San Diego Reader

Patrick Scafidi: Bass guitar | Brian Scafidi: Drums | Jessie Cuevas: Keyboards | Alex Pitta: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric) | Joel Williams: Guitar (acoustic), Guitar (electric)

Genre: Electro | DJ, Rock

Sound description: Freakpop/mud/noise-fi.

RIYL: The Shins, the Velvet Underground, Radiohead, Beethoven, Animal Collective

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Related Links

• D/Wolves website

• Blurt: "Now You Know: D/Wolves" · March 31, 2010

Synoposis

Inception: San Diego, 2009

Influences: Soft Machine, Daedelus, My Bloody Valentine, Outkast, the Mars Volta, CKY

Background:

Founded by brothers Patrick Scafidi (bass) and Brian Scafidi (drums), D/Wolves was formed by several local teens in summer 2009. A five-song EP recorded in their garage was pressed in March 2010 by noise label Little Fury Things, followed by a full-length released by Removador Records (founded by Jim James of My Morning Jacket).

D/Wolves (the name is a Dune reference) define a genre, if anybody ever gets around to naming it, best called something like post-spooky dreampop gypsygaze. Their Facebook calls it freakpop/mud/noise-fi.

“That’s the hardest question,” says guitarist Alex Pitta. “We don’t write with a style in mind.”

Guitarist Joel Williams and snyth player Jessie Cuevas both use laptops to trigger synth patches and samples of homemade circuit-bent Casios, pedals, and even an electronic parrot.

“We were using pedals with really brutal names like Black Death Metal Blood and Hot Monkey Screamer, just rewiring them, licking our fingers and touching the circuit boards,” says Cuevas.

“We sing about ghosts and girls,” says Williams. “We stay up a lot, for, like, a couple days straight. That’s how we write our songs.”

“We are inspired by the paranormal,” says Cuevas. “We were sponsored by Lucha Libre to find the Blue People in Proctor Valley. We have it all on videotape.”

When asked if they have seen a chupacabra -- aka the legendary Fortean mainstay known as a goatsucker -- Alex replies “We haven’t, but we believe they exist.”

D/Wolves were nominated Best New Artist at the 2010 San Diego Music Awards. In January 2011, they released the three-track Freak of Nature.

Discography