Matt Wilkinson sits down with London-based rock band Wolf Alice to discuss their new single ’The Sofa', out now. They also talk about working on the new album in LA with super-producer Greg Kurstin, performing live again after a few years away, the success of other alternative bands whilst they’ve been gone, how they approached this album more intentionally than before and why they’re embracing the “soft rock” tag.
THEO OF WOLF ALICE ON COMING BACK TO THE STAGE AFTER A FEW YEARS AWAY...
It's funny, people have been asking that, why do you choose to do these little shows and I think we very much are a band and it takes you a minute to get that. To be comfortable on stage, you need a combination of muscle memory and this second nature thing with the songs and you can't get that unless you do 10 shows.
And we're not even playing the new record at the moment. We haven't got into that yet properly. But all of those things, all of the stuff we did in Ireland and we did in Europe really helped because it is a baptism of fire and you need to just be in that world to do it well.
THEO OF WOLF ALICE ON THE BAND SUPPORTING EACH OTHER...
Yeah, I think we are kind of sounding off each other. What at the beginning we were like, is this good enough? Is this working? What do we need to change? How do we need to make this so that it makes the best set for Glastonbury? That was kind of our destination. The shows before we did ultimately play the Glastonbury set, but I think we're quite good at picking up the pieces for one another when people are trying to make sense of how they're feeling.
WOLF ALICE ON WHETHER THEY WERE EAGER TO RETURN AND HOW SEEING THE SUCCESS OF OTHER ALTERNATIVE BANDS INSPIRED THEM...
Ellie: Yeah, definitely. I think once you've done the record and it's, or getting all the other stuff prepared, I felt extremely eager… Yeah. And watching other bands tour and stuff, I really want to do it when I'm not doing it.
Theo: Totally. I think Fontaines put a record out when we were in the studio and I was so inspired seeing this incredible band, just getting so many people behind a proper band, which is what they are and I think it's really nice watching it. You're like, oh my God, great. I want to go and be a part of that again. It's inspiring.
WOLF ALICE ON FONTAINES D.C. CHANGING THEIR AESTHETIC IN THE BUILD UP TO ROMANCE...
Theo: I think that's really fun as well. It's owning the kind of performative band lore, the camp aspect of things. It's great you get these... I remember when I was kind of wide-eyed looking at my favourite bands, obviously it's not the most important thing by any stretch of the imagination, but I used to see these iconoclasts, these all kind of cartoon characters and I think they really did a version of that well, and I think the music's fantastic as well.
WOLF ALICE ON AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS...
Ellie: Yeah, I do find Amy very inspiring. The way her lyrics and the way she talks to the crowd and stuff is incredible.
Theo: I think when I watch Amy as a performer, the authenticity of that band musically, lyrically, and as performers akes you think, I can do that as well. And I can speak my mind maybe because being authentically yourself on stage is fine. It doesn't need to have this completely contrived thing where you think about every detail. And by the way, that’s not to say that I think those people aren’t thinking and practising and doing their shit really well, but I think it’s incredibly inspiring.
WOLF ALICE ON THE RE-EMERGENCE OF BANDS AT FESTIVALS...
Theo: It’s interesting how that type of music stands up so unbelievably well in that environment because even when I watched Chappell Roan at Primavera, her band are absolutely rocking. They're a rock band.. They're like that setup of bass player guitarist, keyboards, whatever. And when it's live and it's done really well, I do think it's one of the unparalleled things of a festival. I still love it.
WOLF ALICE ON WORKING WITH GREG KURSTIN ON THEIR NEW ALBUM...
Theo: We went to LA to do it with Greg and it was wonderful. He's a lovely, lovely person and he's a, he's just a master of his craft. Watching him on the piano is like, that's when he's in his perfect form because he just understands music on a pretty amazing level. He speaks it like a language. So we were there in Hollywood doing it with him after we'd written it in Seven Sisters for roughly about a year and it was a great time. He's up there, man, I love that guy.
Ellie: Yeah, it's pretty inspiring. It was inspiring to be in the studio with him. He can do everything to a very high standard, but that's not what he wants. He wants you to do it.
Theo: He's about helping you realise exactly what you came there to do. And I think he really did that with us. And we were actually talking about this earlier, it's almost like really makes you have to think about the decisions you're making. There's a song on this record called Save the World and when I heard that one… when we got it right, we got it right in about a day. When I heard that, that was the first time I felt like I'd heard what we were going for exactly come out of the speakers, and that was Greg who helped us realise that.
WOLF ALICE ON APPROACHING THE NEW ALBUM DIFFERENTLY...
Theo: We were thinking about what we were doing in a much more calculated way. I think a lot of the time we chase something that feels fun then. And I think maybe, I don't know whether it's age or whether it's having done this for the fourth time… less was more with this record.
Ellie: I felt like we weren't, I think in the past, I think this time we weren't afraid to give references, whereas maybe in the past one I didn't really have any that or I felt like I don't want to give it because then it would sound like that or whatever. But now it's like I felt much braver to be like, this is my reference, but I knew that it was going to sound like us because I understood what we were a bit more.
Theo: I think we have been up till now, and I'm sorry to anyone who has produced us, a nightmare to produce. Because we come in and we're like, we want it to sound blue. And they're like, oh my God, these idiots.
WOLF ALICE ON THE REFERENCES FOR THIS ALBUM...
THEO: I mean we were listening to George Harrison. There's a band called Pentangle that came up about a million times. There's some obvious semi-Fleetwood Mac references in there. But without being too literal, we were kind of listening to music at the time. We were trying to write really concise songs that really conveyed the message, which is ultimately kind of a style of writing pop music. But the time when that was played on the instruments that we have at our disposal, the ones that we are probably half decent at, was in that kind of seventies era. And that's why I think some of that DNA came out writing, you cannot knock the songwriting.
WOLF ALICE ON PEOPLE BEING AFRAID OF THE ‘SOFT ROCK’ TAG...
Ellie: Maybe there's people are scared of rock music that is soft. “Soft rock” for me has felt like something I should never say out loud up until now. But I don't care. Because I'm really interested in music that you can play live that is energetic and performative without having to be all distortion pedals and shouting and fast and loud. I like that stuff still. But there's certain songs that we have in our set that I'm like, why is this an ‘up’ part of the set when it's just a good acoustic guitar? Or, how come I feel like I am giving a hundred percent when I'm not stomping around on stage screaming in people's faces. Yeah.
WOLF ALICE ON PERFORMING BLOOM BABY BLOOM LIVE...
Ellie: Honestly it was so hard at the beginning. Because the first time I played it live was Jules Holland. I absolutely loved recording that song in the studio. It was so fun. But yeah, I forgot about nerves and that nerves are super physical and obviously my instrument is attached to my body. So it was a real wake up call for me. I was like, oh God, this is really hard. I need to actually really think about how to do this, how to sing this. So I had to, it's not easy. But now it's getting easier, which is also really exciting. Like, oh I'm learning. I still have actually stand completely still. And I do, because I'm concentrating so hard. I'm always like, this is going to be my big performing song. No, absolutely not. And I really need to focus.
WOLF ALICE ON THE SOUND OF THE NEW ALBUM...
Yeah, I think there's a lot of different moments. I think The Sofa has a bit of a DNA, I think Bloom Baby Bloom might be at the other end of the spectrum, but I think we've been talking a lot in vintage terms lately. But it was really important to us not to make an album that sounds like a pastiche or like we're trying to bring back an era.
I think there sprinklings of modernity in there. The track list is basically out, there's a song called Leaning Against the Wall that I really think kind of oscillates between this kind of more organic texture and takes you into a more cinematic place at certain points and then brings you back. So I think that you'll hear a modern record that's very much inspired by styles and songs.
