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“Wolf Mail showcases an astounding knowledge of the blues vocabulary... his phrasing effortlessly lyrical and the bends cutting you in half. The man knows the blues; he is the blues"
Denis Semchenko - Rave Magazine
"A full-on magic performance!" Michael Hines - Great Southern Blues Festival
Wolf Mail has been described as “way out in front of blues guitarists around the world” (Linda Fisher, the London Times) and “...The undisputed heavy weight champion of electric Blues” states the L.A weekly.
Tom Bramson of Blues Rockers magazine says “Mail's guitar work bears the unmistakable marks of the normal SRV/Hendrix/Clapton influences. However, I pay him the ultimate compliment by saying that, though he has obviously been influenced by the normal guitar gods, he bears a striking resemblance to none of them, as his sound is strictly Wolf Mail.”
Wolf Mail’s music style is a blend of traditional blues with electric, rock and soul. His voice is very distinctive and particularly suited to the blues. The Australian Southern Star Newspaper wrote, “The man has a voice that will raise chicken skin down your back”.
In the beginning
Born in Montreal, Canada, raised in the South of France and California, Wolf Mail grew up as a travelling nomad. “My main inspiration always came from discovering new cultures and people” he says.
“My attempt is to translate those feelings into the music”.
Mail picked up the guitar at the age of 10, listening to Elmore James and Ray Charles records.
He was self-taught until the age of 10 before convincing Canadian guitar master David Goodman to give him some lessons. He played his first professional gig at the age of fourteen and by seventeen was touring Europe. Restless touring have become the basis of Wolf’s hard work ethic.
LA days
Two years later Wolf relocated to Los Angeles and spent thirteen years playing the west coast bar scene from San Diego to Eureka,” The Whisky club in Los Angeles used to have this jam on Mondays, they would bring in pizzas and cold beer from the Rainbow bar up the street, to all musicians backstage, it was a great place to check out new talent.”
At 19 years old, after a jam session at The Troubadour Club in Los Angeles with Randy Castillo, Wolf was invited to play with Randy’s current project, the infamous Ozzy Osbourne and band. During this time Wolf was solicited by rock singer, Billy Idol, to replace Steve Stevens as a guitar player and even Cher. “Although flattered by these requests I always knew my heart and soul was into the blues” he recalls.
Singing the blues
It is with blues music that Mail paved his way through the music industry. He recorded two independent albums in the mid 90’s before signing up with ZKS records in 1999. Since then he has released three studio albums to critical acclaim. Solid Ground was universally praised. It contained the ballad “Hello” which stayed in the best selling music charts in Japan for three weeks and had fans declare their “favourite love song of all time”. Blue Fix followed this. Mail then embarked to the great North and recorded a live CD and DVD Live Blues In Red Square, which contains a great cover of The Sky is Crying. Mail’s fourth album Electric Love Soul was recorded last year in LA in the famous Doghouse studios by Grammy Award winner BB “Chung” King and legendary producer Dennis Walker. He is currently touring Australia promoting his latest album. Details are available on the website: www.wolf-mail.com > Tour Dates.
Touring
Wolf averages hundreds of shows per year and when he says “I enjoy travelling to new places as much as I enjoy playing” he ain’t kidding . He’s been around the world several times, playing or promoting his band to audiences in more than 20 countries including the U.S, Canada, Australia, Japan, France, Germany, Morocco, the Netherlands and Mexico.
His live performances are legendary. During one of his performances with the Fabulous Thunderbirds at the Narooma Blues festival in Australia, Tony Jagger from the Southern star has said “Words simply cannot describe the intensity and clarity that comes out of this man’s guitar.” Ron Edmonds from Exclusive Management puts it “You always get something out of a Wolf Mail show.”
Mail particularly enjoys playing the blues in places that do not get a lot of opportunities to hear that type of music. “From the mountaineers of Siberia to the Moroccan Tuareg or the Australian Aboriginals, there is a tremendous source of universal knowledge that comes from these people and having been able to interact with them has been a very enriching experience”.
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