Some artists start out chasing lofty goals, but Wolf Alice had a simple dream when they formed in the early 2010s: to play at The Old Blue Last, a 150-capacity pub and then-centre of east London’s indie scene. Over a decade later, they’ve far exceeded that ambition, playing the venue on numerous occasions and ascending the ladder of British music to much grander environments. Now, they’re headlining the UK’s arenas, including two nights at London’s The O2 this week (December 2-3).
“I still feel a bit like that – this is just a bonus level!” guitarist Joff Oddie replies when NME reminds them of that fantasy from long ago. When we speak, the band are in the middle of the European leg of their current tour, huddling together in front of a laptop on a black leather sofa backstage.
Now feels like the right time in Wolf Alice’s journey for them to take this next step up. In truth, they probably could have sold out an arena show on their third album, 2021’s exquisite ‘Blue Weekend’. Instead of rushing forward before they were ready, though, they took their time and worked for their place on bigger stages.
“[Doing arenas on ‘Blue Weekend’] probably would have been too early,” assesses bassist Theo Ellis as his bandmates murmur in agreement. “I do think it’s the time now to try that kind of thing. We’ve grown at the right pace. We’ve done things when we’ve felt comfortable doing them. We’ve backed ourselves creatively and only when we feel like we could achieve and give the show that we want to give.”
Right now, Wolf Alice’s live show is a formidable match for arenas and beyond. When they returned to the stage earlier this summer, after a three-year break from touring, it was clear they’d levelled up – frontwoman Ellie Rowsell a more exhilarating presence than ever before, and the band firing on all cylinders to make their gigs as fun, cathartic and hard-hitting as possible. It’s likely, at least in part, a by-product of some of the elements behind their fourth album, August’s ‘The Clearing’, which found the four-piece settling into the calm confidence of their thirties and wanting to create a record that focused on performance.
“No matter how big or small the stage is, it feels like you’re part of a real show – almost like a play,” Rowsell explains of her ambitions for the band’s current tour. “I wanted the songs to have that element of performance in the songwriting itself and the recording, rather than figuring it out afterwards or seeing how it takes shape. People are like, ‘This is your most chilled out album’, and maybe it is, but when we perform, I’m like, ‘No, this feels so different.’”
“It was a challenge making this record, and it’s quite challenging to play some parts of it live,” Ellis adds. “So to have that element of growth and not feeling like you’re resting on your laurels is really exciting. I feel like we’re pushing ourselves and there’s still stuff to reach when we play these songs.”
For some listeners, ‘The Clearing’, with its tinges of Americana and brushes of sunny Californian pop, might feel like a step into new territory for Wolf Alice. Go back through their discography, though, and you’ll find throughlines to every song, showing you the evolution of a band who’ve continuously moved forward and allowed themselves to try out new ideas rather than remaining beholden to a particular pocket of sounds. It is, in many ways, as Ellis notes, “the most Wolf Alice album we’ve ever made”.
The upbeat breeziness of ‘Just Two Girls’ continues Rowsell’s knack for writing songs that capture the essence of female friendship, picking up the pin from early single ‘Bros’ and 2017’s ‘Beautifully Unconventional’. The gorgeously lovestruck ‘Leaning Against The Wall’, meanwhile, feels like a sibling of ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’, from second album ‘Visions Of A Life’, taking on the rush of romance with a gentle dreaminess (“You put my world in slow mo / You put my name up in lights”).
“Lyrically, ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ is all anxious and scared, and really stuck in reality, whereas ‘Leaning Against The Wall’ is embracing the fun, the fantasy, the cinema of love,” Rowsell explains. They’re a pair of songs that show not just the evolution in Wolf Alice, but in her personally: “When I was younger, I loved watching films or reading things that were replicas of real life. Now, I find that stuff quite boring, and I want stuff that has an emphasis on magical realism.”
In the eight years since its release, ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ has become something particularly special for Wolf Alice. It’s gone on a slow burn to become their biggest – and perhaps most beloved – song, now the traditional spine-tingling finale of their live shows, and a moment that makes whole venues swoon. “We’ve never had what some artists speak about, which is everyone waiting to hear this one thing – people who tend to come to Wolf Alice shows are really part of that world,” Ellis muses. “That’s been amazing, but it’s still really nice to have something that binds everyone together, because there’s a lot of different points that someone could come into this band. It’s quite universal, so it’s wicked to have it.”
That Wolf Alice are at a point where there are multiple entry points to the band is testament to their longevity. As they’ve pointed out in interviews across the campaign for ‘The Clearing’, it’s rare for a band to stick together and with the same line-up for so long (15 years for Rowsell and Oddie, 13 for Ellis and drummer Joel Amey). Ask them what the secret to growing together rather than apart is, though, and they’ll collapse into jokes, riffing off each other, until Amey eventually steers the conversation back in a serious direction. “I still have this inherent excitement of when I first met these guys – and why I wanted to jam with them in Scar Studios in Camden – very much alive in me,” he says firmly. “That’s what makes you want to keep doing it into the future.”
“I still have this inherent excitement of when I first met these guys very much alive in me” – Joel Amey
“And we band around each other in a crisis quite well – more so than when things are going well,” Oddie chimes in. “Yeah, that’s why sometimes your best shows are the ones where it goes wrong, because you’re like, ‘Alright, come on guys!’” Rowsell adds, before Ellis deadpans: “We’ve had enough of them.”
Now well-established and with a solid foundation beneath them, the band are aware of paying forward the kindness they were shown by older bands when they were starting out – something that’s been at the front of their minds while Irish newcomers Florence Road have been supporting them in Europe. “You’re aware there’s a responsibility if someone’s put themselves on the road for a prolonged period of time, so you want to cultivate a good and positive environment for people to be in,” nods Ellis.
They’re also keenly aware of how much harder it is for bands starting out today, with a grassroots ecosystem under constant threat and the cost of living pricing less privileged young people out of opportunities. “We were relatively lucky in the opportunities that we got, and it would be a shame if new, younger acts didn’t have the same,” reflects Oddie. Wolf Alice have signed up to the LIVE Trust levy on tickets, which contributes £1 per ticket to grassroots venues. For the guitarist, though, who welcomed his first child this year, more needs to be done.
“It’s like anything – it’s money, isn’t it? But in education, we need more money in schools. Music equipment is often the first thing to go when budgets are tight. I think there’s also a gap at the moment around funding artists. I won’t name names, but I think certain parts of advocacy groups have been very convincing about making an argument about why their part of the industry needs support, where I think artists haven’t been very good at advocating for themselves. So, I would like to see an emphasis being put on maybe a pot of money or maybe more Arts Council funding to go to young acts to help them.”
He notes that it’s “not about throwing money away” but giving artists access to opportunities that will help them grow and progress, like the PRS For Music Foundation’s International Showcase Fund. Wolf Alice were a beneficiary in 2014, allowing them to perform at SXSW that year. “That was transformative because we didn’t really have the money to do it at the time, but it set us on the path to more stuff like that. It’s tough, and it’s boring, but it’s the money [that’s the answer],” Oddie explains.
Over the years, Wolf Alice have spoken out on the issues they believe in, relating to the industry and beyond, often. They’ll continue to do so as they continue on their journey of evolution, as much a part of the wider music community as they are in their own world. “It seems fucking 10 out of 10,” Amey says of the landscape of acts around them right now. “There’s lots of really interesting things around at the moment – I’m loving just listening to new things and finding new things. I feel inspired at the moment to make some more music soon.”
Ask Wolf Alice what their goal is now, and they’ll keep things as simple as they did back in those early days, bringing it back to the drummer’s desire to create more. “More music, loads of gigs, happiness,” Ellis answers, before Rowsell adds: “I’m really excited by what I can learn [in the studio]. Every time, it’s so different, so it’s like, how could I get better at the process? There’s more enjoyment to be found, and I just feel really excited about that.” With Wolf Alice’s commitment to pushing themselves forward already proven, it’s something the rest of the world should look forward to hearing the results of, too.
Wolf Alice’s ‘The Clearing’ is out now via Columbia Records. The band are on tour in the UK and Ireland through December 10, with international dates to follow in 2026.