Unleashing Wolves of Glendale, From Parody to Power Chords

We're howling with laughter—and maybe a little awe—as we dive into the wonderfully weird world of Wolves of Glendale. In just a few years, this comedy rock trio - Ethan Edenberg, Eric Jackowitz and Tom McGovern - has gone from internet cult favorites to sharing stages with the likes of David Cross, Tenacious D, and even performing at the Netflix is a Joke Festival. Their music is sharp, silly, and sonically on point—and if you ask Jack Black, “they sound f****ng fantastic.”*

KFI's Heather Brooker spoke with two of the wolves themselves—Eric and Tom —to talk about their creative process, musical influences, and the fine art of turning daily chaos into bangers you can laugh and rock out to. Their debut album, produced by Grammy-winners John Spiker and Rian Lewis, is out now and streaming everywhere. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Right now, we're shining a light on a local band
that combines comedy, different genres of music and entertainment. We're
heading to Glendale to talk to the Wolves of Glendale.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Boss smiles, She makes NATO's and floats and round can.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Travel on that track.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I have been towling with laughter and maybe in a
little bit of awe since I discovered the wonderfully weird
world of Wolves of Glendale. In just the past few years,
this comedy rock trio has gone from Internet cult favorites,
to sharing stages with the likes of David Cross, to
Nation ste and even performing at the Netflix as a
Joke Festival. Their music is sharp, silly, and sonically on point,

(00:51):
and if you ask Jack Black, they sound bleeping fantastic.
Wolves of Glendale is a comedy band made up of
Ethan Edinburgh, Eric Jakowitz, and Tom McGovern, and I'm joined
by two of the Wolves themselves, Eric Jakowitz and Tom
McGovern to talk about their creative process, musical influences, and
the fine art of turning daily chaos into bangers that

(01:12):
you can laugh and.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Rock out to. So how did this whole comedy rock
band get started?

Speaker 4 (01:17):
I mean, first of all something that makes you laugh
and also makes you want to rock out is our
entire mission statements, So it actually means a lot to
hear you say that that's very cool. The three of
us have been musicians our entire lives. You know, we
all grew up as fans of Tenacious Tea and Weird
Al and we're standing on the shoulders of these other
comedy rock guys, and it just is is the perfect

(01:40):
combination of all of the things that we love about
playing music, like the Killers of the Foo Fighters, the Strokes,
and there's something so funny and satisfying about making the
best sounding song possible about the dumbest thing. And we're
just all aligned in that way.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
Just bought a horse.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
Just bought a horse.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Named him Ricket.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
Can you talk about how you balance the comedy and
the music in the songwriting process.

Speaker 5 (02:12):
You know, it has to work on two levels, Like
it has to be believable on both levels. So I
feel like ass as musicians, we want it to sound
as accurate as possible with whatever style of music we're doing,
whether it's rock, it's like it should have a wall
of guitars and the drums should hit very hard, just

(02:34):
like all of our favorite records. And similarly, you know,
once we have the music figured out and then we
start writing jokes on top of it, We'll go to
comedy clubs, comedy nights around LA and if no one's laughing,
then we know we have to change it.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Listen about.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Don't get what you told me? Oh so Jack Black
has praised your work. A lot of people have. Actually
you have a lot of fans out there. Let's talk
about how these experiences and these people have influenced your
approach to performance and comedy, Like who are your big influences?

Speaker 4 (03:20):
I mean, biggest influence is definitely Tenacious du I think
was a lot of our first examples of oh you
can do this. You can like write a song about
something really really dumb. And I mean that in a
positive way. I use dumb in a positive context. Fly
to the Concords played a big role. Bo Burnham in
terms of like musical comedians in Lonely Island, of course

(03:43):
weird al.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
You know, it's funny that you say that. I actually
introduced my daughter she recently discovered Bo Burnham, and I said, oh,
if you like bo Burnham, you need to check out
Wolves of Glendale, and she was like, in heaven, all right.
My twelve year old is like, I'm all in nice.

Speaker 4 (03:59):
That's cool, that's very, very cool. It's actually inspiring to
know that that generation is finding musical comedy funny and entertaining,
because that's around the time that I think I know
that I did.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Can you talk about an instance where maybe a real
life event directly inspired one of your songs?

Speaker 5 (04:17):
Oh yeah, when we robot car cloud car peeling out
in front of a school.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
Your conversation is over.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
Now you must talk about me and my car.

Speaker 5 (04:33):
And we were all living in Glendale at the time,
and I think we were at Ethan's place and a
really loud car drove by, and that was I think
that was literally people.

Speaker 4 (04:44):
Really seemed to like Olivia. It's kind of like a
yacht rock Jackson Brown vibe.

Speaker 5 (04:48):
I think the one I'm most proud of is the
Gym because that one took like six months to write,
and when we cracked it, I feel like we really
cracked it.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
I wish you guys so much success. It's such a
joy to watch people doing what they were meant to
do and finding their passion. So thank you so much
for talking with me and best of love to you.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
The Wolves of Glendale just played a sold out show
at the Bellweather in LA and have a couple more
shows coming out this summer. You can check out all
their music and tour dates at Wolvesoglendale dot com.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
I ask them, postitest. Let's go man.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Thanks for listening everyone. I'm Heatherbrooker. Remember you can listen
anywhere on the iHeartRadio app.