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Wolfgang fans who have been craving for a follow up to their last album "Black Mantra" (released in August 2001) will finally get their wishes fulfilled as demos of an upcoming album have been released over the mobile Internet space.
Yahoo Philippines' mobile music portal has released four demos of the band - intended for a new album, which would be their sixth studio album, not including their live album "Acoustica" and the US-released compilation "Volume".
The demo tracks, "Deathsquad," "Diaspora," "Enemy," and "John of the Cross"are available for download at P50 per full track download. Some of these have already been performed live at Wolfgang's January reunion concert "Alive 2007."
Also available for paid download (at P30 a pop) are three short excerpts of telephone interviews conducted with Basti Artadi where he discusses the project.
The files are encoded in AMR format (Adaptive Multi-Rate codec) used on popular phones like Nokia and Sony Ericsson.
These downloads are also limited exclusively to users on the networks of Philippine mobile operators Smart Communications and Globe - so international fans may have to twiddle their thumbs a bit until the songs are available on other channels.
PhilMusic has learned that ex-record executive Wally Chamsay, who signed up Wolfgang when he was heading Sony Music Philippines, was responsible for brokering the exclusive deal with Yahoo Philippines. Chamsay is now with mobile content provider Entertainment Gateway Group (EGG).
The Gang is back, but no Wolf
Three out of four of the original members of the band are recording the demos - vocalist Basti Artadi, guitarist Manuel Legarda, and bassist Mon Legaspi are involved in the recording project. Out of the picture for the forseeable future is drummer Wolf Gemora, who has been devoting all his energies to his band Lokomotiv.
Complicating the issue is that the surviving three members are located in different countries. Basti Artadi is in the US, Mon Legaspi is in Hong Kong, and Manuel Legarda is in Manila.
But this wee bit of geographical inconvenience hasn't deterred the surviving three from trying to work together. According to Legarda's interview on Yahoo, where there's a will, there's a way, as the band will be using technology to exchange recorded parts online, and assembling them into finished tracks.
"We've had difficulty booking a studio to work in," Legarda is quoted as saying. "But fortunately there is the Internet and we trade a lot of files over the net."
"We'll be doing more vocals when Basti comes back, and since we don't tour anymore, there is a lot more time to work on this album," Legarda continued. "We have a number of songs that lack vocals and arrangements, but I am happy that we'll finish this and hopefully you'll hear some of it on the radio soon."
Never Broke Up
Interest in the band has remained sky high among local music fans since the band stopped performing in 2002. The band's recent reunion at the Music Museum - a double bill featuring a reunited Wolfgang (sans Wolf Gemora of course) teaming up with the present Razorback lineup - was promoted as "Alive 2007" and was a smashing sold-out success.
Performing two Fridays at the Music Museum, the concert's last night was recorded to video and is scheduled for DVD release sometime in April 2007.
It's interesting to note in the eyes of Legarda and Artadi at least, the band never did break up anyway. The reunion made them realize that even after being apart for so long, getting together could still yield something "new and fresh."
"Wolfang never did break up," noted Artadi in his downloadable audio interview. "It was not something where we were like, 'alright guys that's it - we've done all we can, it's time to shut the door and move on.' It was just circumstances that worked out in such a way that we went our diferent paths. But we always left the door open that if ever the opportunity arose that we could get some work together, then sure why not?"
"It just so happened that with my going back in December, the door opened. And it was a big door and a good door. So we started putting our heads together and writing some new material."
"Who knows, if the opportunity arises and we do put this thing together and everything works out and we tour, why not? I'd love to tour again."
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