Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolyn From Black Wolf & The Thief.
Hi Carolyn from Black Wolf & the Thief, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I always tell people I was singing before I was speaking. I grew up constantly listening to music; my parents always had music playing whether we were driving in the car or they were at home making dinner, and it was always LOUD. I was really shy as a kid (believe it or not I still am), so I would go in the corner of my room behind my bed and secretly sing along to The Rolling Stones or Sheryl Crow or whatever my parents happened to be blasting downstairs. I would have been mortified if they heard me though, even though I was already pretty sure singing was my favorite thing ever. I tried auditioning for church and school plays in my youth, but was actually too shy to ever sing loud enough to ever get any kind of solo part. In 2003 I went on a student ambassador trip to Australia for a month, and the other students in the group discovered I could sing. They soon began volunteering me to sing on the spot at any opportunity, and there were a surprising amount of opportunities to sing. I got to sing in Cathedral Cave and the Sydney Opera House, and when I got home that was all I wanted to do.
I had also always loved writing, and was ready to take songs I had written and start a band. I petitioned all my guitarist friends, sang at open mic nights every weekend, but never really got anywhere. Winter of 2012 I was asked to sing in my childhood church’s Christmas cantata, and the pianist there just happened to be Clay Colley, later to be known as Black Wolf.
We clicked pretty much immediately, began writing songs together, and came up with the name Black Wolf (him) & the Thief (me). Before we could really do anything with our duo, I ended up signing a one-year contract with a touring performance group, and I traveled the country performing song and dance variety shows for hospitalized veterans. When I got home, we started gigging as much as we could. We added a drummer to our duo, originally Bryan Teeters, but he moved to Nashville on a gig as a drum tech with Old Dominion, and that’s when Chocolate Milk became our drummer. We were pulling double headers almost every weekend, playing mostly covers in just about any bar that would take us, Eventually we decided to make the shift from covers to original music only, and haven’t looked back since. We’ve recorded two albums of original music and have multiple singles out, as well as a handful of unreleased music we play live. In 2017 Black Wolf & I got married (awww) and in 2019 we had a baby (awww!). Black Wolf & the Thief has been a band for a solid ten years now, but it only really feels like post-pandemic we’ve come into our own as a presence on the scene. I’m still really shy, by the way, I just do it anyway.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Making the change from cover band to original band wasn’t easy. We got kind of used to playing to empty rooms at one point. But original music had always been the goal, and I really didn’t want to compromise on it. It’s difficult to describe our “style” of music, and the lack of guitar has been surprisingly off-putting for some, but we’ve been committed to staying true to who we are, and we’re really glad we did.
On a more personal note, in 2018 I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which ended up really affecting my ability to do much of anything, let alone perform for a while there. Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease are both forms of inflammatory bowel disease, which is lifelong and has no cure, but thankfully I am currently in remission. And of course, being a parent and a performer at the same time is far from easy, but thankfully my parents are the best support system anyone could ever ask for.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’m most known for being the singer of the band, but I’m not *just* the singer of the band. I’m the principal songwriter of the band, I run the social media accounts, I design and update the website, I create the cover art for new releases, I hand thrift and stamp our merch, and often design the fliers for shows, Somehow, I wish I could do less but also more at the same time. I love being involved in all parts of the creative process; writing lyrics and melodies, building harmonies, making texture decisions in the studio, and creating the perfect visuals to accompany the audio. I think I’m most proud of myself for really deciding to get out of my comfort zone and write whole songs, not just lyrics. At the beginning of Black Wolf & the Thief, I would bring poems to Black Wolf, and he would put music to them, and that’s pretty much how we wrote songs. The Pioneer, Ferris Wheel, Low Tide, and Unrequited are good examples of this. Close to You and Dark Thoughts were the first songs I wrote not just words to, but also the melodies to. (gone) is the first song I wrote the entire arrangement for, and almost all of our new music is music AND lyrics by me. And I’m really proud of myself for that! I like to write music that I would listen to, even if I wasn’t the one that was recording or performing it.
I’m really proud of the band for our persistence and authenticity. Like I said previously, we’d gotten kind of accustomed to playing to empty rooms for a while there, and were definitely met with the message “YOU’RE TOO WEIRD” more than a few times. But our friend JD Eicher assured us to stay true to ourselves, and we’re so grateful for him and his advice. It’s hard to describe our sound or genre, because we make music about what we feel, and we feel lots of different things. So one minute we’re dancing around smiling and singing about star crossed lovers, and the next minute I’m literally screaming at you about being all alone. But sometimes life’s like that, so we just let it out when it feels right.
What are your plans for the future?
This year we’re really focused on writing and recording new music. We’ve currently got four songs cooking right now, and I just wrote two brand new ones a couple weeks ago that we’re test running live at some upcoming shows this month and next. We like to play our new songs live for an audience before we go into the studio with them. It’s like a crazy vibe check, a really easy way to find what parts of the song need to be edited. It’s also kind of scary because none of us really know what we’re doing with it at that point yet, but we sure learn quick! In the studio, we love adding sounds and textures to tracks that we can’t always really replicate live- like horns on All About the Money or a choir on College- so our live shows are really something special that you can’t just stream somewhere. I love the community that can be found at live shows, and I love when our shows foster that kind of community. We’re not planning on any big changes any time soon. The only big thing we’re hoping for is an album by the end of the year, but we’ll see how the fortune cookie crumbles.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bwt-music.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwtmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bwtmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@blackwolfthethief2941
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7FE5PhVQttfLNq7BzN0lB4?si=vvQmaxiKTC-qzcEYom1ACg&nd=1&dlsi=f9b908d778f84d5c
