Last week we finally got around to reviewing Daughter of the Sea, the lovely latest album by House of Wolves, an album we described as:
“…beguilingly simple, with a lingering eerie beauty that’s evocative of the surrounding Irish landscape, of foggy plains and craggy dolmens, of ghosts and memories long dead. The songs sound like those of a lonely man pining after ghosts, or perhaps a lonely ghost pining after those left behind.”
We also had the chance to have a quick chat to Rey Villalobos about the album and his music in general. Check it out below!
Hi Rey, thanks for speaking to us! How is life treating you since the release of Daughter of the Sea a few months back?
Things are good thanks, been pretty busy… I recently threw everything in storage in California and temporarily moved to Berlin, super inspiring city. I’ll be in Germany until I leave for tour this September.
You recorded the new album in Wexford on the east coast of Ireland. What were the reasons for this? And do you think the location influenced how the songs sound? Would they have turned out differently if you’d recorded them in sunny California?
The number one reason I went to record in Ireland was to work with my good friend and producer Darragh Nolan, I knew his aesthetics and his taste in music where exactly what the songs needed. And most definitely the surroundings affected the sound of the record, its impossible for it not to, especially since we decided to leave in all the outside ambient noise around us. This acted almost like another musician on the album, the sounds of Ireland. If
we would have recorded in California it would have had a different sound, still melancholic but very different.
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Geography aside, where did the inspiration for Daughter of the Sea come from? To me, your writing seems pretty instinctive and abstract, as if the images were dredged from your subconscious. Is this something you agree with? If so, do you still see (perhaps unintentional) signs of your own life and experience within these images?
Yes I definitely agree, my writing comes from the heart, my feelings, my experiences, its a very instinctive process. It’s never planned, the songs arrive from the subconscious.
This is a question I always ask, but would you say your writing has been influenced by any authors or poets? Or is it something more natural and personal?
No, its much more personal for me, ideas arrive from life experiences and then form into songs
The album has had a really good reception pretty much across the board. Presumably this feels really good, but how much notice do you take of other people’s response to your work?
It’s rad to read a good review, but i’m usually focused on the next record, right now my head is buried in mastering my 3rd album that i recorded 2 months after Daughter of the Sea.
You are currently raising funds for a limited vinyl release of the album in France and Belgium. Firstly, are you excited to hear the songs on vinyl? And why the European release?
Extremely excited to hear the songs on vinyl! I think they will sound even better, darker, and have more of the analog sound that I love. Releasing in Europe because I was approached by Microcultures last spring while on tour in France, we talked and decided to collaborate on limited edition vinyl & CDs. They curated a great campaign, I’m really appreciating their sense of design and creativity that they have for their releases.
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You are embarking on a European tour this September is support of the release. Are European shows a different experience to North American ones?
They are only different in that I’ve been playing here in Europe much more so there’s larger crowds than in the U.S., but the audiences are very similar in that they both are very respectful and sensitive to the quiet moments of the set.
To end, could you name 4-5 acts you are currently listening to? They could be brand new or classics, whatever you’ve been into lately.
Before i headed to Berlin I downloaded a bunch of Roy Orbison on my phone, but really I watch way more films and TV series than listen to music. I’m currently watching the TV series Fargo, it has a great soundtrack, also just finished the documentary ‘Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon’ which is a great film about how Shep Gordon got into the music industry as a manager.
Daughter of the Sea is out now and you can grab it on Bandcamp. You can back the Microcultures campaign to make the vinyl a reality now too.