Taproot's Mike DeWolf 'Listens to a Lot of Pop'

Taproot Matt Wysocki

"Van Halen's the reason I started playing guitar." Mike DeWolf let's that fact out like it's a guarded secret. The Taproot guitarist doesn't like to share his so-called guilty pleasures.

"I like obscure glam. The Bulletboys, Dangerous Toys," DeWolf admits. Is he hurting his metal cred? "For the most part around [the 1980s], I was kind of getting into Slayer and the hard, hard stuff."

These days, DeWolf's musical tastes are a bit more varied, which in turn helps him to write unique songs with Taproot. Of course, the fact that DeWolf loves pop might come as a shock to a few Taproot fans. "I listen to a million things that people would want to call guilty pleasures, but I'm not going to call them that," DeWolf asserts. "I listen to a lot of pop, kind of dancy stuff ... not a lot of heavy."

While DeWolf might not listen to a lot of heavy music in general, he admits he and the other members of Taproot listened to fans before recording 'Plead the Fifth.' The album is a mix of heavy and melodic, melding the two types of sound that Taproot is known for -- and that fans love.

"We can't do this without people supporting us," explains DeWolf of wanting to please the fans. "So we have to take them into consideration."

'Plead the Fifth' features 11 tracks. It entered the Billboard chart at number 107 on its first week of release. Tim Patalan produced the record.

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