It’s been a massive year for Wolf Alice. From the much anticipated release of their debut album to being nominated for the Mercury Prize, a Grammy and a BRIT award, the British rock band are now embarking on their biggest tour yet with a string of sold out shows in both the UK and America. I got the chance to speak with bass player Theo over the phone the evening after the band’s appearance at the BRITs, and he gave me some thoughts on the show as well as some insight into what to expect from their current tour.
THE INDIEPENDENT: So first of all, how was your night at the BRITs, did you all enjoy it?
Why not? Yeah. It was good, I suppose. I dunno, it was a bit…a bit tame. It was just a little bit boring, but no, it was good. I thought Justin Bieber’s performance was good, there was a fucking shit load of fire. There was a lot of fire at the BRITs, so it was good but, yeah, I don’t know… there’s only so many times – I mean, I am not having a go at Adele, but there’s only so many times you can watch her win an award. But it was cool. I was happy that Catfish [and the Bottlemen] won in our category as well.
THE INDIEPENDENT: It was cool you guys spoke up about the lack of diversity in the nominations, like the grime musicians. Who would you have personally liked to have seen nominated?
I don’t know how it would be categorised because obviously Skepta and loads of people haven’t actually had an album out this year. But they could be acknowledged in different categories, I suppose, so people like that. I think Little Simz kind of had a massive year, she should have been acknowledged in some way. Yeah, there are kind of a lot of people, like Section Boyz, and Drake – after he played the Brits yesterday, Section Boyz were playing at the Village Underground and he went straight from the Brits in a cab after he performed and got on stage with them. It kind of shows, like…he’s probably the most influential rapper in the world and he’s headed to the Village Underground to play a grime show with several hundred people instead of fucking around at the Brits.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Well, I was actually pretty gutted we never got to see you guys have your ‘Liam Gallagher moment’ on stage.
Oh yeah. [Laughs] Yeah, I would have bottled it, but yeah, I’m gutted as well.
THE INDIEPENDENT: It’s been a pretty crazy year for you all as a band. I mean, you’ve come into the spotlight pretty quickly in the space of a year. How did it feel being up for the Mercury Award last year?
Yeah, that was amazing. You know, the Mercury’s almost like the nerdy award, isn’t it? [Laughs] Like, no, not without sounding horrible but, you know, it’s the one that’s by a panel of revered musicians who are supposed to have a really informed taste and stuff like that, so it’s kind of nice to be acknowledged for this because it’s quite elite in that sense… So that was cool, and then obviously the BRITs is kind of geared towards… everything in the BRITs is pop obviously, and then NME is clearly leaned to the more, like, indie kind of thing, so it’s kind of cool to get a taste of all of them.
THE INDIEPENDENT: I remember last summer during festival season you were the band that everyone was talking about because of how good your live sets are, I know NME just gave you an an award for that. But you’re selling out shows not just over here but also in America. How does that feel for you to become internationally renowned?
That’s amazing. We played our first show in America last year. We played two shows, one in the Mercury Lounge in New York and then another one at Baby’s All Right in New York and then one at the Bardot in Los Angeles, and then since then we’ve split most of our year in between America and the UK. It was nice for us because we went over with a clean slate; no one knew who we were. So yeah, it’s wicked over there. It’s a bit like being a different band because we came over there and we’d already toured the UK for so long and found out how to play our instruments and not be shit, so it was good to start good rather than over here when we started and we were just like Bambi on stage when we didn’t know what we were doing, really.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Do you find the crowds to be any different over there?
They’re very vocal. They’re really loud and they really, really show encouragement. They get behind their music, their live music. They really want – they will the band to do well, whereas when you play a show in London to, like, twenty people it has that kind of air of judgement and a reserved quality to it – which doesn’t happen in America, which is cool! But, yeah, I’m a sucker for Los Angeles and the west coast. I think I’m a bit obsessed with L.A.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Are you doing L.A. on your tour this year?
No, we’re doing Coachella which is in Palm Springs, which is a bit out of the way from Los Angeles. And it’s over two weekends, so I think it means we’ll get to spend as much – actually, no, we’re now doing some dates with Chvrches in the week, so we don’t actually get to spend very much time there.
THE INDIEPENDENT: So did you ever expect the album to take off as well as it has? This is only your debut but you’ve already got so much attention for it.
No, I don’t think we thought it would get to number two. I mean the Brits and stuff like that, and to get nominated for a Grammy, that’s a world away from what we’re used to as a guitar band, you know, we’ve kind of grown up more. It was the aspirations that leads towards the NME and stuff like that, and even having success on radios is strange for us because there’s so many guitar bands… So we’re very grateful, and we’re really proud of the record and really believed, but we didn’t necessarily think it would get to this extent.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Where are you most looking forward to playing on your tour?
I’m looking forward to playing Barrowlands, I’m really excited about that. I’ve always wanted to go. I think I saw a photo of the outside of it when I was a kid in a magazine and I just thought it looked really cool.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Yeah, Barrowlands gigs are always proper crazy. I know how passionate your fans are so they’ll be going pretty mental for it.
Good, I’m really excited about that. Yeah, that’ll be fun. I’m also excited about this place called the Olympia in Dublin, that’s a beautiful venue. And I’m also excited to try ourselves at the Forum in London.
THE INDIEPENDENT: You sold out a couple of nights there so that must be pretty exciting.
Yeah, I think three of them are sold out now. That’ll be mental because I’m a Camden boy.
THE INDIEPENDENT: So lastly, can we expect any new music from you guys this year at all or are you just going to be revelling in the success and concentrating on the shows?
I wouldn’t say any new music video necessarily. I mean, it’s in the forefront of our minds, I don’t really think it’s what we’re doing at the moment, trying to figure out how to get into the set and kind of what to do… We’re working and that’s just the way it is at the moment. I think early next year will be the time to expect something new. We want to put something out that we’re very proud of, and also we’re fucking touring so much. I remember we put out ‘Baby Ain’t Made of China’ last year, which was after the album, so you’ve already had new music technically cause that wasn’t on the album, but we had to do that on a day off while we were touring. So I don’t know if it’s humanly possible, we’re not going to be off too much. So I don’t know, no. Except for me, I’m going to put out a rap album on my own.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Oh, really?
Yeah, with Rat Boy. He doesn’t know about it. I’m sure he’ll be up for it.
Words by Samantha King