Interviews with Dan Haggis of The Wombats and the founder of Web 3 Developer Kollectiff.
Even as NFTs and crypto contemplate a possible developing bear market, there is always something novel developing in the space.
Johnny Depp announced he will release 11,111 unique non-fungible tokens under the collection name “Never Fear Truth”. The NFTs will feature Depp’s own artwork.
Of course, there was also the mundane but public exchange about Board Ape Yacht Club between Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton on the Tonight Show. (Jimmy, Paris, you're great, we love you. You do not resemble your Apes.)
Instead, I direct your attention to the NFT experience with gamification and a metaverse-based show brought to us by indie band, The Wombats.
The Wombats have always had an interest in the nexus of music and technology – as an independent band, they are conversant with the technology used to make their sound, and in 2007 they played what might be considered a “pre-Metaverse” gig on Second Life.
Now technology has caught up with their vision. The Wombats are currently touring to support their new album Fix Yourself, Not the World. The last stop on that tour will be held in the Metaverse, specifically in Sandbox where they have booked a token-access event available to holders of any of the 3,000 “Metaverse-ready” NFTs that the band is dropping at the end of January. The NFTs offer a slew of virtual perks to help buyers get hyped for the Metaverse show in April, including a metaverse-ready avatar used to attend the virtual concert, exclusive access to AMA’s, live acoustic performances, unheard B-Sides, memorabilia and collectibles, VIP tickets to real-life shows, and more.
For the NFT drop, The Wombats are working with Web 3 studio Kollectiff. We took the opportunity to speak with Roberto Vivo, Founder of Kollectiff, and Dan Haggis, who plays drums, keyboard, guitar, and does back-up vocals for The Wombats about what is driving them to take their act to the Metaverse and what we can expect from the NFT drop and the show.
From TheWombats.co.uk
Read more: How to Invest in the Metaverse
What was your path like from music to the Metaverse?
“We went to music college, and we learned the tech side of recording and the production aspect… So, computers and technology were never very far away, actually, from us making music.
I feel, as a band, we've been through quite a bit of a technological shift in how music is consumed and produced… We were quite early adopters of MySpace, and that's almost how we got signed. So for us embracing new technology has always been kind of important.
…with the metaverse and all the rest of it when we first started speaking with Kollectiff, it's pretty mind-blowing stuff. It's an exciting new chapter in life and the possibilities of making music and where that can go. And to be honest, the main driver of doing the concept in the metaverse… was because there are always fans of bands who, for whatever reason, are unable to travel to shows, whether it's their geographical location or other reasons. So, hopefully, this is a way of bringing our show into a new world that people can access from places that we don't get to travel to…,” Haggis said.
When did you start to go mostly independent in terms of distribution?
“That was after our third album. After GlitterBug, we parted ways with Warner (Music) and after that, we reassessed and said – well, why would we go back to this 80/20 split with a major label where you have no transparency, you've got no idea really what's happening behind the scenes. And all this money gets spent and you just never recoup,” Haggis said.
What did you see as the opportunity with NFTs and Metaverse? What did you and the other guys in the band hope to get out of this?
“I guess it was to give something to the fans who are into gaming and virtual reality and metaverse and stuff… It was just like, this is so mind-blowing. Why would we not want to try and give our fans an experience that's so new and innovative?
It just felt like another way to explore how music will resonate with people. So in my mind, this was just a massive expansion, creating our artwork, and then if you've seen it from the front cover of the new album (Fix Yourself, Not the World), it's all pixelated looking like a video game world. So it just felt like why should we give it a go? We just felt excited by playing a gig in the metaverse. To be one of the early bands to have played in the metaverse just feels really fucking cool,” Haggis said.
What can you tell us about the Wombats NFTs?
“The buyer will get a representation in the sandbox to use as their playable character or avatar. The whole experience is NFT-gated for those people that collect the NFT avatars. The first aspect of the experience is the Rubik's game which launches one week after the drop.
It’s a simple trading game in which you need to fulfill the different sides of the Rubik's Cube in order to unlock multiple assets and experiences. When you complete one side you get some box (collectible) like a guitar… On another front, that guitar gets you into a web 3 raffle system that we developed, in which you can get general admission tickets and festival passes. And you can get to take part in an exclusive AMA with a band… As you complete the full cube in the game, there are only going to be 10 Winners available. And those that complete the full cube will receive an exclusive one of them NFTs that is going to be an animated Rubik's cube,” Vivo said.
Is this the first time Wombats did a virtual show?
“I think we did a virtual reality thing in Second Life. We did a gig in Liverpool and I remember someone like our manager said, oh, this has been filmed in Second Life. And I don't know why I have to check with him whether we did it or not whether it happened, but yeah, that's what happened to that thing.
(At that point, Dan searched for the Second Life show which is still available on YouTube. It’s a great testament to how long The Wombats have been interested in technology and just how far 3D graphics have come.)
Wombats playing a show in SecondLife, 2007
What is Kollectiff bringing to the project that is unique or innovative?
“I think it's just thinking outside the box and coming up with creative ways to use Web 3 to create engaging, connected brand experiences. We are trying to take the whole NFT game a step up by developing our own tools… We have an NFT-gated Web 3 referral system, we're developing a series of tools that make our job easier, and also provide a better experience to our clients. Eventually, there might be a way to turn this suite of tools or word of everything into our SAS, although that's not the plan right now we're developing so that we can support our work. But it's just really trying to put ourselves in the brand’s or artist’s shoes and trying to see the best way to communicate the brand and to create engagement with the audience,” Vivo said.
So what can we expect from The Wombat’s Metaverse show?
“We're going to record it in April. But we want to make it as fun and unique as possible. It would be great if at one point in the gig we could suddenly start levitating and flying through the crowd, or like appear in the crowd during our own gig while we are playing. But the more unique and surreal the better,” Haggis said.
Is it possible to approach the same excitement of a live show in a virtual event?
“We're absolute road junkies. We just love to tour. There's nothing like feeling the energy in a room when people are singing and dancing and having a great time. If we can bring that experience into people's living rooms and make the experiences as fun and exciting as possible.
We will have to pre-record the show to achieve the sound quality we need and not make it too heavy to stream. And then in terms of interaction in the moments – we talk we often talk in between songs, so I imagined that we would focus our talk more on li how fucking surreal it is to be in the Metaverse,” Haggis said.
So essentially, what you're making is a live recorded studio album that you are debuting at the show?
“Yeah, so when you watch (the recording of) Hell Freezes Over tour by the Eagles… the actual sound you hear was mixed and mastered and tweaked to be really spot on. And, of course, it's live. So, we'll approach it in a similar way, where we want to like rough around the edges, and it's going to be live. The setlist will be like our live setlist and all the rest of it.
And in terms of backstage experiences and chatting with fans, we're going to be giving away virtual guitars and instruments and stuff... When we were speaking to Kollectiff, we were very much focused on making the fan experience as unique as possible, and for fans to get as much out of it as they can…,” Haggis said.
How have your fans reacted to Wombats doing NFTs and a Metaverse show? Have you received some of the NFT-hate on Twitter?
“Probably a little bit mixed. We've had a few people who sound more worried, who don't actually know what's going on and haven't even seen anything like what we're trying to do. I'll just honestly say this is my take on it – and at this point it's not going to be for everyone. But some people are going to find this really insane and awesome. For the time being, it seems like it's all been pretty positive, to be honest.
I do understand the environmental concerns as well. Talking to Kollectiff, that was a big thing for us. We obviously work in a pretty carbon-intensive industry – flying around the world, traveling on tour buses, with trucks and lighting that use lots of electricity, and making albums uses a lot. Every industry has its carbon footprint. So we teamed up with a charity that does lots of conservation work and tree planting in the Amazon, and carbon credits on the blockchain,” Haggis said.
So I imagine the NFT drop is kind of synonymous with doing advanced ticket sales. When are tickets going on sale?
“We're scheduled to go live on February 9. The metaverse show is going to be available just to token holders. So yeah. For those 3000 people, there's not going to be a sale of tickets outside of the NFT experience,” Vivo said.
What are you looking forward to happening next, in this alliance between technology and art?
“I suppose the analogy I would make is when CGI started coming out in films, you have some early adopters of it, and the early CGI hasn't aged very well. But as things go on, you hope that people get inspired. And then the next artists that do it may add their little take on things and add a bit more creativity,...
And on the recording side of things, we could easily have demos of songs and send them out to certain fans, drop it onto their phones in real time. And then we would like to get people's feedback straight away. There are so many possibilities. In the same way that it feels like there's a bit of a crossover into this new Metaverse space and NFTs in general… Over the next year or two I imagine it's just going to get smoother and better for the environment,” Haggis said.
Conclusion
The Wombats NFT sale starts on February 7. The project claims to be Carbon Neutral, using Carbon Removal Credits from Moss (a blockchain environmental platform) to offset minting.
The Wombat’s venture into the Metaverse has much the same charm as the band itself – they are experimental, whimsical, willing to try new things, and not afraid of being silly.
There is a new basket full of A-list names entering the space every week, but it’s refreshing to have a conversation with artists who are open-minded and really exploring the limits of what NFTs and Metaverse can do and offer to fans everywhere. Perhaps this is a way for the band to expand its fanbase further with the global reach of blockchain.
*Cover image - Fix Yourself, Not the World album cover, The Wombats
