Earlier this year, We Are Wolves, the Montreal-based project of Alexander Ortiz and Vincent Levesque, exploded back onto the scene with their first release of new music since 2019 with their single, “Transition”. Today, the hard-to-categorize musical contrarians are back to share their new single, “Attention”.
“Attention” is an immediate head-nodder, kicking off with a robotic voice and gritty bass before diving into crashing drums and a steady, driving rhythm. As Ortiz explains, “Attention had a different creative process than the other ones,” Ortiz explains, “‘Cause it kinda started with a fuzz out bass line and a simple, very “SUICIDE (the band)” drum machine beat that reminded me of the early days of WAW.”
He continues, “We worked on it without overthinking, so we could still feel the primitive raw vibe but [still capture] a bit of the skills we acquired over the past 20 years.”
Alongside the release, the band is unveiling a music video that perfectly captures the track’s punchy energy. The video features vibrant, fuzzy visuals, supercut with “ATTENTION” flashing boldly, giving fans something to chant along with.
How does a band historically guided by contrarian impulses operate in the new, dizzyingly atomized global music scene? Somehow, the duo have created order out of chaos by fashioning some of the sharpest and most concise songs in their catalogue, counterbalanced with their noisiest and most “out there” tracks. Featuring guitar contributions from A Place To Bury Strangers/Death By Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Joseph Yarmush of SUUNS, We Are Wolves harness the sounds of synth rock, garage rock, cold wave, post punk, cumbia, tropical psych, and 90’s alt-rock, achieving a decades- and continents-straddling mixtape in which lyrical themes of confusion and alienation are tempered by the clarity of masterful pop craftsmanship.
Their new album, NADA, was produced by the band themselves, and recorded in several places: at Death By Audio NYC with noise-master Oliver Ackermann of A Place To Bury Strangers; with esteemed producer Odin Parada while exiled in Mexico; and by Vincent and Alex in their studio. It was mixed in Montreal by engineer Adrian Popovich (SUUNS, DFA1979, Duchess Says).
NADA is due out November 8th via Simone Records.
DeClunk 