ARTICLE BY CHERYL CHENG
PHOTO BY JAMES GRANT
London four-piece Wolf Alice, who has a SOLD OUT show at the Bootleg HiFi on Saturday, March 14, has been garnering a lot of attention. Named Best Breakthrough Act by the Festival Awards and declared the most-blogged-about band by BBC Radio 6, this band has been steadily building momentum in the U.K. … as well as in the States. But what is even more remarkable is that Wolf Alice has not yet released their debut album, entitled Love Is Cool, which will be out stateside June 23. Singer-guitarist Ellie Rowsell took some time from her busy schedule to chat with The Scenestar about the upcoming album, the tour, and Wolf Alice‘s grunge sound.
SS: Congratulations on all the band’s success! I just saw that the Bootleg HiFi show has already sold out.
Ellie Rowsell: Thank you! We’re really blown away by it all.
SS: Why did Wolf Alice decide to schedule a U.S. tour before the release of Love Is Cool?
Ellie Rowsell: We haven’t really been here before, and we wanted to dip our toes into such a huge place. It’s pretty important. And so more people would be able to hear us.
SS: Is the band planning another U.S. tour after the album’s release?
ER: Yeah, yeah. I’m sure we will, but nothing’s confirmed.
SS: Could you talk a little bit about the album title, Love Is Cool?
ER: It’s a lyric in a song. I really like it. It sounds ambiguous, and I just like the word “cool.” (Laughs.)
SS: What can fans expect from the debut album?
ER: It’s stuff that we haven’t really done before. We tapped into more of a pop [music] side, and we use our voices and play our instruments in different ways than we had done previously. We pushed ourselves a bit more [with these songs].
SS: What inspires the band when writing songs?
ER: It can be anything really. Sometimes we watch a film and then write a song. Or sometimes we’ll read a book and then write a song. Sometimes we’ll listen to other people’s music and go, “Fuck!” We don’t want to write the same stuff, but it pushes us to try out different things.
SS: A lot of press has described the band’s sound as “grunge.” Do you agree with that description?
ER: Yeah, we have some grunge songs. I don’t really think we’re solely a grunge band, but I guess some of the songs we’ve put out are quite grunge, with heavy guitars and vocals. And we take after a few grunge bands.
SS: Do you have a favorite grunge band?
ER: Nirvana, definitely.
SS: Wolf Alice was named Best Breakthrough Act by the Festival Awards and the most-blogged-about band by BBC Radio 6. What do you think it is about the music that is garnering so much attention?
ER: Well, we’ve been around for quite some time, so it has steadily built up. And we’ve always played as many shows as possible. We put a lot of practice in our live shows. We put our heart and souls into it, and that kind of comes across. People must see that and want to support us.
Wolf Alice will headline a 21+ show at the Bootleg HiFi on March 14. The show is SOLD OUT, but a limited number of tickets may be available at the box office on the night of the show.
BUY TICKETS: March 14th: Wolf Alice at Bootleg HiFi (SOLD OUT)
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