This is Wolfgang Valron, and I am with My Weekly
Mixtape with Brian Colburn, and I hope that everyone
is having a beautiful day. Welcome to My Weekly
Mixtape, a podcast that takes the classic mixtape
approach to building a modern playlist. I'm your
host, Brian Colburn. On tonight's special album
dive edition of the show, I'm joined by singer
-songwriter Wolfgang Valbrun, whose album, Flawed
by Design, I discovered during one of my New
Music Friday searches, and I was instantly floored
by what I heard. And now, a little over a week
and change later, I'm excited to welcome Wolf
to the show so we can dive into his story and
the music from this incredible debut release
so more of the My Weekly Mixtape listeners can
discover it as well. Wolf, Thank you so much
for joining me on the show, man. Thank you for
having me, man. Well, before we dive into the
album, I always like to ask my first time guests,
what does the word mixtape mean to you? It means
the first gift that I gave to my first girlfriend
when I was 13. I hope it went over well. Well,
first off, congratulations on the debut album,
Flawed by Design. As I mentioned in my intro,
this is an album I discovered on my New Music
Friday hunting. And while I was listening and
learning more about you, I discovered that before
embarking on this solo career, you were a part
of Parisian funk band Marvelous, avant -garde
UK soul and jazz band Ephemerals, as well as
French hip -hop and soul legend Guts. who you
co -wrote and performed on tracks of his Stop
the Violence record. Can you talk about how those
collaborations and experiences led you to Flawed
by Design? Really, really in a very weird way.
So I started off with my band, Marvelous, when
I was about 21, 22. And, you know, I wasn't a
musician at that time. It was more just a kind
of a hobby. Just going out to sing with friends.
And from there, we opened up for a band called
Hannah Williams and the Tastemakers at the time.
And when that happened, I met the guitarist,
so Olive Hillman. And she told me she wanted
to have another band. And so we met over that
and just talked a bit. And then from that, after
touring the first and second album, we went to
Glastonbury. And from Glastonbury, we played
on a stage called Silver Haze. And that was really,
really cool. But we were playing at the same
time as Coldplay. So we didn't have much people
in front of us, but Guts was on right after us.
And he was on the side of the stage and he watched
the gig. And from that, he kind of took me under
his wing, kind of became his little prodigy.
And so when... When we finished touring his,
I think this was after Stop the Violence, it
must have been like philanthropic, COVID hit,
you know, and it kind of got to everybody. And
so stopped touring with Guts, Ephemerals, you
know, we split, you know, after a while having
been together. And then the question came of
like, what do I want to do next? What was the
next thing that I wanted to discover? And it
became, I wanted to discover myself because I
hadn't had that, the occasion to really delve
into. What really touched me, even though I,
I felt a connection to all the other things I
had done before, but this was a very introspective
album. So that, I think that's how it really
came about. So then let's dive into flawed by
design, which was released on May 31st, 2024
via jalapeno records. And as I've mentioned countless
times on this show, I'm a sucker. for album opening
tracks. So even when I'm looking to see where
I stand on an album, I always tend to go to track
one. Because if you could grab my attention and
sell me on your music with the opening song,
you probably got a fan for the rest of the album.
And Sun Don't Shine, which is the opening song
on this album, does just that. Strange bedfellows
we sure are This could be the end of it all You
want to be seen by This is the kind of song that
immediately demands your attention. But while
the music is joyous and uplifting, lyrically,
you're painting kind of a different picture,
that of a relationship that preserves only through
the ups in life and inevitably crumbles when
life's roller coaster takes you on a downward
slide. Can you talk about that oil and water
marriage of the music and lyrics for this track?
Because to me, the push and pull yin and yang
dynamics is really what grabbed me. It's a weird
thing. I always do this comparison. It's like
when you listen to Shake It Off by Taylor Swift,
right? And it sounds like a super happy message,
but she's saying that she's being attacked and
that she has to get rid of it, right? Or like
when you think of Jay -Z and get the dirt off
your shoulder kind of thing, right? It's these
things where I think you can still talk about
negative, like not negative, but like things
that are difficult sometimes, but still give
them that, you know, that beautiful twist of,
you know, it doesn't have to stop there. It can
still be a beautiful day. Well, staying on the
lyrical and musical dynamic for Sun Don't Shine
and even maybe broadening it out to the rest
of the album. Are you a songwriter who prefers
to write the lyrics first and the music second?
Is it vice versa or maybe a little bit of both?
There is a little bit of both. So I'm lucky enough
to have a great band behind me also, which are
all friends from now a long day. And so when
I was writing this album, they helped me a lot.
I mean, they kind of gave me the baggage, musical
baggage that I needed to make this the best that
I could. So we were sending each other music
and then we met up and we did a lot of, you know,
writing together also. In that sense, I think
this was like, it's more of a collaborative album,
if I can even say it like that. Even though most
of everything comes from me, then with Derek
Lee, et cetera, et cetera, the melodies. But
again, I'm not a musician musician, right? I
am someone who fell into music and then, and
that thought that I couldn't do anything else
after. And yeah, I think it was, it's more of
a question of like, I'm passionate about having
people, you know, being able to whisper into
my ear and giving me the good decisions that
I make. Well, the next song I'd like to dive
into is the funky Love Yourself. First off, the
opening piano on this track is just absolute
fire. You could feel the funkiness seeping into
the song before the rest of the band even kicks
in. And that sets the tone right from the jump.
And lyrically, this song really gives some great
advice because let's be honest, if you're not
good to yourself, how can you be good to and
for others? This is the kind of song that makes
me feel like I'm getting to know Wolf Valbrun,
even though you and I have never personally met.
Well, besides now, of course. But it's an extremely
personal and vulnerable track. Was that your
intention when writing Love Yourself? Yeah. I
mean, so Love Yourself was one of the first tracks
that I wrote for the album. And it was because
it became a mantra to myself or like during and
after COVID. It was. I was going through some
hard times and I'm still in a relationship with
someone that I love a lot, but it became this
thing where I was like, I can't be good to this
person if I'm not good to myself. It's impossible.
How can I give her the best of me when I'm not
giving the best of myself to myself? So it became
a mantra and then it became this thing that I
started to tell everybody because I wanted everyone
around me to kind of have that same energy for
themselves. Take care of yourself. It's important.
Don't... Don't, don't let yourself, you know,
don't skip yourself before giving yourself to
anybody else. And so it kind of just, yeah, kind
of just snowballed like that. And along with
vulnerable tracks like Love Yourself, you're
not afraid to tackle topics like social consciousness
in songs like My Next Choice, Keep Your Head
Up. Keep Your Head Up tackles institutional and
social injustices with your horn section, adding
this layer of heft on an already powerful rally
call. And you can truly tell how important this
song is to you based on your vocal delivery,
especially during lines like we are Kings and
Queens within you've got to lose before you win.
You can hear how important these lyrics are to
you. Why is that? It was important to me because
I've been living in France for the last 20 years.
And even with living in France, I've had a deep
connection with a lot of friends that I kept
from my childhood who are still in the States.
And it was weird. You know, we went through the
whole George Floyd thing and then in the States.
And that kind of echoed into the world, right?
and here it created this thing especially in
france we've had these like there have been writing
there's been a lot of like you know weird moments
also politically here and it was like and it
was literally to send that message like please
don't forget that we are what makes this system
all right we are the people as much as you know
we are we're treated as the small hands and this
would say in french we're we're the ones that
make this work if we stop Nothing goes on. No
one can force you to go to work. No one can force
you to do anything. So we are the kings and queens
here in this situation. We are the cogs in the
machine. But again, without us, the machine doesn't
work. So we should keep our heads up and not
let ourselves be belittled by people who try
to take away our importance in what we do. It's
a powerful sentiment. The next song I'd like
to dive into is the bluesy I'll Be Your Prey.
I can't stand the feeling I'm losing you You
left me alone for another lover Tell me what
did I do Whatever happened I said you loved me
Please tell me, what did I do to make you go?
God knows I'm falling apart. Like all things
in life, nothing lasts. If love is a killer,
then lead me astray. Now, like I mentioned before
starting the track, this song infuses, I'll say,
a hint of the blues. It's something I picked
up on immediately, but the album as a whole,
while it's undeniably a soul album, I hear a
lot of different genres weaving in and out of
those tracks. Where does that musical cross -pollination
of genres come from for you? So it's funny that
you say that. I'll Be Your Prey is one of the
only songs that I didn't write on the album.
And it was important for me to not write necessarily
everything. I think it was super important to,
again, have the input of my band and also know
what they wanted to give to the world. And it
was actually written by a good friend and the
guitarist of the album, Adam Hallgate. And me
and Adam, we have a very loving and caring relationship
because we've gone through a lot of the same
troubles. especially in love. And when he proposed
the song, I was super happy about it because
it resonated with me a lot. And the fact of it
being this thing where, you know, it's asking,
yeah, you know, I can't stand the feeling that
you're leaving. And what can I do? What have
I done? I will be the thing that will suffer.
I will let you tear me down. Just, you know,
tell me why. And so it kind of gave this thing
where because everyone put in their input in
this album, I wanted also everyone to, you know,
show me what they were. Right. So Adam is an
amazing guitarist and he is an incredible songwriter.
And that's really his touch on the album. Of
course, there's a bunch more of it elsewhere.
And he gave me the space of interpretation and
that I really, really love. Well, while we're
talking about I'll Be Your Prey, I'd also like
to bring another song into the discussion that
holds an interesting similarity to it, and that
is the song Paris. Now, how... Cirrus, along
with I'll Be Your Prey, are available on the
physical CD and vinyl editions of the album,
but not on streaming. And I personally want to
applaud this because I'm a huge proponent of
physical media. And the trend over the 2000s
that I noticed was companies were putting out
bonus tracks digitally, whether it be on iTunes
or streaming only tracks. and left them off physical
copies. But here we are a little over a decade
later, and I'm seeing that trend switch where
physical copies are getting bonus tracks that
are not available on streaming. Can you talk
about your or maybe the label's decision and
mindset behind this decision? It was a way to
really thank the people that invest themselves
in this project. I mean, I wrote, I wanted to
write this album because I wanted it to be a
love letter. Right. A love letter to the people
that have supported me for years, that have given
me the opportunity to be who I am musically.
And I think it was really, really important,
like even for me and even for the label, just
to, you know, give that not an incentive, but,
you know, it's a personal thank you when you
buy this album physically to, you know, have
that extra because you deserve it. Like it's
all efforts deserve something. I know today,
you know, not necessarily everyone has a vinyl
player or, you know, uses CDs. But, you know,
it's a way to say, you know, when you do, thank
you. Thank you for, you know, thank you for making
the effort. Thank you for loving what we do.
So, yeah. And I want to add to that because it's
no big secret that artists take home more from
a physical album sale versus a stream. And depending
on what streaming service we're talking about
here. Somebody would have to stream your album
approximately a thousand times before you as
the artist or the band would profit the same
as a single CD sale. Which is why I always recommend
purchasing physical copies of the albums that
you enjoy because these artists... need to be
able to afford to continue to create this art
and to think that one CD sale equals 1 ,000 streams
of an album. Because let's be honest, who is
streaming an album 1 ,000 times in a row? No
one. And that's the problem. I think also we
as a society really need to realize we all love
music. No matter what the type of music, it could
be metal, it could be electro, it could be whatever
you want. And at a moment or another, when we
love music and we love what it does to our soul,
we can't deny that there is an investment to
make. When I say investment, not necessarily
monetarily, but spiritually in a sense, right?
We used to see so many artists in development
in like big labels, right? And the thing is that
when streaming came along, yes, everyone had
access to everything. But all of a sudden, all
these... artists in development couldn't be developed
anymore because there wasn't that investment
that could be made. So a lot of great projects
fell into nothingness. A lot of beautiful and
amazing voices and talented musicians all of
a sudden found themselves without the possibility
to even sometimes even feed themselves, right?
So I think it's, I understand it. And in a way,
it's a great thing that you have so much access
to everything all the time. But at a moment or
another, we also have to, you know, I think as
fans of music, I'm a fan of music. I buy CDs.
I buy vinyls. I support the things that I love.
And I love music. I go to the movies because
I love seeing good cinema. You know what I mean?
I buy a good book because it feels good. And
also I know it's going to help the author write
another one. And that's, I mean, yeah, it's a
weird choice to make, but sometimes it's the
choice to make. Amen to that. Well, I talked
about at the beginning how much I love myself
an opening track. But equally as important, when
you're talking about an album listen, is that
defining stamp to close out an album. And in
this instance, the defining stamp is the title
track, Flawed by Design. Focus needlessly fighting,
but then there's you We are built to be perfect,
but flawed by design. That is a poignant lyric.
And it really does bring the themes that are
woven throughout the album to almost this full
circle moment. Was that song written with that
in mind? Like, here is the exclamation point
for this album? Or maybe should I say, was it
done, sorry, by design? Strangely, no. Flawed
by Design was something that I thought no one
was going to like. Really? Because it was, it
was, I was angry when I wrote it. I was, I was,
I was, I was in this instance of, of thinking
to myself, what is this all for? Right? What
is where we are? We are in this position where
we ask so much of everyone. And you put on the
mask. We all put on the mask. We go to work and
we're polite and we try and so we take sides.
And we do the circus bit. We are the bear on
the balloon. We are the trapeze artists trying
to get a bit of fanfare, trying to get a bit
of, you know. That's so great. But you never
become a civilian in that sense, right? You're
always. trying and wanting someone's affection,
someone's acceptance, what is it all for? There's
this phrase that I put between everything. It's
literally, and what about you? But there's always
you. You who think that you're not playing the
game. You who think that this doesn't concern
you, but it does. All this concerns us. So yeah,
we're built in this way that people want us to
be too petite. to a T, polite, nice, not angry,
not frustrated, not, but you know you are. So
yeah, let's not be perfect. Let's not do the
thing and go through the BS to be polite. I like
to refer to it as perfected imperfections. Exactly.
And let's accept who, let's again, and it does
go full circle because let's accept who we are.
And it doesn't mean accept who you are and be
assholes that we may, you know, let's make an
effort. But let's not make an effort for anybody
else other than ourselves. Because, again, you
can't be happy if you're trying to please someone
else. You can't find love if you don't love yourself.
You can't do all these things if you don't have
that introspection. And we all need that introspection.
We got to stop doing the circus bit. We got to
stop. Got to stop trying to people please, man.
It's not going to work. It's not going to work.
It's a saddening, saddening thing where you want
to be loved by everyone else, but you look at
yourself in the mirror and you can't stand it.
And as someone who has struggled with self -doubt
and anxiety in my life, when I listen to songs
like this, I feel like we're on the same page.
I'm not alone. When I think that way, if I have
doubts about the podcast or doubts about an interview
I did or doubts about myself as a podcast host,
this is something that everybody struggles with.
And to have a song that's kind of a rallying
call that says, hey, we're all in this together,
I think is a great thing. And that shows the
power of music. Exactly. I mean, it shows the
power of just the human being. Again, it's a
beautiful thing to have people like you spreading
the good word. And this is not only about my
album. It is, again, we do, you know, we've never
been so connected as people, but we've never
been solo. Yep. Right. Yep. I've seen so many
people believe that they're not part of something.
And so they cling on to things that sometimes
alienate them even more. Right. We horribly have
people trying to separate us constantly and trying
to tell us these lies of what we are and who
we're supposed to be. And I say this from the
bottom of my heart to anybody that will listen
to this today. You are not alone. And it sucks
to be alone. And it hurts to not feel accepted.
And it feels weird to want to have to beg for
attention. But this is the thing. You don't have
to. Don't beg for attention. Give yourself the
attention. Don't ask for people who are not going
to love you for your actual value. Give yourself
the time. Time is the only thing that you can't
get back when you've wasted it away. So give
yourself the time. Be patient. I can assure you
everything's going to be okay. Everything's really
going to be okay. Amen, man. Well, I want to
continue to talk about this album because I listened
to it over and over again. But one thing I noticed
more and more with every listen is that each
band member gets their moment to shine on the
album, whether we're talking about the tasty
piano opening to Love Yourself, which I had mentioned
earlier, or to the reverb -bathed guitar goodness,
I guess you'll call it, of a song like Almighty
Dollar. talk about the overall musical arrangements
on the album how they were decided upon between
you and the rest of the band and how that balance
was struck between the musicians and when their
time to shine happened it's a weird thing because
we took it i i like i guess we can say we kind
of took it old school we did everything together
we we did everything together We sat down and
we listened to the tracks and we wrote them and
we rewrote them. And it was just really, really
important for everyone to be happy. And again,
to give themselves. Because yes, there's a lot
of me, but there's a lot of everyone in this
album. Everyone invested so much time and so
much effort and so much, again, just so much
love and attention to the details. So I think
that's how it really happened. We just, you know,
we took a first week and then we just chilled
out together. out of that first week, we wrote
seven songs, seven songs in seven days. And then
we did it again. And we, and, and, and, you know,
they live in Bristol and I live in Paris and
our sax player, he lives in, he lives in Leipzig.
And, but we came together every time because
it was, it was important to us to, you know,
to be able to communicate, but for real, again,
seeing each other, you know, sometimes, you know,
arguing and, you know, just, and, but, you know,
taking the time to hear and touch and feel get
the things. And I wanted, you know, I wanted
to, I wanted everyone's emotions to truly shine
through. And that it does. And you could see
it visually because you've posted a bunch of
live in studio performances of songs from the
album, which I'll embed over on the episode page
at myweeklymixtape .com. This band is. ridiculously
tight are there any plans to tour in support
of flawed by design and if so where can people
keep up with your upcoming dates and catch you
live so yeah we um we're looking to tour later
in this year so end of 2024 uh beginning of 225
we're all excited to be able to tour but we're
you know we're it's hard and you know we're trying
to eat and trying to eat is is you know is a
hard thing these days horribly for a musician
so um because we also want to i think we want
to we want to stay honest to ourselves we don't
want to you know do this half -assed so we want
to tour we're looking for you know people that
love the message and you know want to help us
out with all that so yeah the game plan is late
2024 uh beginning 2025 well wolf this has been
such a fantastic conversation but before i let
you go How would you describe the current state
of soul music in 2024? And how do you feel the
genre has evolved over the decades to get from
the classics of the 50s and 60s to what we're
hearing now in 2024 along the lines of bands
like Black Pumas or artists like Marcus King,
Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Charles
Bradley, Gary Clark Jr.? J .J. Gray and Moe Froen
as well as Wolfgang Valbrun. I think we're lucky
as a genre to have stayed more or less in contact
with all the things that had been before. I would
have never written this album if there would
have been no Otis Redding or no Wilson Paquette.
So we are the descendants of, we are the children
of what we used to listen to. And it's a great
thing. I find it beautiful. I mean, there's people
like Arlo Parts that I love and I find amazing.
Or Jacob Banks. Yeah. Who for me is a guy. I
mean, he, I love what he does. And it's because
it's just so, so true that he has that old sound,
man. And it's, and you know, you close your eyes
and you feel like you're in the 60s. And you're
like, that's what we need. We need people just
to keep it alive. Just to keep it alive. And
that's what, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm
just trying to keep what I love alive. Well,
this album gives me excitement for what the future
of soul has to offer the world. Wolf's new album
flawed by design is available now on all streaming
sites, or you can head to his band camp page.
If you'd like to purchase it on vinyl CD or a
digital copy of the album, take advantage of
band camp Fridays, because. 100 % of the proceeds
go to the artist on Bandcamp Fridays. And I'm
also going to make sure to have that Bandcamp
page linked up on the episode page at myweeklymixtape
.com for easy access. Wolf, thank you so much
for taking the time to dive into your amazing
debut album with me. And I can't wait to see
what the future holds for your music and catch
a live show when you're over on this side of
the pond in the States. With pleasure, man. I'd
love to, hey, I'd love to come back home. Love
to come back home. So it was a pleasure being
with you and I really do appreciate it, man.
Thank you very much. And remember, you can find
my weekly mixtape on almost all the social media
haunts at... My Weekly Mixtape. You can also
head to myweeklymixtape .com to check out the
full catalog of My Weekly Mixtape episodes. And
finally, if you like what you're hearing on the
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That's all for this week. Thanks again for listening.
And until next time, enjoy the tunes.