The Dire Wolf has a new EP disk to promote her fledgling music career.
The Dire Wolf is actually Yorkton's own Emily Kohlert who has been involved in music for years in spite of the fact she only graduated high school in June.
"I started playing the piano in lessons when I was five-years-old and have always been highly encouraged to listen to and be a part of music by my family," she said.
"My background in music includes thirteen years of piano (my grade nine CNCM achieved), eight years of trumpet, seven years of drums, and I've also played a couple years of French horn and guitar along the way.
"Singing has come naturally to me and I started singing and playing piano at the same time about five-years ago."
All the training has paid off as Kohlert became involved in several recording projects in Saskatchewan over recent years including Nick Faye & the Deputies (Regina, SK), Fisticuffs (Saskatoon, SK), and The Bravest Ghost (Yorkton, SK) where she played trumpet, piano, sang, or did album artwork for.
This summer Kohlert actually joined Fisticuffs and hit the road for a tour, a definite highlight in her young career.
"The tour with Fisticuffs has been a great experience. We've played in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Orangeville, Kapuskasing, Peterborough, Wawa, Toronto, Calgary, and Yorkton," she said. "The tour was extremely exciting. I had heard many stories from friends who had done tours around the country and thought I knew for the most part what to expect. Some of the drives were extremely long, being up to 10-hours. We even did a 10-hour drive through the night from Kapuskasing, ON to Peterborough, ON in order to have more time to relax at the venue the next day.
"One thing that surprised me about touring was that we never actually got to see much of the cities we played in. It was such a routine that we got into; wake up early, drive all day, get to the venue, unpack and set up, play, pack up and load the van, hang out with new friends or just go to sleep, and repeat the next day.
"Another thing that surprised me was that we never got tired of or annoyed at each other. There were rarely tense moments between members of the band and we were all very easy-going about almost everything.
"It was an extremely enjoyable experience."
The tour also generated highlights in terms of performance.
"A couple of highlights include Peterborough and Toronto. Peterborough was this giant celebration of music in this amazing old house packed with people. There were about five different musicians or groups that got up and played -- including my solo project and Fisticuffs - and the crowd listened intently and really cared about the music. This unreal local band called Eliac and the Dream, who had a banjo player, string bass player, Rhodes keyboard player, drummer, guitarist and singer, also played and they blew us all away. It was a highlight of the trip and everyone at the show had a fantastic time.
"Toronto was another highlight. We played a small house show and really connected with the people there. Our only day off of the tour was spent in Toronto, so we spent some time with our new friends there and walked around Kensington market. It was a great way to spend the day."
Kohlert added not all tour highlights came on the stage.
"As much fun as the shows were, I actually loved the time spent in the van driving to each city. We shared so much music with each other and visited and joked about a lot of things," she said. "There was a moment where we were driving down the Trans Canada highway listening to one of Jordan and I's favorite pop records with the windows rolled down and perfect weather outside. That was definitely a big highlight of the trip.
You can see a video about our tour by searching "Fisticuffs Summer Tour Video 2011" on YouTube!
Amid the preparation for the Fisticuffs tour and post secondary education, Kohlert also put together her solo debut 'Young' where she performs as The Dire Wolf.
"It was recorded in my living room at home in Yorkton," she said. "My dad (Ken) recorded, mixed, and mastered it.
"I have had some experience with studio recording as I've worked with other musicians on their albums, so it wasn't too much different or difficult for me."
While having years of music behind her the material for the CD, at least the songwriting, is a relatively new thing for Kohlert.
"I only got serious about writing in this past year. I always enjoyed writing music but never thought I could carry out my own record," she said.
"I started writing music seriously after rediscovering some poetry from a creative writing class I took and I realized it was usable for my own songs. There were a couple songs that were written months before the recording week, another written two weeks before, and one was improvised on the album.
"By using poetry I'd written previously, it was easy to put it to music.
"For me, one of the hardest things about writing is deciding what to write about and how personal I should get in the songs. Once I got it going though it came easily."
The disk is just what Kohlert was hoping for.
"The style of music that I play I would consider piano pop," she said. "It relies heavily around the two elements of piano and vocals. I always try to make sure it is catchy enough when it needs to be because there is nothing I love more than a catchy pop hook
"I am very happy with the end result. It turned out exactly how I wanted it to for the time and money we put into it." She added, "I have released a single already to radio as I did an interview with CFCR in Saskatoon.
The whole album is available as well on thedirewolf.bandcamp.com. Both The Dire Wolf and Fisticuffs can be found on Facebook as well.
While education now takes centre stage for Kohlert, she said she wants to stay involved with music too.
"I am a first year university student so I will have to put a lot of focus into that, but I would still really like to continue playing gigs around Saskatoon and maybe even around Saskatchewan as the Dire Wolf and with Fisticuffs also. There will hopefully be another tour next summer," she said.
