Why could Wolf Alice’s Los Angeles-recorded album “The Clearing” represent an American breakthrough?
After 15 years, four records and an exciting barrage of shows, tours and festivals, North London’s music is volatile and multi-faceted. Wolf Alice They’re huge in the UK, thanks to their uniquely seductive soundscapes, visceral live shows and a constant hunger for experimentation that blends rock, shoegaze and alternative pop.
With their latest studio album, “The Clearing,” the members are poised for the next level of success in the U.S., and that comes with songs that reflect their growth as individuals and as a group.
Comprised of lead singer Eli Russell, guitarist Geoff Oddie, bassist Theo Ellis, and drummer Joel Amy, Wolf Alice presents both feminine and masculine perspectives on life that sound resounding and real, with vocal stylings that can go from outrageous one moment to restrained the next. They honed their sound even as they continued to experiment. The result was exciting for them and for the fans, now more than ever.
“This tour was amazing. It was definitely the busiest and biggest shows we’ve ever played in America,” Ellis told The Times via Zoom, noting that the band’s upcoming tour Wiltern date in Los Angeles On October 13th Almost sold out.
Wolf Alice’s connection to Los Angeles is particularly significant at this point in her career. “The Clearing” was recorded here with acclaimed producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Miley Cyrus), who brought his pop sensibilities to the project, even as he encouraged the band to follow their eclectic instincts, diving into synth, dance and ballad elements with bite.
“We had a different producer on each album, so each experience was completely different,” says drummer Amy, who later joined Zoom. “He was just a very quiet, positive force in the studio that made us all feel very comfortable, to be able to be the best versions of ourselves…and it came at a time when the four of us were probably second guessing ourselves. We were in this headspace for a while about how we wanted to approach recorded vocals. You can get stuck in that cycle…but he was so positive that he could help us get to There, he did that.”
As Taylor Swift’s latest record brings scrutiny to the construction and presentation of pop music, Wolf Alice’s seductive influence and melancholy resolve seem relatively easy, even if entirely accessible.
The buzz started in the US after the deadly events at Coachella 2016, but we saw Wolf Alice the following year at Dave Grohl’s Cal Jam in 2017. Their alt-rock melodies and soulful charisma held their own alongside headliners including fellow Brit Liam Gallagher and the Foo Fighters themselves (with whom the band also toured). The material, largely from their first and second albums, “My Love Is Cool” and “Visions of a Life,” respectively, offered a compelling mix of sharp distortion and dreamy textures, reminiscent of everyone from the Smashing Pumpkins to the Cocteau Twins of the time. Standout tracks we noticed included the dissonant “Yuk Foo” and the sassy “Don’t Delete the Kisses.”
After another scintillating genre-blending release, 2021’s “Blue Weekend,” and now “The Clearing,” nearly a decade has passed, and the band has become increasingly difficult to categorize. Members are also touring and festival vets.
“In the UK, festival culture is a whole thing,” says Amy. “In the US it’s kind of become that way.” “But European and UK festival culture is a rite of passage for a teenager… it’s ingrained. If you’re starting a band, you think about festivals at some point. So we love playing them. We played Glastonbury this year, and it seemed like a really great way to say: ‘We’re back, here’s some new stuff,’ and also celebrate the old stuff.”
Creative images old or new were a constant component of Wolf Alice’s expression. Building on the cinematic qualities of her music, her videos elevate not only her narratives but also her rock star personas.
“This album explores themes of performance that I think are prevalent in music videos and musically, and in rock and roll which we also explore,” Rozelle shares via email. “In the past, Wolf Alice has moved away from performance videos, so this is a new feeling for us.”
“Bloom Baby Bloom,” which features an “All That Jazz”-style dance sequence (with choreography by Los Angeles native Ryan Heffington, known for his magic moves on Netflix favorite “The OA” and in Sia’s “Chandelier”), highlights the drama and bold expression of the song, especially Russell’s soaring vocals. It also highlights the band’s maturity and freedom as established artists at the peak of their performing abilities.
Likewise, “Just Two Girls,” a gentle ode to female friendship, a great soft rock song recorded in the 1970s, became more of a defiant anthem for female freedom on video.
“It’s a great license for expression where you can do whatever you want,” Ellis says in the videos. “It’s inherently absurd, and there are really interesting shapes to explore. We’ve had some great experiences in America making it.”
The band also had memorable moments on American late-night television, including “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” And “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” which transforms into wild looks that reflect its name (inspired by a book about feral children raised by wolves).
And while good old-fashioned live performance has helped their popularity grow, the band admits the music industry is different – even than it was when they started 15 years ago, with the dominance of live streaming and platforms like TikTok exposing music to new audiences. For a band driven by their personal chemistry, interactions and influences, this is not top of mind.
“We’re not concerned with how we distribute it to people fundamentally, because we’re creatively trying to please ourselves,” Ellis says. “I don’t think it’s mechanisms [music discovery] It affects what we make in the studio or the creative process. “There’s a lot for a band to create these days, and what to worry about…from our point of view, the music is what comes first and then hopefully everything else is just a fun way to present it to the world.”