Raging Speedhorn: Hungry Like The Night Wolf

Corby bruisers RAGING SPEEDHORN have stormed back with their night album Night Wolf and it sees the band sounding as energetic and brutal as ever, as they blast through the albums ten songs. To celebrate the release of Night Wolf, we caught up with co-vocalist Dan Cook while they were on their recent tour to talk about the album, the live shows in support of it and classic 80s movies and wrestling.

We begin discussing the reaction that Night Wolf has garnered already with Dan excitedly telling us that “the reaction has been insane, we were really happy with how it turned out but the feedback has been beyond anything we thought. I don’t actually think I’ve seen or heard one bad word said about it. Also the fact that everyone keeps saying it is the best work the band has produced, and even better than the debut, which has always been the fan favourite, is awesome. We may be seven albums in but chuffed that we still have it in us.”

Dan then spoke of RAGING SPEEDHORN wanting the sound of this album to match up with their high energy live shows. “The sound of SPEEDHORN is just literally the sound of SPEEDHORN. When we are in the studio we just write the album and that’s how it sounds, obviously also thanks to the magic of Russ Russell, he has that oomph in the way he produces that just works perfectly with us. We don’t intentionally think about sounding live but we’re very old school, one takes, valve amps, no sampling or autotune going on, writing on the spot, volume up and go for it, so you get that raw energy that a lot of bands don’t have nowadays. I think the high energy comes a lot from that.”

With the album cover and title of Night Wolf being a nod to 80s classic Teen Wolf, Dan then tells us his favourite 80s movies. “Back To The Future, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Flight Of The Navigator, Terminator, The Running Man, Big… All classics! The majority of movies were bangers back in the 80s, the list could go on and on!”

Dan then tells all about the wrestling themed music video for Night Wolf track Every Nights Alright For Fighting how much fun it was make. “It was fun but it was also hard! Big hats off to the wrestlers out there, it took its toll on me and Frank. It was hard work, we were knackered by the end of it and we weren’t doing some of the big moves they do. We were so happy with how it turned out though. We ran out of time, set the fire alarms off with smoke machines so it all become a bit full on to get it done. It was a barrel of laughs though. Keiron, the guy who filmed and edited, did a great job.”

Dan continues the wrestling theme by telling us about his love for classic WWF and what wrestlers he loved. “I was a big fan in the late 80’s, early 90’s (The Golden Era) I even went to Wrestlemania 6 in Toronto and the UK Rampages, proper loved it. Definitely for me Macho Man, The Ultimate Warrior, Legion Of Doom, Demolition, The Bushwhackers, Brutus the Barber Beefcake, Mr Perfect, Ravishing Rick Rude. All legends and sadly most of them not with us now.”

With Teen Wolf and WWF wrestling as reference points for the album, Dan explains that having nostalgic look back at growing up in the 80s is important for the band. “We all love the 80s in the band, most stuff we chat about on the bus is to do with the 80s and it’s awesome or hilarious. The 80s just had that vibe and was a great era to grow up in. Even the pop music was banging back then, along with the toys, the early computers, the bright colours, BMX’s… oh man, great times and great memories!”

Since RAGING SPEEDHORN are on tour as we speak, Dan tells of how the shows have been and what the highlights of the run have been. “The turn outs and feedback has been mind-blowing, I know all bands say it but RAGING SPEEDHORN fans are the best full stop! They are so insanely into the band and that’s what keeps us going and gives us the energy each night. As far as places, Glasgow, Cardiff, Exeter and London were off the scale, the shows were rammed and everyone in the crowd just went for it from the word get go. London was particularly sweaty, it was pouring from the ceiling of The Underworld.”

Dan then details how the material from Night Wolf has been going down. “Awesome, as we’ve had the album written for a while and we have been playing some of the tracks for the last year or so at shows and it was amazing to see the response, even before they had been released or anyone had even heard them. Obviously now the album has come out it has gone up another level at the live shows and fitted seamlessly into the set with the old faves.”

We conclude our chat with Dan telling us how RAGING SPEEDHORN feel revitalised with this new album as they blast through their twenty seventh year as band. “There’s a new energy that has arisen with the latest line-up and still a love for creating heavy riffs. Who knows where it will take us but right now we’ve still got the hunger for it.”

Night Wolf is out now via Spinefarm Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS120 here:

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