Wolf Manhattan – Watch/listen to “Voices in My Head’ – Debut album out now

João explains: “The song is the first one I wrote for the project and it sets the mood and direction for Wolf Manhattan. It’s about self-doubt, always questioning yourself and the anxiety of choosing paths and making decisions. The sound is minimal: a guitar song with a quirky organ and drum machine, I didn’t want to overproduce it. Just shy of 2 minutes, I think it works great with this approach and it’s actually quite refreshing to go for a different path, where the actual song is the main focus”.

“The video (directed by André Tentugal) is inspired by the album’s actual artwork. it emulates the type of talent show you would see in a small village or community thirty years ago. I was inspired by The League of Gentlemen, a British TV show from the late 90s: the small village atmosphere, with local shops, local people and all those strange characters gravitating around it. This is the Wolf Manhattan world: quirky, indie, and lo-fi with a bit of nonsense and weirdness. The video is shot and produced to give it a 90s look, a VHS-type vibe. I love the impact of videos back in the day and I wanted to get that feel from this video too”.

Wolf Manhattan has been confirmed to play this year’s Primavera Sounds Porto on Saturday, June 10th.

Wolf Manhattan is a bedroom producer who, at a non-specific time, lives alone above a local shop in New York City. Surrounded by his uncle’s record collection, a 4-track and a guitar from the 50s that belonged to a well-known artist, he finds that the only way to ease his loneliness is to listen to The Velvet Underground, Daniel Johnston, Jonathan Richman, Adam Green and The Shangri-Las. Composing and recording become his only and best friends. Thirteen straightforward pop-garage songs about heartbreaks, self-doubt, bad decisions, lost dreams and minimum-wage jobs are the result of that friendship. All those lost songs have now been found and compiled in his debut, self-titled album.

João sees Wolf Manhattan, his new folk-punky-garage persona, as a true escape from the complexities of day-to-day life. The 13 sharply-outlined songs, the warmth of the analogue sound and the familiar themes of his debut album are the perfect (self)relief for an overproduced and saturated world.

Continuing the journey into the world of Wolf Manhattan, the book ‘The Story of Wolf’ has been published in a bilingual limited and numbered edition of 100 hardcover copies in risograph (two colours) published by Stolen Books. The book tells the story of a New York bedroom musician who wrote some fabulous songs that were only discovered many years later. Written by João Vieira and illustrated by Toby Evans-Jesra, illustrator and musician based in London, the book is available at Stolen Books.