Chad Wolf is nothing if not happy these days. In a few short years, he's gone from dressing up in a weasel suit in Charleston, S.C. to having his music blasted through the airwaves all over the country.
And today, Wolf, frontman and driving force behind the new band Carolina Liar, sees his band's debut album, "Coming to Terms," hit store shelves. (Look for The Crimson White's review of "Coming to Terms" later today.)
Wolf spoke to The Crimson White last week, exploring his career's past, present and future.
"It's a pretty wild feeling," Wolf said of the imminence of the album release. "After all these years it's finally going to get to come out. It's crazy."
"Coming to Terms" is very much the product of European influence, which makes it difficult for American ears to identify exactly to what genre it belongs. But Wolf came up with a description that may be helpful.
"It's a modern rock approach to American singer/songwriter songs with a lot of Swedish influences," he said. "Maybe it's a modern ABBA."
The Swedish elements are the result of collaboration with Tobias Karlsson, super-producer Max Martin and The Cardigans guitarist Peter Svensson.
Martin was the mastermind behind a number of pop hits by Britney Spears ("...Baby One More Time," "Oops!...I Did It Again"), the Backstreet Boys ("Shape of My Heart," "I Want It That Way," "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely") and Bon Jovi ("It's My Life") in the 90's. His best-known work from this decade is a pair of Kelly Clarkson songs, "Since U Been Gone" and "Behind These Hazel Eyes."
Wolf said he, Martin and Karlsson formed what was essentially a triumvirate of creativity when crafting the album.
"When we were working and producing songs, we were writing as a collective," Wolf said."We did our own demos ... everybody did try to produce something different."
But, he said, the collaboration was not a democracy.
"Ultimately, the boss of everything was Max Martin." Wolf said.
While Wolf had a band back in Charelston, Carolina Liar did not form until much later. In fact, when he began his collaboration with Martin and Karlsson, the band did not even exist.
"We started off kind of backwards with this," he said. "I started working with Tobias and Tobias started working with Max." He said the individual band members slowly trickled in during production.
Because of that progression, as one would expect, Wolf feels like the finished product is very much his, even though much of the vision was not his. He likened it to being a parent.
"It's kind of my baby I guess, just kind of rearing it," he said.
Music from "Coming to Terms" has been featured in the MTV show "The Hills," and singles "I'm Not Over" and "Show Me What I'm Looking For" have received serious air time on dozens of radio stations. Wolf said things have already been different for him as a result of that.
He recounted a story of how when he was in a clothing store in Los Angeles, someone drove by playing "I'm Not Over" so loudly that he could hear it in the store. He said he immediately began to excitedly point that out to one of the store employees, before going to his car to scan the radio for the song.
That's not all that's changed. Carolina Liar began touring Friday, when they played a show in San Diego. On top of that, the band recorded an interview with Access Hollywood in Wolf's home Saturday.
As any ambitious musician would do, Wolf is already working toward the future, thinking up future projects and writing with his bandmates.
"We do an acoustic set with this stuff too," Wolf said with excitement in his voice. He said he hopes they can someday record and master some of those sets to create a live album.
Wolf also reflected on the route he took to this point.
"I took the real, real long road," he said. 'I'm grateful for everything that's happened."
He said the long gestation period, including the trip to Europe, was instrumental to shaping him as a musician.
"I don't think I was necessarily ready either, songwriter-wise. The songs just weren't there," he said.
At that point, Wolf gave a little wisdom that would be useful to anyone.
"Always associate yourself with people who are smarter and better than you are," he said.
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