uh, we don't, we're not really about that. We'd like to be clear minded and know that. We're really critical of what we're doing. So by the time when, when you do see, hey, here comes a new record. I think. Yeah, I think it'll be safe to say that it'll be good. At least good. Yeah. Because we've just been tirelessly unhappy with just with most, you know, not i'm not saying that there's not good things about it. It's just like, we're just trying. We're just our biggest

Yeah, no, definitely. And you said that this is kind of cool. You said that dancer bands should be releasing new music right now. Because it's kind of hard times. And when you look back on hard times, you remember the songs. That's a really good point. Like when someone dies or you break up, you remember those songs. So people should be releasing songs right now? Because they're gonna look back on this hard time. All the stuff going on, and they're

If I want to write a song about if I want to write a song about the Odyssey, I've got to do it. writing songs about my friends being hurt and, or, you know, or I mean, I've written so we write songs about everything I don't, I don't know, I'm not really good at that I don't really good at describing I just whatever, whatever the music is, whatever that whatever the guys play, it's my job to to translate that

That's cool. Yeah, you're doing a good job. So you guys have you do have a show planned for this summer rock fest? Is that still on?

I mean, there's a lot of stuff planned for next year. Yeah, that's a go. I mean, all the European festivals were booked on that. That one rock Fest, upheaval festival. Other stuff, you know, there's Yeah, there's a lot of stuff that's being booked, because, you know, no one really knows how those are going to look around that time. I mean, that's a long ways off, you know, but like, what, six, seven months from now? You know? Yeah, that's crazy. Do all that stuff. And we're all just kind of

Yeah, crossing your fingers. Would you ever tour with a rival sons? I mean, since you said you're a fan of them. They

god. Oh my god. It it would be. It would be an honor.

Yeah. And you could What about your fan of Muse? Right. And Matt Bellamy.

Oh my goodness. Great. Yeah, so my favorite bands ever.

Yeah, they're really they're just talking about modern rock. I mean, they're still putting pumping out new stuff. That's amazing. In my opinion.

They're there they are. The just again, what happens when you Rage Against the Machine and Queen have a baby?

That's a good analogy. I like that. And then you toured with Fozzy, Right? So what's your what's your take? Did you see this spat with Chris Jericho and Sebastian Bach or Sebastian Bach was saying, Chris Jericho lip sync says I mean, you were on the tour. So what can you can you comment on that? Or?

I haven't.... Chris is a consummate performer. He's one of my favorite people I've ever worked with I've ever met. The guy can sing. And I mean, I don't know. Like, I'm not that petty. So I can't even like... put it into thoughts. I don't know. If I've been there's been plenty of people who say I can't sing for beans. You know? I've said it's happened. Yeah. People don't like my voice. Yeah. Wow. No. That's fine. You know? So it's like, to me that argument is a very to me that whole a whole

It is kind of fun. You know, it's interesting is like when I first I listen to your music, obviously. And then I saw your picture. And, and then what I heard your speaking voice though, the first time I heard you do an interview, I was like, wait, His voice is so deep. How do you sing so high? Can you sing deep too? Can you sing low?

Yes, I can. I can sing very good. Um,

because that's like, that's a very hard talent to do. Yes, I can.

Look at Oh, wow.

Things that you do.

How can I say you're not saying? Yeah. That's awesome.

Yeah, no, I I've always had a deep voice. Yeah. And it's kind of like you ever Brian Johnson from AC DC talk?

Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's

Yeah, so

like as a rose. Excellent, but Axl Rose. Like he'll sing low sometimes. And some of the songs and it's like really cool.

And not not nagging?

Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. So you said in the next few years, there's gonna be a lot of these up and coming rock bands. Who else Haven't we mentioned? Haven't you mentioned already? That I should keep an eye out for?

There's new ones every day. I can't even keep up anymore. I mean, south of eating, you know, yeah. There would lava now and he Cobb is a I'll call him a bro. Serious brother. I love him. He's a really nice guy. And he and I had a Kevin had more than a couple chats. Cody and Justin. We're sorry, Cody and Kevin. From crown lands. good buddies that I met last year at a at impact festival. Their crown lands are off round.

I haven't heard of them. Also check that out. So this one I got to talk to you about.

You love them. Okay, bottom of limbo corps my fellow Brit, my best friends and best brothers down here. Completely underrated group dude, we need to get them out a little more of limbo check out their stuff do their first record nicotine and other new single nothing but now and I've heard their new record never their new stuff that's gonna come out and it's gonna blow everybody away, isn't it? You know, that's just another great there's so much good music man. What was that one you said

besides crown land?

Okay, I'm from Long Beach, California. I'm very cool. Yeah, and these three another group you know a band called The warning is actually a band playing on Kalos for another called violet Saturn and they're pretty great. Um, other new I mean, again, it's bands all over the country band called odd fellows from Pampa, Texas. They just moved to Austin You know, they're getting up there. They got a great song called cold not felon. The rebel from Jersey, my frickin Jersey Boys.

I got no work. I mean, there's there's a lot of good, people that I've met and stuff, whatever, I'm probably missing somebody and I'll probably kick myself for that later. Um, ya know, like, there's a lot of good new music....rock. I mean, again, you know, Dirty Honey. And of course, no bigger bands, like, you know, like, the Struts and Gretta you know, like me, when I when I was young.... when I was a little younger, like, there's no stopping my competitive nature, I'll always be

Anyone who picks up because it's because people don't understand the pressure, that that you come in with that with because you were literally, I don't think there's a genre with more pressure. You know, because you're expected to, to be the next generation of like, some of the greatest groups of

that. Absolutely. Yeah, that's very charitable. You and speaking of charity always end with the charity. And you mentioned St. Jude's Children's Hospital. You wanted to give them a shout out if you worked with them before you just just like the work they do. I just, I just support them. Okay, you know, there's a lot of trouble in the world. And I know whatever trouble you're having, I guarantee you there's a kid in St. Jude says, got it a million times worse. So whenever I think

of a good point, whenever I think I'm having a bad day, you know, I think about those poor, poor kids who don't get to live normal lives and you know, who are suffering? Yeah, great lady. And, and there's nothing worse than me than that, you know. Um, so yeah, if you have a dime, donate to St. Jude's go to our website, there's a donation link. You can you can find it. And we should just attach one here. I think you could probably do that from a country.

Yeah, I'll always touch the links on the the podcast notes on YouTube and wherever else you're listening to this, so very cool. Thank you so much, Nick. This is a lot of fun. I'm excited to see what else you guys have. Hopefully you'll come and do a show in Arizona. I haven't seen you live yet. So I'm excited to see you guys live. I know you're gonna you're supposed to do a tour with black moods, but it didn't happen, right? I don't know.

Yeah, we were supposed to, obviously.

For many reasons,

yeah, a lot of things happen happen. So hopefully you'll come and do a show in Arizona. Well, I drive sometimes like for concerts, too. So yeah, if there's something nearby, I'll make the drive and come see you guys.

know you'll be most welcome. As soon as we can get back out

there. We will be

and I'll look forward to new music being released. Recording, right? Yes. Okay. All right. Thanks so much, Nick. I appreciate it.

See you later, man. Hey,

by Nick Reese, Joyce Wolf, listen to them on YouTube, Spotify, or download their music, follow them on social media for updates. Follow my stuff too, so you don't miss any of these other great episodes. And check out some of the other episodes, episodes and interviews that I've done like the black moods or radio fix. Other great rock bands got a whole bunch of other episodes. I'm hoping to have some more of the newer rock bands on although I love the older stuff, too.