Wolf Alice

So wrote Angela Carter in the story that gave its name to Wolf Alice, the genuinely exciting quartet from London. Their songs are as arresting and evocative as Carter’s own prose, and while the extract above may seem to speak of nihilism, of music that flares briefly and then disappears, that is not at all the case. Wolf Alice are protean in a way, shifting across stories and sounds, impossible to pin down. Lead singer Ellie Rowsell explains that while having an album provides a longed-for sense of self, the key to their music is spontaneity.

“I don’t ever look back and read anything I’ve said in the past,” Rowsell says, her voice at first tired and slightly distant. “But things have really changed now, and it would be interesting to see what we thought was going to happen. I’m sure in interviews we were saying we’d have an album out in the next six months, and now we’re a million years down the track. It’s a weird one to think about. Our first interview was something like four or five years ago now. Some days you’re up for chatting away, some days you have to kind of psych yourself up, be presentable. I hope that journalists understand that and give people the benefit of the doubt and aren’t like, ‘Oh God, what’s wrong with this stupid girl?’”

She laughs, and at the risk of overplaying the conversation, it sounds like colour has started to creep into her voice. It is early morning in London, yet Rowsell is already at the end of a trail of interviews. It’s a surprisingly rough gig, entertaining the press, especially when you’re a band generating the kind of buzz Wolf Alice have begun accumulating.

“I don’t know. I don’t think of it too much. I’m flattered and excited by it, and if I ever start to feel anything else, I try not to let myself…” She pauses, looking for words. “People often ask if we’re feeling under pressure from the media, and it’s all still a new thing, really, and makes everything really exciting. You’re just grateful that people are interested and into what you’re doing. Part of you is thinking, ‘Well, we haven’t put an album out,’ and you don’t want people to make up their minds too much of what they think of you before it’s released. It’s the album that really cements you as a band. Without it, I feel like we were floating, and now this will really anchor us … people will have a better idea of what we’re about.”

There’s rarely a dull moment on this debut album, My Love Is Cool, and the distinctiveness of the music is quite striking. The inclination of many new acts appears to be a frantic distancing from the sounds that first enamoured them to their audience. Yet Wolf Alice’s style has been subtly shifting ever since the release of their first single, ‘Leaving You’. They don’t pinwheel blindly across genres, but seem relentless in exploring where each new song might lead.

“Well, my writing’s always changing,” Rowsell considers. “In a way, I guess I’m more confident, because I always feel I’m doing something new. But…”

She pauses once more, and when she speaks again it is like she has changed gears somehow. At first hesitant, she quickly gains pace until her words are flowing fast and her laughter comes easy.

“…But I don’t really feel more confident. If anything, I feel less confident, because when I first started writing songs, it was new to me, and I just thought, ‘God, I’m really great,’ [laughs]. But now, I’ve listened to more music, I’ve got more experience, and I can look back now and see – ‘Whoooa, they really weren’t great at all.’ I can pick out all the holes. But I think now I have a kind of place, somewhere with a knowledge of songwriting. I don’t just write something now and think, ‘Yeah, that one’s done.’ Now I know it’s more like different pieces. ‘Oh, that part may be a chorus,’ you know?

“It’s hard to know if we’ve come far because each song we put out is quite different. I think because we have a variation of moods and dynamics in our songs – at least from [2014 EP] Creature Songs on – you can’t quite see a very natural progression, because we jump from one thing to the other. I feel – and I’m speaking for myself, but I feel like I can also speak for the boys – we’ve come along a fair bit in our instruments, our technical skills. And that’s not a direct reflection of our writing songs, but I guess it helps. We’ve come along a bit.”

Around a year ago, I made a discovery while reading Angela Carter. Crossing Sydney Harbour on a ferry, I realised this was absolutely how she was supposed to be read. The waves, the space, the sense of passage; for whatever reason, Carter is best enjoyed afloat. Were Rowsell able to orchestrate the ideal environment for first-time listeners of My Love Is Cool, she’d have some evocative ideas of her own.

“You know, the first time I listened to the final mixes from first to last, I was on the London Underground. I don’t know if it was because the mixes were finally where we wanted them, or because I was making such a big journey, but I felt really emotional. I thought that was a really nice listening experience. I don’t know. I like watching people,” she chuckles, “in a non-creepy way. There’s no better way to do that than sitting on the Tube. I think that would be a good place to first hear the album. People always ask if being in London affects the songwriting, and I really don’t know. If it does it’s subconscious, but I like to think it plays a big part in my life.”

Before we unshackle Rowsell and release her back into the wild – back to stalking in that present tense – talk turns to covers. Wolf Alice have recorded a delicate (then soaring) version of Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’, and the potential for future covers is strong, if not without a clear caveat.

“It’s something I’m really interested in, and something that I think is really hard,” Rowsell says. “It’s quite easy to do an OK cover, or cover a song which is already really good. But it’s hard to get that perfect, unique cover that’s going to stand the test of time. Like Nirvana’s ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’. The ones that really become that artist’s song. So I think you have to be sparing with your covers, and just wait for it to feel right.”