Dear readers, we have the opportunity to bring you an interview with a project by Canadian guitarist Don Dewulf, whose new album “Spectra,” released on December 16, 2022 via Wormholedeath, we recently reviewed. Please welcome The Wring.
Hi, how are you?
Hello! I am doing great. I am very grateful for the support of Progressive Rock Journal. Jacopo has been very kind in his reviews. It makes this all worthwhile!
The project is the brainchild of Don Dewulf who was joined by top artists, how did the band come about?
The Wring began in Ontario, Canada as my solo project back in 2015. I was writing a lot of songs and wanted to release them. I found some good players here in my town and we recorded and released the first album in 2017. We played some shows and had some fun, but those guys were not really interested in continuing, so I carried on the music as a studio project, using session players. I released ‘Project Cipher’ in 2021 and ‘Spectra’ in 2022. So I guess I am, reluctantly, back to being a solo artist!
You offer a progressive sound somewhere between Rock and Metal, where did your passion for these sounds come from?
My first influence was Rush and I love their music to this day. They were able to mix many styles without any fear of boundaries. Opeth has also been a major influence and inspiration to me as they took that fearlessness into much heavier territory. I am also very much fascinated with Tool, King Crimson and, believe it or not, Steely Dan. All of these artists are very pure and interesting.
A mixture of different genres and styles between Prog Rock and Metal, how would you
describe the sound of the new album “Spectra”?
I’ve often been asked ‘who does it sound like?’. I usually get this question wrong! The music has often been compared to Dream Theater but I don’t see that at all. They are epic and shred hard! I take the opposite approach. I try and tell a story with every note and every word with nothing extra. I am a huge fan of all rock genres so I try and create something that I would be a fan of! I generate ideas that I find interesting and then use them to build coherent 4 or 5 minute songs! To me, my music is a mosaic of tiny bits of every band I’ve ever loved.
There are some artists collaborating on the new album, what did they bring to the sound of the album?
Yes! Of course the most obvious is Marco Minnemann. He is a superhuman drummer and was first to record his parts. This set the bar very high. Reggie Hache, a fellow Canadian, played all the bass parts and is also a superstar. My foundation of the rhythm section was incredible and very inspiring. On this record, the vocals were performed by Chandler Mogel who is an very talented singer and musician. He gave such a great vibe to the songs! Sometimes proggy music can lose sight of the purpose of a song with wankery; Chandler keeps everything in line and maintains the contact and context for the listener. There were also keyboards on this album, performed by Isamu McGregor. He did an amazing job though sometimes those parts ended up deeper in the mix. I should also mention that Francis Perron did the mixing and was very important to the
overall sound. He is known for his work with Voivod and I am grateful for his influence here.
The album contains elaborate tracks with very intense lyrics, what themes do they deal with?
Hah! I usually write lyrics when I am angry; there are no love songs here! Our world is so messed up these days that it’s easy to find something to be mad about. A couple of songs are about the negative effects of social media; a couple are about the insurrection and civil disobedience in Canada and the USA; the war in Ukraine is also an inspiration. In general, the album is an observation that mankind has advanced in so many ways yet we are still stupid, greedy and shameless. It doesn’t appear that there is a vaccination for that yet.
You have released several studio albums, how has your sound evolved over the years?
That is a hard question! I like to think that I have become a better songwriter. I know that I have gotten better at the recording process but certainly have a long way to go before reaching my ideal sound. I’ve also been working a lot lately on my playing technique. I heard Robert Fripp say that he needs to maintain sufficient skill to play anything he is called upon to play. I will never be Robert Fripp but I am certainly working towards a higher level of execution and understanding. Using great players also helps the music to evolve!
Many of your fans and our readers wonder if there will be a chance to hear your music live, do you have any plans in this regard?
When the first album was released I had a band and we did shows. The music translated really well live and I would love to do that again. ‘Spectra’, like ‘Project Cipher’, was a studio project. I don’t currently have a band, so shows are not currently possible. In spite of this, I’ve had some great support in promoting the music through various platforms and in various video concepts. Ashermedia and The Band Strategist have taken my music to the world when I was unable. I am also lucky to have the support of Wormholedeath Records who have handled martketing and distribution for the last two records.
Prog is a sophisticated and rather niche music nowadays, how do you see the future of the genre?
Music is constantly evolving and becomes more and more niche. ‘Prog’ means a lot of different things these days. This is very exciting and offers almost limitless potential. Bands like Polyphia and Animals as Leaders are taking it into new, incredible territory. Progressive music is thoughtful and intelligent and its fans reflect that. There will always be a place for this in our world.
What advice would you give to young artists approaching this musical genre?
Music is the most individual experience a human can have. Every person will have a unique interaction with any song in any genre. Prog fans tend to be very invested and love their artists deeply. You also cannot fool them. So if you want to connect, it needs to be either purely visceral or exceedingly well presented. Hopefully it’s both! Do your homework and play well!
The Wring project has confirmed itself as one of the best in current Prog, do you have any plans for further record releases in the future?
This is very kind of you to say, it humbles me. As I am writing this, I have 17 ‘entities’ and an audio
sketchpad of ideas. It is my intention to shape these entities and ideas into 8-10 songs to create
the fourth Wring album. I am rigorous about this process so I hope that the result is a new and
exciting stage of my evolution as creator. I also hope to explore the possibilities for bringing this
music to a stage somewhere.
The last question as usual I leave you free to address any topic not mentioned in the previous questions.
Music is weird now. It’s pretty much free and usually streamed at poor quality through cheap devices. Prog music is a little different and we all need to work to keep that spirit alive and artists moving forward.
I would like to thank The Wring and Don Dewulf for the interview, the opportunity to review the new album, and wish them all the best in the continuation of their artistic careers.
Read out review of the new album here: https://progrockjournal.com/review-the-wring-spectra/