OT LONG AGO, IT WAS BEGINNING TO LOOK LIKE THE YOUNG WEREWOLVES WERE GOING TO HAVE TO EMBRACE A MORE HUMAN IDENTITY IN ORDER TO TRANSFORM THEIR COLLECTIVE FASCINATION WITH MONSTERS INTO A VIABLE CAREER. After eight years of performing under full moons, the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania trio believed it was time to consider putting the beastlier elements on the backburner.
“Almost every song we’ve ever written has
been strictly about monsters and we wanted to take a step beyond that this time,” explains “Shewolf” Dana Kain (bass, vocals). “I mean, they’re still in there – they’re always going to be in there – but we wanted to see if we could do something a little more mainstream.” The Young Werewolves, whose name is a
spin on Mel Brooks’ 1974 movie Young Frankenstein, has been prac- ticing rockabilly-horror punk since the group’s inception in 2002. Back in 2008, none other
than Sid Haig (Galaxy of Terror, The Devil’s Rejects) became a fan and executive-produced their second disc, Cheat the Devil. After meeting the horror icon through a mutual friend, the band asked Haig to help produce the album, record a voice-over for the song “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” and even pose with the group for the album’s cover. “Sid’s very knowledgeable about music,”
says Kain. “When he came back out east for one of the Monster-Mania horror cons, we kidnapped him for the night, brought him to
the studio and went through a lot of the changes he had – just icing on the cake. The album was there but he definitely made it a little more special.” Thrilled by Haig’s input but wanting to avoid being a “one-trick
pony,” the band had designs on getting Alice Cooper involved with their newly minted third album, Sins of the Past (available now from Cargo Music) but alas, it was not to be. Undaunted, the ’wolves once again enlisted producer Andy Kravitz (Urge Overkill, Life of Agony), who twirled the knobs for both Cheat the Devil and their 2004 self-titled debut, to help them create a record rife with temptation, redemption and, perhaps most fit- ting, transformation. Kain, guitarist “Wolfman” Nick Fal-
con and drummer Jonny Wolf have made a conscious effort to mature as songwriters and even when they’re taking a swipe at social commentary, as they do on the track “Generation Breakdown,” the monsters are still present, just not in the literal sense. “‘Generation Breakdown’ reflects the idea of original sin, the tree of
knowledge and the monster who encouraged the downfall of man in a modern way,” explains Kain. “The ‘monster’ being reflected in a society that cares more about fashion than substance. We are the horrors that walk the Earth.” Other highlights on the album include the quirky rock howl of “Under the Full Moon,” the undeniable pick-me-up beat of “Mid-
night Monster Hop,” the danceable (de)com- position “Zombie Prom” and especially the album’s sleeper cut, “In the Shadows,” on which Kain sings lead vocals, her husky wail echoing that of Concrete Blonde’s Johnette Napolitano. The fun monster music vibe is still there but, particularly on that last track, some- thing more serious has begun to creep in. “I think it’s a very dark time we’re living in
and people need something darker to escape into it,” says Kain, who’s of two minds regard- ing the shift. “At times, [being a horror band] has definitely limited our range regarding live shows and maybe even [caused] prejudice to- wards us. On the flip side, it has also opened a lot of doors for us.” Those open doors include the pair of lucra-
tive song placements the band recently landed in genre television shows The Vampire Diaries and Supernatural. With horror, and werewolves in particular, continuing to spread like wildfire in popular culture – the Twilight films, TV’s True Blood and even the Harry Pot- ter books, etc. – the trio may just get to enjoy the best of both worlds. “We will never stray completely [from hor-
ror],” promises Kain, “but we thought we might try to take a walk in the sunlight every once in a blue moon!”
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