Prairiewolf (Interview)

Good morning.

Today we’re listening to Prairiewolf, a band based in Colorado. The trio is Jeremy Erwin (keys & synth), Tyler Wilcox (bass), and Stefan Beck (guitar & steel). (Stefan also makes great instrumental music under the name Golden Brown.) The three formed Prairiewolf in Colorado a couple years ago, concocting what they’ve taken to calling “Colorado koshmiche.” That coinage reflects the loose style the group draws from ‘70s German bands like Can and Ash Ra Tempel, but they also cite influences from Brazilian folk to Ethiopian jazz. Their second LP, Deep Time, just came out in September, which followed up their self-titled debut LP from last year. A conversation with Jeremy, Tyler, and Stefan follows the streaming links.

Deep Time - Prairiewolf (40m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

Prairiewolf - Prairiewolf (40m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal

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What are your earliest memories of music?

Stefan: There was always music on in the house when I was growing up. My parents aren’t musicians but they love music. Later in life when I started listening more intently to music like The Beatles and The Talking Heads, it was surprising to realize how well I knew those songs without consciously knowing them.

Jeremy: I carried Thriller around with me on a personal cassette player for several months when I was 3 or 4. Just held that tiny speaker up to my ear and blasted those jams everywhere for most of 1983. I was really, really into it.

Tyler: I can remember listening to a Tom T. Hall record called Songs Of Fox Hollow (For Children Of All Ages) that felt kind of overwhelming in its pure melancholy on a few tunes. That probably wasn’t the point of it, but I think it made me like sad songs. 

How did you guys meet each other?

Jeremy: Tyler and I became acquainted as music bloggers who covered a lot of similar turf (Tyler runs doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com and contributes to Aquarium Drunkard and others; I write at theheatwarps.com). When I moved to Colorado post-Covid, we connected about starting a band, and Tyler recommended Stefan fill out the lineup. We both knew and loved Stefan’s work as Golden Brown and figured he’d be a solid fit music-wise. Interest, and personality wise, it remains remarkable how well it all works.

How would you define "Colorado kosmische"?

Jeremy: Of all the ways listeners have described us, Colorado kosmische has felt the most appropriate. Mostly because so many of the kosmische originators like Can, Kraftwerk, Ash Ra Tempel, all had a sort of sedate, loose, calming approach to music making that we share. You also have kosmische or kosmische-adjacent groups like Harmonia or Trad Gras Och Stenar who lived and recorded in rural, pastoral environments that you can hear reflected in the music. Writing and recording in a similarly rural space up in the mountains allows us to explore that environment-as-influence approach to music making.

Who are the artists / what are the albums that you guys took the most inspiration from in creating the Prairiewolf sound?

Stefan: We are all voracious listeners/finders of music, both new and old. On Deep Time, you can hear some reflections of Ethiopian jazz (Hailu Mergia and Mulatu Atstatke), Brazilian folk/jazz (Joyce and Nana Vasconcelos), and contemporary cosmic Americana (William Tyler, Steve Gunn, and Chuck Johnson). And for me there’s always a bit of Grateful Dead fluttering around the edges of the music I make.

What instruments do you guys use?

The instruments we used on Deep Time are:

Jeremy: Rhodes Stage 73, Mellotron micro, Prophet 6, Crumar organ, Arp Odyssey, Moog Sub 37, Roland Juno 60, Gibson SG ‘62 reissue, Mustang bass, various tape delays and pedals

Stefan: Fender Nashville Telecaster, Harmony Golden Jubilee lap steel, Steel Rail Guitars lap steel, National Resolectric, pedals

Tyler: Epiphone EB-3, Mustang bass

Drum machines: Maestro Rhythm King II, Korg Univox/Mini Pops SR-120, and the Ace Tone FR-3

What records are you guys playing the most these days?

Stefan: A few albums that I can’t put down are Bite Down by Rosali, Small Medium Large by SML, Kosmos by Bremer/McCoy, High Lonesome Cowboy by Don Edwards and Peter Rowan, and As We Speak by Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, and Rakesh Chaurasia

Jeremy: Misha Panfilov has a couple of great new ones out, Frutario Electronica and Live in Stockholm & Tallinn. Also digging Phil Ranelin’s Vibes from the Tribe – a very nice trombone-led spiritual fusion record – and I’ve also just “discovered” Little Feat and have been way into Feats Don’t Fail Me Now.

Tyler: The new Gillian Welch, the latest insane Neil Young Archives box, the (also insane) 27-disc Dylan and the Band Live 1974 box, Les Rallizes Denudes, the Lijadu Sisters.

Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.

Stefan: The band I am always waving my flag for is the great Quebec psych/folk/prog group Harmonium. Their 1975 album Si On Avait Besoin d’une Cinquième Saison is an all time favorite of mine. I’ve been listening to it for 25 years and I still am hearing new things in it.

Jeremy: Jazz pianist/composer Mal Waldron is really slept on. He has a very minimalist, uncomplicated, rhythm-focused way of playing that nobody has bothered to copy. And he has the strangest career trajectory, from arranging for Billy Holiday, re-learning his instrument after a heroin-fueled mental collapse in the mid-60s, moving to Europe, recording the first ECM LP and joining the German psych jazz band, Embryo. 

Tyler: The Moore Brothers out of Nevada City, CA, have been putting out awesome records for probably 20 years now — wonderful harmonies, strange song-forms, wild melodies. I feel like they’re due to (finally) be properly appreciated.

What are you working on next?

Stefan: It’s always kind of exciting to finish an album and start looking ahead to what’s next. I think we all have been writing music for the third Prairiewolf album, but the best part is when we bring them to the group and see how the others help develop the song.

Tyler: It was cool to have our pal Matt Loewen contribute a little something to Deep Time — it might be interesting to get into further collaborations with more Colorado musicians. 

Jeremy: I enjoy the freedom of having no idea what we’re up to next. We’re planning a few shows beyond Colorado in the coming year, but the terror of that otherwise blank slate is pretty inspiring.