Hailing from Belfast, Harley & The Wolf are a four piece alt-rock band, and they combine strong riffs, delicate harmony and ear catching melody to bring you their take on modern alternative rock. After completing their Scottish Tour, the band released their new single “Just a Memory” yesterday, which the song is taken from their forthcoming EP “Youthful Souls”. It is a heartfelt alt-rock song that features the flawless guitar sound, authentic vocals and perfect punctual rhythm section.

I am a big fan of the band, and I decided to do this article when I heard that they were going to release their new EP. A few months ago, Harley & The Wolf kindly accepted my invitation to our interview. And here it is.

Hello, Harley & The Wolf! Please introduce yourself and the band.

Hi, we are Harley & the Wolf, we’re an Alt Rock band from Northern Ireland. We have two guitarists & vocalists, Christi McCullough and Conor Ritchie. Ryan Noble plays bass while also doing backing vocals, and our drummer is Pete Barber.

How did you guys become a band, and why is it Harley And The Wolf (as your band name)?

Christi, Conor and Pete all studied music together in college and began writing songs together as part of an older band. We played shows around Ireland before taking a break for several years to then come back together in 2019 before adding Ryan to our line-up on bass. The name Harley & the Wolf came from a song that Christi and Conor had written that was titled “Harley & the Wolf” which in turn was taken from the famous Harland and Wolf cranes in Belfast’s famous shipyard.

You are just about to release the debut EP “Youthful Souls”. You must be excited!

We are really excited, there’s a story behind this EP given nearly all the songs were initially written almost a decade ago in earlier forms of the band. These songs have been in the works for a lot of years so to finally be able to share them with everyone is something that means a lot to us and is incredibly exciting.

Could you explain about this EP/the songs of the EP a little?

As we’ve said, these songs were all written initially in older forms of Harley. Once we reconnected in 2019, we brought them back to life and spent a long time reworking them and writing new and improved parts to make them what they today. Our musical influences have grown over the years as has our ability as musicians and songwriters so we wanted to incorporate all of theses things into these songs that we had written so long ago.

Which is your personal favourite song and why?

It’s hard to choose a specific one. They all mean so much to us for different reasons, generally anyone’s specific favourite song changes quite often.

How do you normally go about writing your songs?

We write in a very collaborative way. It takes all four of us to bring ideas to life. Generally someone, usually Christi or Conor, will bring an idea to the practice room and from there we all start adding our sections. So Pete and Conor will work out some rhythm parts and then Ryan will add his parts too etc. We all generally bounce ideas around, try lots of different things and see what works best.

Who are your influences? Does everyone in your band listen to similar music or musicians?

We take a lot of influence from the bands we listened to growing up and that looks different for everyone. Bands like, Thin Lizzy, Guns & Roses to more modern bands like Paramore and Deaf Havana. It’s fair to say that as musicians we all listen to different types of music which leads to a lot of different ideas being brought into our music. Having said that, we do also share a handful of bands that we listened to growing up that influenced all of us equally.

Are there any gigs planned?

We are headlining Voodoo Belfast on November 4^th which we are really excited about, and we’re hoping to have a few other things between now and the end of year.

How is the live music scene like where you are?

Usually Belfast has a very vibrant live music scene (during non covid times at least). Most bars/venues you walk by there’s some form of live music on which is great.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

Just a massive thank you to everyone who’s supported us over this past 18 months, it’s been incredibly difficult for everyone in the music scene regardless of what you do within it. The response to our latest single has been amazing and means so much to us. We’re excited to release the rest of these songs and hopefully get back out playing as soon as possible.

Thank you for taking time for us, and good luck!

(Teri Morris)

You can read our review on Lost hope And Mixed Blessings single by Harley & The Wolf
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