The Armed frontman Tony Wolski has reflected on the group’s decision to remain anonymous for so long.
The Detroit collective’s secrecy surrounding their identities has been a significant part of their artistry, to the extent that they had even sent actors to masquerade as them in interviews.
However, in the run-up to their upcoming album ‘Perfect Saviors’, which is out tomorrow (August 25), the group has confirmed a full list of contributors to the album for the first time.
When asked why they have slowly revealed their real identities to the world for the first time, Wolski told NME that the group “never really anticipated” a time where their anonymity would be such a focus. He himself had used the alias Adam Vallely, after one of their fans.
“Art changes, just like society, or standards of language,” said Wolski. “We never really anticipated a moment in which having anonymity would actually make it more of a focus on the individual.
“Whilst I’m very happy with it, and I love all the content and concepts that have arised from it, it was never supposed to be a total mystery to be solved. It was just supposed to be an open ended thing that if you like The Armed that was it. As the collaboration has grown so huge, it seemed to make sense to now be like: we’re just gonna tell you what’s going on.”
Elsewhere, Wolski said he never felt that the group’s anonymity had swayed their fanbase, and that they had been received positively when they were recently out on the road with Queens Of The Stone Age. “We’re good at drawing people in, because I don’t think there’s a lot of stuff that looks like us. We got a couple of hecklers, but I think for the most part, we had people react really positively,” he reasoned.
In a four-star review of ‘Perfect Saviors’, NME wrote: “While their sound has become more accessible, it’s also as forward-thinking as we’ve come to expect of The Armed. They warp their influences and push them to the brink; beneath incredibly catchy hooks are complex layers of sound, giving each song unique scope and intensity. If their previous albums sounded like hardcore on steroids and deranged, this is the same for their brand of rock-and-roll.”