Band turns wolf debate into song about division

A band from Esbjerg has drawn inspiration from Denmark’s polarised wolf debate to write a song about loneliness and division, DR reports.

Solplet’s song, “We howl for life”, opens with the lines: “It is not the wolf that kills people. It is oil, drones, rockets, heatwaves and state budgets.”

Lead singer Gustav Hendriksen said the band hopes the song can bring people together.

“I think it is unfortunate that we become so divided because of this wolf and because of fear,” he said.

Hendriksen said the song also focuses heavily on loneliness, which he believes can arise in debates such as the one over wolves.

He lives in Esbjerg and acknowledged that he does not encounter wolves daily in the same way as people living near Nørre Nebel, where a suspected problem wolf was recently shot. He said the band did not intend to shame anyone by making the song.

Instead, he hopes to draw attention to what he considers genuine threats to people.

“There has not been a wolf that has killed a person in Europe in the past 50 years. But climate change, war and, not least, loneliness have done so. Loneliness actually shortens many people’s lives,” he said.

On Wednesday afternoon, the band held a live session at Blåbjerg Plantation near Nørre Nebel, where the wolf was shot. Hendriksen said the session, which featured a stuffed wolf, was partly intended as a parody of the press conference held after the suspected problem wolf was killed.

In recent times, Europe has recorded one fatal wolf attack on a person. It took place in Spain in 1974.