Alexander Ortiz is fluent in four languages: English, French, Spanish, and music.
“Music is an extension of the everyday for me,” explains the We Are Wolves bassist and singer over the phone, while relaxing with his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter Paloma. “I speak French with my friends, English at school, and Spanish with my parents. So my music reflects all sorts of interactions.” On Total Magique, his latest album with We Are Wolves, Ortiz’s conversations are hinted at through trilingual track names. His sources of inspiration, though, go far beyond the aural.
“I also love looking at interesting architecture…it can become a song, or a song can become art. My real dream is to become a contemporary artist,” he says. “I’d love to do conceptual installations and sculptures.”
Ortiz, along with bandmate Vincent Levesque, came to music through the visual art world, learning his craft through jam sessions rather than professional training. The tribal, primal energy of We Are Wolves emerges from this spontaneity. “We learned from being together, from allowing the emergence of feeling from inside,” he says.
We Are Wolves’ unique sound stems from the way they combine this raw emotion with analog synthesizer tones. “We’re really inspired by sounds from the ’70s and ’80s, especially bands like Kraftwerk and Trans Am. The texture is just more appealing, there’s more colour behind it.”
The resulting post-punk mayhem of We Are Wolves is equal parts Velvet Underground and Atari gaming system, sounds which sometimes purposely clash but are generally complementary. The lead track on Total Magique, “Fight and Kiss,” is upbeat and catchy, but its dark undertones deepen the sound. This explains Ortiz’s opposition to “stuff that’s digital, cheesy, commercial. Like, you know the bass line for Seinfeld? I love Seinfeld, I watch it so much, but that bass line is just bad, bad, bad!”
We Are Wolves lack originality only in their choice of name, frequently being confused with fellow Montréalers Wolf Parade and English crooner Patrick Wolf, among others. “Yeah, I think wolves were just the cool thing five years ago,” laughs Ortiz. “Since then, you’ve had a lot of bands with the word ‘black’ in the name, and then a ‘crystal’ phase with Crystal Castles and Crystal Antlers. But it’s so hard for a band to find a name. You just have to hope it pops out. When it does, you know it comes from the heart.”
Their naming strategy seems to have worked—We Are Wolves were on tour in England and Germany this month before returning home for Canadian Music Week. On Thursday night, they’ll be taking part in Sirius Radio’s Vive la Musique Montréal line-up at the El Mocambo, and on Friday, they’re opening for London indie rockers Bloc Party at the Kool Haus. “We love Bloc Party,” declares Ortiz. “It’s a real honour to be playing with them.”
But while you’ll only see three people onstage at their shows, We Are Wolves has a self-proclaimed fourth member: rock. Just as music is a fourth language for Ortiz, it’s also a bandmate, a near-physical presence: “Music is just part of our lives. That’s just how it is.”
Catch one of We Are Wolves’ shows this weekend, and you’ll hear exactly what he means.
We Are Wolves play the El Mocambo (464 Spadina Ave.) tonight at 11 p.m., and the Kool Haus (132 Queens Quay E.) tomorrow night at 9 p.m. Single tickets for both shows are sold out, and all-access wristbands for CMW are $50.
