It’s a very wet (typical) Wednesday evening in Newcastle. I’ve just got some cash out and within five minutes I’m completely soaked through. I rush into a pub near the entrance to Think Tank, just to get out of the unrelenting rain. But when I call Wolf Alice’s tour manager, I’m informed I’m to go round the back entrance. I now find myself inside Digital, a nightclub adjacent to Think Tank. The band are slouched in a VIP booth around a tiny table, opposite the bar. They all seem pretty bored and tired. I greet each of them with handshakes, they begin to pick up their heads and look interested.
Wolf Alice have played Think Tank quite a few times, “Yeah three times ourselves, once with Swim Deep and once with The 1975”, confirms bassist Theo Ellis, slouched in the corner. I was informed by their tour-mate before the interview, that they had all had one too many after last night’s Sheffield gig. When I quiz them about it, they exchange knowing glances with each other and begin to laugh.
The band have been on tour relentlessly for the past couple of years, whilst carving up 2013s EP Blush in the process. The EP is something of an eclectic mix of styles, but one song has been compared to The XX so much, you’d think they’d been in a copyright battle.
Rather than being heralded for their talent, Wolf Alice’s ability to genre-hop seamlessly has become a bit of a burden. The band are regularly pigeonholed by journalists to parallel various bands and artists they can sometimes sound like. Theo isn’t too happy about it, “It is a bit annoying because we don’t listen to… we get compared to Elastica and Hole but I don’t think any of us could even name a song”. The others begin to jokingly reel of a couple of songs they do know. “To a degree it’s just lazy journalism but you know… you need to bookend things.” Joel adds his frustrations “I find it really annoying actually the more I think about it. The other day someone was like ‘Oh they don’t sound like Hole anymore, they sound like Garbage now’, it’s really lazy.” Ellie Rowsell (vocals, guitar) thinks it might also be a gender thing, “I think we’ve had every single band with a girl in it as well. Like one person said to me ‘you sound like Lyyke Le’ when we just so obviously don’t sound like Lyyke Li.”
“It is a bit annoying because we don’t listen to… we get compared to Elastica and Hole but I don’t think any of us could even name a song”
From tonight’s performance, it’s easy to see how journalists can get a bit similarity-heavy. Although the advantage of their eclectic tastes are better presented live, as they effortlessly switch gears from the thrashing chords and shout-along chorus of ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’ to the glinting minimalism of ‘Blush’ – a song that unexpectedly evolves into a brilliant cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’, projecting Ellie’s softer vocal.
Originally Ellie’s folk roots drove the (then solo) project, but with the addition of members Theo, Joel Amey (Drums) and Joff Oddie (Guitar), Wolf Alice’s sound grew some riffs and got a lot noisier. This is parodied in their video for single ‘Fluffy’, which shows head-banging rockers Theo and Joel coaxing Ellie and Joff into their rebellious gang. I wondered if there was any truth in the exaggerated portrayal of the events that led them to join forces. “That is exactly how it happened!” shouts Theo, the band laugh, “It was a Parody. I’m glad you got it, cos a lot of people didn’t.” Joff continues, “That was the whole idea, taking the piss out of ourselves”.
The song pops up in the encore of their incredibly tight set and marks the first time I’ve ever seen crowd surfing at a non-hardcore punk gig in a tiny venue. Their fans are sure to let the band know how they feel about them, singing along to every song in unison and forming slightly weak mosh-pit type circles at the front of the stage (the sentiment is there).
26th May sees the release of the band’s latest EP Creature Songs. I ask them how they feel about playing new material live. “Once you’ve written a song, you always want to play that more. You always want to play the newest stuff live even though you know it’ll sound rubbish”. Explains Ellie, “The other two [new songs] are quite quiet and we’re trying to keep the show energetic, so we don’t really want to play them”.
Their live set is actually a healthy mix of both new and old, with an appearance from last year’s single ‘Bros’ (the song where they dance badly in the video). As a frontwoman, Ellie doesn’t dance, but gets right into the music, kicking and flailing her guitar around on the more angsty tracks; you could say it’s almost Courtney Love-esque.
With all the various incarnations of the Wolf Alice sound floating about, you’d be forgiven for expecting more of a compilation than a debut album. But that would be a total injustice to their talent. The band don’t really give a shit and still want to explore the possibilities of the different genres. Ellie is warmest to the idea “I would definitely like to do an album of more quiet acousticy things. I get excited when I think of all the different genres that we like”.
So what of the debut album and the bands near future? Theo lets slip, “We’re gonna record our album in September with Katherine Marks, who did the Creature Songs EP.” Joff who’s been reasonably quiet throughout the conversation butts in, “Then I think we’ll all buy mansions and ride around on gold Segways”. Sounds like a plan.
Interviewer/reviewer: Nad Khan
Photographer: David Wala
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