Hiya The Fods + Night Wolf, thanks for joining us in the virtual RGM lounge today. Grab a brew and take a seat.
Thanks for joining us today… Tell us bit about where you are from and how you got into music?
The Fods (ol) : Rob and I started about a long time ago, in college, in Cheshire (just south of Manchester) and did a few gigs, recorded songs on a 4-track tape machine and generally made a lot of racket. Fast forward a couple of decades, having not worked together during that time, we took those 4-track tapes and recorded the songs we wrote as teenagers properly (or slightly less shoddily I should say). Kickback is one of those tunes!
N.W: Hi! I am from Luton UK and have been making music since I was able to bang things, I first learnt to make music on my first workstation with no computer, I got a Roland Fantom X6 on store credit and was blown away with what could be done alone. I then moved into learning a DAW a few years later and have just been learning my own way since. I have been lucky to collaborate with some fantastic artists over my years of making music and really enjoy to create not only music but lyrics and art, I enjoy to also learn the package of what it takes to promote not only myself but those now that I work with and have been lucky enough to have my music placed in some major productions and networks up to this point where I am able to focus more on now aiming to get those placements myself. I am still learning and still evolving and am just trying to enjoy the ride whilst I can.
What’s the live music scene like in Northwich + Bedford right now?
The Fods : In Northwich it’s quite cool actually, in order for a “scene” to happen you need musicians, venues, labels, record shops, radio stations and punters, all coming together – and we’re blessed with all of those things going on together in a couple of small Cheshire towns.
N.W: In Bedford there is a community of people who perform regularly at open mic nights and there is always some live music somewhere most weeks, there is a well known music venue here too where they have some bigger names perform. I met Lois in an open mic night here in Bedford and we ended up working on 4 songs so far and are now working on more! There are some talented musicians and artists in both Bedford and Luton.
Anyone we should be looking out for (bar you, of course)?
The Fods : Check out Rare Vitamin Records label roster, they are the other label in town after our own Good Stock Records, and they’re running 10 or so bands, with close ties to 3 venues, which are always putting on great gigs. We also play those bands and tons of worldwide independent bands on our “The Word of The Fods” radio shows, which you should also check out!
N.W: Lois Powell + The Fods 😉
Do you think it’s easy to become a victim of our surroundings sometimes?
The Fods : (Rob) It is, but I personally try not to. I spend a lot of time in New York City, and there is always a lot going on, but I now find you have to pick and choose what you take in. I rarely read the news, as it’s just not what I want to infiltrate my consciousness. As a lyricist, that can be quite difficult because you need to find inspiration from somewhere, so I have to use imagination to compensate.
N.W: Yes I think it certainly is, sometimes we get so lost in our selves and forget maybe that others are going through stuff themselves and we are all just trying to figure out life. But it is also just as easy to work on bettering yourself and not falling for those traps. The world is a strange place right now and nothing seems very easy anymore, but you can not wallow in all the wrongs and try to just concentrate on yourself and being a better person, I myself am still battling myself to do just that. If you read the news everyday, I can not imagine it is good for anyone’s mental health. I feel our councils and government are letting us down immensely and we are watching the downfall of society sometimes, other times I feel the world is a wonderful place and want to interact with others, but it is hard to keep your head above water sometimes. Life is strange and we all have to figure it out how to make it bearable. It seems to me everyone is a little distant in their own world including myself.
What are your ambitions for the band?
The Fods : Just to continue to make good songs, to release an album and to enjoy it. We have no expectations and it is doubtful we will ever play live (never say never). We enjoy chatting with each other, and bouncing ideas around, and then making decisions around who we get on board to sing our songs. It’s a great process we have stumbled upon, and we will continue to try and improve.
N.W: I will continue to work with other artists and collaborate moving forward and promoting them and our releases on my record label EscaVolt Records and alongside this continue to build my sound effect company No Paw Audio. We are in the process of filming the music videos for our releases and are currently pushing the song to many radio stations and music supervisors, you can lease this song and others whilst also browning my back catalog on my website where you can also contact me directly for either bespoke music or for use of my music available – www.nightwolfuk.com
Whats your favourite social media platform to use and why?
N.W: I used to prefer Facebook but now prefer to use Instagram i guess, it is a bit strange to now have multiple platforms.
The Fods : Instagram I guess.
We believe its essential to have a presence on Facebook, Instagram and X to introduce yourself to all the different types of audiences out there, what’s your thoughts on that?
The Fods : We have those, and we self manage – and we certainly don’t consider ourselves “content creators” as yet – still just trying to be a band with some socials, without it taking up all our time!
N.W: Yes it is but it also is very strange before, there are too many social media sites and I feel it is taking away the interaction I used to have before, I feel most times that I am posting stuff to my pages and no one is even seeing it , I do not have much interaction but do have some people that have stuck around and some new ones that support what I do constantly and I see you and appreciate you. It feels now and maybe more so as a musician/artist/producer trying to gain an audience on social media now means they can charge you to get views and have people see your work if you pay for ads. I guess music has always needed funding to promote it, it just seems to not touch the surface sometimes unless you pump money into it. I do not think my life is that important or exciting to be posting unrelated content daily on my social media accounts so I guess I will just never get with the times. I will do it in a way I enjoy and figure out my own way to try and interact with more people out there but it’s a strange stage.
What’s your view on the Music industry today?
The Fods : Definitely difficult for new acts, financially, and the grass roots could be struggling as a result. The creativity is there, that’s never gone away, but the means to get good gigs and make a career out of that is tough. However, the green shoots exist, especially with that type of “scene” I mentioned earlier, and I can see and feel that happening round my area, so I hope it catches. Other great initiatives like the Subvert platform are exciting too, so the mechanisms to get recorded music out there without getting stiffed by greedy labels or streaming services is improving too.
N.W: I am honestly not even sure what is going on in the commercial aspect of music or who is popular or not etc anymore, I am still happy to find new music out there and adding it too my collection to listen to mainly now in the car or when I working in background, but otherwise my own playlist I listen to is full of artists I grew up with and from before my time. I feel a lot of people are really starting to sound very similar and that there seems to be a lack of imagination some times or even feeling and with the influx of AI artists and music now this is making an already hard industry to break your name out of the mould in and them allowing a flooding of AI music to enter the platforms it is just going to make it even harder to get listeners. I am not sure where this is all going to end, but I already had a lot of my songs that were briefly up at Pond5 before used and paid for being used to train AI which I did not consent to.
Whats your thoughts on AI generated music?
The Fods (ol) : A.I. should not be used to generate music. Defenders of AI might argue that “well the same was said in the 80s about MIDI or drum machines – they’re not real humans” – but the difference is those beats and sounds didn’t replace the human part of creativity. A.I. has the potential to dehumanise creativity, and I can’t get on board with that.
N.W: AI is becoming a real shame with the frame of mind it is causing among younger generations of why bother now to do anything when AI can do it, they see hard work and the process of learning and bettering yourself in an artform as a waste of time when AI can do it, they seem to miss the point completely that this is a commitment we make as creatives to learn and improve what we want to do in life, to then have someone come along and get AI to write the lyrics and then the music and use a AI voice is terrible that this is being allowed to be used for productions and released on streaming services etc, this is not art, if someone is merely prompting an AI to do everything without any real input this is not work, this is lazy, tacky and to me makes a lot of business now using AI for everything look less legit, like a scam company and that they can not even afford to pay for proper promotion or be bothered to make their own promotional material just shows to me a lazy company with no creativity or thought behind it. It is not going to end well , it can be a very useful tool if used alongside your own ideas etc, it can be useful in VST’s and processing plugins , but there is a line , if it takes away the creative process of what makes a unique signature sound of an artist or producer which is part of their soul, then AI will never be able to replicate that truly. But yes for me personally now when I see AI used in something it just makes it feel cheap and tacky and like no effort has been made sorry to say, it does not have a place in music platforms and productions. Music is about expressing your feelings, this is not something an AI can do no matter what its prompted, it will always be a replica , a fake , a fraud and not a real human creation.
Whats the biggest thing you have learned recently as you progress with your music?
The Fods : Tough Question. We are continually seeing how difficult it is to get exposure. Some stations are great but others can be brutal. It doesn’t really bother us if someone says they don’t like one of our songs, but it does help if the criticism is constructive.
N.W: Many many things, even more so as I get older and progress to want to take control myself of how its presented , promotion, social media content , video editing and colour grading, alongside constantly learning and experimenting in music production , I am learning each day still and am now doing everything myself, which I believe is also now the state of today’s artists and creatives as they are forced to make content and then have to spend that time editing and posting and on it goes, you now have to be a little bit of everything and its hard work! I have learnt that having a record label that does nothing for you or anything to actually push the music released , or having a publisher that slowly pushes music out for placements but again do nothing to promote the music outside this and have no interactions, it is not always worth it, I think it is important to find out how is best to promote your own music etc and then just hope to find your audience and people out there that connect with what you try. I have learned to be a lot more organised and how to make my music not released available for use in synch opportunities in film/tv/game etc as well are the new releases on EscaVolt Records, you can browse my back catalog and contact me via my website – www.nightwolfuk.com as mentioned earlier.
What’s currently in your ears and on rotation at the moment?
The Fods : Have a listen to “The Word of The Fods” radio show, and there will be a whole plethora of indie acts to peruse
N.W: I really am enjoying a lot of music from the 1930’s right now, a lot of big band but more on the chilled side, I have my own folder of songs I listen to rather than any streaming platforms, I enjoy to listen to what I enjoy from the past mostly and have always done it this way since i had a computer as a kid. I have an eclectic taste but listen to a lot of Hip Hop from the 90’s onwards. I really enjoy the music from the Falllout series of games and will listen to the track list from Galaxy news when I am working on stuff, I would love to make something along this style but with an updated beat and feel, we shall see.
What was your worst experience on stage? Any funny stories to share?
The Fods : Ha! Rob and I did a gig together in our band many years ago, at a student union and we somehow did the soundcheck very early, but our band wasn’t on early, so we were hammered by the time we got on stage. I remember thinking that I really couldn’t see that pedal board, and it wasn’t my pedal board anyway so I didn’t know what on earth I was doing. It was a fair disaster, sonically.
N.W: Umm maybe being drunk and rapping in front of thousands of people with DubFX in Hungary a long time ago, I can not watch it without cringing to it. I have had my fair share of dodgy gigs with bands and using friends’ shoes to stop drum kits sliding across the pub floor but due to my music now mostly being more cinematic in nature , whatever that truly means, I do not fancy performing live without some visual backing which I am working on currently , but this is also another reason I enjoy collaborating with other artists as they can perform the songs if needed. It would certainly be fantastic to get on the circuit next year maybe and be able to perform a set live with the artists on EscaVolt Records.
Got any fun, funny stories from life on the road?
The Fods : (Ol) Touring in the noughties with a band called flawed was fun, Manchester and London mainly, one time we failed to secure a spot on a Manchester festival. But not to be defeated we got a curtain side truck and a petrol powered generator and parked it outside one of the venues in the City centre and let rip a very loud and illegal gig. We faked a load of laminates and faked a letter from the council. We still got busted by the cops, but a lot of promoters and industry peeps had seen and heard the stunt by then so it had done its job. I have seen a photo of us actually at the point of being busted. Good times.
N.W: Umm my own music experiences some years back in Hungary took a weird turn when I was going to play for a small festival for a political party and ended up having some kind of mental breakdown and learnt how angry I really was with myself and the world! I was going to tell the full story but am actually a little ashamed of myself thinking about it more so I won’t go into details. But I have never been a touring artist and the gigs etc I have done were in the UK and Hungary, where either small pubs locally or some friends invited me to play. I do want to have a set I can perform with different styles and genres as well as having artists that have collaborated with me perform, so this is something I will also now start to make a reality.
I hear you have new music. What can you tell us about it?
The Fods : We’ve always got new music, we’ve been on a mission to release something new every month, and we managed to keep that up from Sept ‘25 and apart from one little gap we’re still going. New track for May 2026 is female-vocal punk. I think it suffers from lack of marimba, personally, but it’s still a great pogo-tastic tune. We’ll keep doing that until we have an LPs worth, which won’t be long!
N.W: Yes like The Fods, I always have new music being worked on in the background, however right now as I still have a bit to do for establishing the sound effect company No Paw Audio and creating visual content for socials and music videos for each release on EscaVolt Records, I have a whiteboard that I have a list I am working through each day and need to get this clear before I can go back to being fully creative in music etc as there is currently a lot of back office work and promotion going on and I only have two hands. But lots happening and we hope you guys will enjoy the vision we have created for the music videos, we are completing Lost My Way Home right now with Lois Powell.
What was the recording process like?
The Fods (ol) : The original Kickback was shaped over many years, but it was always a rock tune. It was the centrepiece of our old live set, and had meandering jams and a section where it just slowed down gradually. We had to tighten up that arrangement for The Fods recorded version, and as ever when we’re sharing early mixes Rob’s attitude is always “more guitar!!!”. NW had none of that history to draw on and took an approach that was just based entirely on his own sounds and production techniques. It’s still Kickback, but it’s very different, and it’s great that the song still has new ways of presenting itself all this time later.
N.W: We just met on XRP Radio chat while they had some music played on the station, they said they wanted someone to remix some songs and I stuck my hand up to try, they sent me a few different songs and as I was going over the stems , the vocals to Kickback really stood out to me and lead the creation of my remake of the song where I just followed the vibe they gave me. It was really the backing vocal track that made me hear and see how this song was going to turn out. The Fods trusted me to just do my own thing, there was no back and forth etc, I presented to them the finished song and they just so happened to like it enough to release it, so here we are today. But yes it was remotely and I did it all at my home studio.
Would you change anything now it’s finished?
The Fods (ol) : No! We joked about how NW took a hatchet to all the guitars, effectively making me redundant in this recording. But I definitely wouldn’t want to put them back in – what’s the point of a remix that sounds just like a slight variant. We like that it’s a complete reworking not just a few things different.
N.W: No , I feel with music, unless its being remade/remixed etc that once you are happy with it and done, to not keep going back to it and changing things etc, similar to an artist painting a picture , once the last brush stroke is laid, they do not come back to it and alter it over and over, so this is how the song will now remain on my side and there is not anything other than always hearing something in the mix that could of been lowered slightly etc , but overall I am very satisfied with the ending result and would not want to change anything.
Is there anything else you would like to share with the world?
The Fods : (Rob) As we intimated we have a radio show, which is live on indiemusicfans.com every other Wednesday. It has also been syndicated on radio shows in Brazil, Romania & Turkey. Give it a listen, there are absolute gems
N.W: Please do follow along on our socials as we are excited to show you our music video creations and bring our visual ideas to life for the first time. If you are searching for unique and never used before real sound effects and foley then keep an eye on me for the launch of No Paw Audio, if you are looking for music for your visual projects then keep me in mind and search my back catalog and current available music from my website where you can also contact me if you are a budding musician/artist/singer/rapper looking to potentially work together on a project – www.nightwolfuk.com
Thank you for the interview and check us out on socials and links below, we would really appreciate the support and to find our people out there to follow along the ride. Thank you for listening and reading!
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