Bio: Wulf Downard

Wulf was born and raised in north-western Ohio, in the flat farmlands just south of Sandusky and Lake Erie. His parents, Gordon and Marsha, were self-employed entrepreneurs who involved themselves in various manufacturing and hospitality ventures. Their example and the considerable amount of childhood time Wulf spent on his own contributed greatly to the DIY independence and blue collar ethos of his methodology. One of the family business ventures, a campground/beach resort, placed a pubescent Wulf very suddenly in the position of being in the public eye, with 80+ de facto moms, and shocked him out of his shell forever.

Voted class clown and "most likely to leave town" in his rural high school class of only 93 seniors, Wulf didn't take long to make their verdict the truth. He has lived in California, Oregon, Washington, Tennessee, and Florida. His travels include more than 40 of the 50 states, Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean, and Spain. In addition to English, Wulf speaks conversational Spanish fairly well and has picked up some German, Welsh, and tidbits in several other languages. Wulf dreams of retiring someday in Scotland or North Wales.

Wulf was given his first guitar, a beat up 3/4 size Silvertone acoustic, by his maternal aunt when he was ten years old. There were only two corroded strings on it, but he found he could play power chords and learn versions of "Smoke on the Water" and "Iron Man." The guitar would suffer a calamity which rendered it useless within the year, but the seed was planted. Wulf's father had been a jazz drummer in his younger days, but he'd given it up when he started his family. Although he'd only ever seen his dad play once or twice, Wulf grew up with a lot of tapping and drumming on literally everything and a stack of records that included The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Buddy Miles, Boots Randolph, and Cheech and Chong's Big Bambu. He inherited his mother's 8-track player and also became immersed in Queen, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, and the odd bit of Chicago. He would go to friends' homes and play on their drum sets, keyboards, and anything he could get his hands on.

Wulf spent two years at Ohio State University before dropping out to pursue his other interests (he ran out of money).

While in college, Wulf bought a very unimpressive acoustic guitar from a pawn shop and set about learning to play. He would eventually receive an Epiphone G-400 (SG) on his birthday in 1995, a guitar he still uses to record and perform today, though he has replaced nearly all of the electronics and hardware since. At 20, Wulf bought a Kramer bass from a coworker and started also devoting himself to learning to play bass. He was determined to learn to "really play bass," rather than simply transfer his guitar technique to the bass. He had also picked up a dilapidated drum kit of his own and spent countless hours in his basement annoying the hell out of his neighbors.

Wulf wrote songs, learned everything he could from MTV and guitar magazines, and sang everywhere and anytime he could. His first time performing on a stage was as a guest of his friends' local cover band. Wulf sang Filter's "Hey Man Nice Shot," which the band had heard him sing/scream at a party. Wulf, however, wasn't yet wise to the skill of putting some distance between himself and the mic during the really loud, belted parts of the song and was told that, although he sounded very much like the recording, he'd nearly deafened everyone in the audience.

Wulf married his first wife immediately after dropping out of OSU, and shortly thereafter she introduced him to Shawn Staples, her coworker's boyfriend who had been in a notorious local band called Saviour Alien. Staples was a far more accomplished guitar player at the time who appreciated Wulf's writing and vocal style. The two became fast friends and started writing songs. Wulf's guitar playing and composition style would become heavily tested and influenced by Staples' fast, fluid, Steve Vai-esque style. Although a lot of life happened along the way, they would eventually all find themselves in Southern California, working, playing, and rubbing elbows.

Divorce threw Wulf's life back to the drawing board for a time, but it provided him with the drive to start the first incarnation of The Lazarus Effect. The band's name came from the title of a book by Wulf's favorite author, Frank Herbert, and ultimately became a tongue-in-cheek reference to the various times the band had "died and re-risen" over the years.

Wulf's personal life found its footing when he married again and fathered his children. The band also finally started to enjoy some stability and hit a stride when Greg Martinez joined them on drums. They burned through bass players for quite some time, however.

Eventually, Brandon Boucher won the bass job in The Lazarus Effect and contributed his own style to the mix. The TLE boys wrote, rehearsed, recorded and performed for nearly three years, becoming "the best band that almost no one in L.A. has ever heard." Eventually, differences among the band, creative and otherwise, grew to the point where Lazarus finally died for good.

After the final demise of TLE, Wulf went into the woodshed, recording his own cover songs and original pieces. He played solo acoustic sets at open mics and coffee shops. He would eventually stop performing for nearly a decade, losing interest in writing and concentrating on his family life. He would continue to play and practice solely for pleasure, occasionally recording ideas and instrumental bits.

Wulf and Brandon kept in touch sporadically through this period. After Brandon had made a comment about one of Wulf's instrumentals and about recording some instrumental pieces of his own, Wulf started thinking about writing songs again. The guys began talking about and comparing their home studio setups, and Wulf started teaching himself to play keyboards, mandolin, and some woodwind instruments. Wulf had already begun developing material for his solo album, The Grey Matters, when Brandon sent one of his tracks to Wulf to check out. Wulf’s response was, “that was awesome; what would you think about me coming up with some vocals and a guitar solo?”

Wulf finished the solo album he'd been working on and asked Brandon to send him more of his compositions. He would add vocals, solos, and sometimes other accompaniment. It wasn't long before Wulf turned a few of those instrumentals into song demos and asked for more. Shortly thereafter that the two began to say things to each other like, "Dude, I think we've got an album here..."

Now that Daedalus is finished, Wulf is already working on lyrics and demo mixes for the next RDO album, as well as solo compositions for his follow up to The Grey Matters.

Wulf is happily married to (his second and forever wife) Valdrusya, and they have two teenage children, four cats, and two fish named "Taco" and "David-Bowie." Wulf does voice acting and sound production for Valdrusya's Animate Amigurumi YouTube shows, makes his own mead and fruit wines, trains in martial arts with his son, cooks, bakes, and builds/customizes/repairs musical instruments.

Wulf currently has no endorsements from any instrument or software manufacturers, but says he's certainly interested in such prospects and, having had successes as an amateur luthier and flute maker, would jump at the chance to be involved in designing signature instruments of his own.

Wulf currently uses:

• Epiphone G-400 with custom hardware and Seymour Duncan JB and Screamin' Demon pickups

• Epiphone EB0 bass (Wulf customized fretless)

• Fender FSR Stratocaster customized with Texas Special pickups and neck-on toggle

• Gretsch G2220 Jet bass

• Ibanez SR305E five string bass

• Ibanez PNB14E-OPN electric/acoustic parlour bass

• Ibanez GAX75 (Wulf customized fretless guitar) with EMG 81 and 85 pickups

• Oscar Schmidt OG10CEF electric/acoustic guitar

• Oscar Schmidt OM10EST electric/acoustic mandolin

• Schecter Omen Extreme-7 seven string guitar

• Schecter Omen Extreme-6 guitar

• Ernie Ball, D'Addario, and Fender strings

• BOSS DR-880 and DR-202 drum machines

• Yamaha and MidiPlus keyboards

• Steinberg UR22mkII audio interface

• Steinberg Cubase LE DAW with Groove Agent, HALion Sonic, and countless plugins

• Ignite, Peavey, and Acoustic amplifiers

• Shure Beta87 and SM57 microphones

• Morley Bad Horsie wah pedal

• BOSS, Digitech, Zoom, and Danelectro effects pedals

• Monster Cables

• Yamaha and Aulos recorders

• Shearwater, Becker, Tilbury, Dixon, Susato, Generation, Waltons, Oak, Takahe, and Feadóg tin whistles-- as well as Wulf's own handmade whistles-- in various keys

• Hohner and Fender harmonicas

• Various bansuri, hulusi, bawu, ocarinas, and percussion instruments