Upclose with Six Pack of Wolves
Local indie punk/pop band Six Pack of Wolves just released their debut album, “Born to Lose,” on Oct 29. The band’s singer/lead guitarist Arthur Urquiola, bassist Tiffany Jade Laue and keyboard player Vickie Chan talk to Penny Zhou about their wolf pack.
HK Magazine: How did the Wolves come together?
Tiffany: Me and Arthur were in a band together called “The Mooches,” and at one point last year we were left without a drummer, so we decided to start a new band with a new drummer. Then Gabe Andre from [another local band] David Bowie Knives joined us and we started writing our new songs.
Vickie: And at a drinking night on Cat Street, Arthur asked me to join the band as they needed a keyboard player, so I came on board. I’ve played piano since I was five but hadn’t practiced for a long time, so when we first began writing songs and jamming together, it was like a piano rehab for me.
Arthur: Vickie told me she wanted to be in a band that plays Cheap Trick covers. And that was it—I decided to ask her to play with us. We never became a Cheap Trick cover band after that, though.
HK Magazine: You guys are all busy people. How do you cope with each other’s schedules?
Vickie: It’s tough. Everybody has their day jobs—Arthur is a journalist, Tiff is a dance teacher, I’m a freelancer and Gabe is a teacher. And we’re in different bands too. Tiff is also in Hungry Ghosts, Arthur has a lot of bands and Gabe is the busiest man in the world AND he’s in like 20 bands. So it’s hard for us to arrange time to practice together sometimes.
Tiffany: Gabe is such a great drummer. He’s always in demand and he always loves to play—he’s a drum slut (laughs.) Hong Kong is such an intense city and everything is done so quickly, so even though we are constantly busy, we managed to do a lot of shows and record songs in short period of time—I feel like we’ve been together for three years.
HK Magazine: How would you describe the Wolves’ musical style?
Arthur: When it started we played the kind of punk rock stuff that we grew up listening to. The songs’ reference point are around the mid-90s. But our style has changed over time—we’re definitely less cut-and-dried. With the keyboard joining in, we have changed the arrangement of some of songs written to sound more piano friendly. And Gabe writes instrumental pieces as well.
Tiffany: I think the style has softened down a bit, as Vickie gets more involved in the songwriting process. But in a nice way—it’s softened with spikes too! And it’s great that everybody is free to bring their own stuff onto the table.
Listen to Six Packs of Wolves’ music live at Fringe Club on Nov 20.