Wolf Alice are just days away from the release of their fourth album and, as they told Music Week in our cover story, the band are “properly running towards something”.
And with the tension created by the build of anticipation ahead of The Clearing, their first record for Columbia, about to snap, Wolf Alice have opened up about their new era.
In our September issue, available now, the band are joined by Sony Music UK & Ireland chairman & CEO Jason Iley, Columbia MD Amy Wheatley, RCA US SVP, A&R Dan Chertoff and their longtime manager Stephen Taverner – check back on musicweek.com in the coming days for more from team Wolf Alice.
“We were really excited about this opportunity,” bassist Theo Ellis told us, reflecting on their move to Sony after a long association with Dirty Hit. “We’re really proud of the record, it took us ages and we were afforded the time to make it, and that made it a way better album. To be honest, it feels amazing to be back.”
“We’ve paid our dues and earned the right to do this,” said guitarist Joff Oddie, who is also a director at the Featured Artists Coalition. “We’ve got total creative freedom, that was one thing we were really protective over when we signed.”
Reflecting on life with Columbia, Oddie praised the fact that “things are very specialised, which is pretty cool. There are teams of people that are working on specific jobs that talk to each other.”
“We've been able to go to somewhere like Italy or France and work with a whole bunch of people who are dedicated to that one thing and bringing in certain people to come and listen to your music,” added Ellis. “We haven't had that before and that is amazing. We didn't necessarily spend as much time in Europe on our last campaign and that's been amazing because there are great places to have the opportunity to go to.”
They made The Clearing with Greg Kurstin, decamping to his studio in LA after demoing new songs at their rehearsal space in Seven Sisters, North London, as immortalised in the lyrics of The Sofa, the record’s second single.
“It’s scary if you get jaded and normalise it, because that is not normal for most musicians,” Ellis observed. “You get nervous about these things and we’re quite human in that sense. It’s not guaranteed for things to go well, it’s nerve-racking doing this.”
Oddie revealed why they were so keen to work with the former Adele and Foo Fighters producer.
“I was in the car and The Fear by Lily Allen came on, which Greg did, and it’s not what we were going for, but it’s such a beautiful, amazing bit of pop production,” he said. “I just felt in my bones that he had a really good Wolf Alice record in him.”
“He’s a master of his craft,” Ellis said of Kurstin. “Some people want to make you feel like shit if you don’t know something, but Greg is not precious with his knowledge. And he’s extremely funny.”
Singer and songwriter Ellie Rowsell, who delivers vocal performances unlike anything Wolf Alice have committed to tape before on The Clearing, said they gained new confidence in the studio.
“Because Greg can do anything, you actually feel more important because [without it] the music will just be really great but not what you were looking for,” she explained. “So the more you give and collaborate, the better.”
“It’s very rare that you hear a song back how you imagined it – and it’s amazingly satisfying,” Ellis noted.
Making The Clearing, which has already spawned their first Top 75 single in lead track Bloom Baby Bloom, forced Wolf Alice to think about the concept of crossover appeal.
“Pop music is really challenging, far more so than the common conception,” Rowsell told us. “It might feel like you’re taking the easy way out because you’ve written verse/chorus, verse/chorus, but that’s so hard.”
The singer said that being so selective was challenging.
“It was more thought out, so that builds pressure on yourself,” she said. “It’s like I was wearing a metaphorical suit. I was taking myself a bit seriously!”
In our interview, Rowsell opened up about how she approached the lyrics on the record, too.
“I was watching an interview with Lorde and she was talking about how much of a challenge it is to express what you need to in three minutes,” she said. “Maybe when I was younger I might have thought that was easy, but now I’ve realised how hard that is to do; it’s interesting.”
Rowsell explained that pushing herself so hard was the only way to summon the songs on The Clearing.
“In the past, I’d write something and feel that was the only way it could be because that’s how it came to me,” she said. “But you can’t wait around to feel that you’re going to be blessed with a charming first draft. Music is hard, you have to work on it and I did that a bit more this time.”
The Clearing, which also includes White Horses, written by drummer Joel Amey and inspired by his family history, has a balance of candour and creativity.
“You don’t want to be overly personal so that you can’t elaborate and exaggerate to better your song,” Rowsell explained. “But it is nice if you have a certain amount that’s truthful, it’s a time stamp of your life.”
Read the full interview with Wolf Alice in our new issue, out now. Subscribers can read it online here.
PHOTOS: Mayra Ortiz, Rachel Fleminger Hudson, Getty
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