Q&A: Wolf Alice to play SF’s Rickshaw Stop before SXSW, talk debut, peaches, and airports

photo by Jordan Curtis Hughes

UK indie rockers Wolf Alice recently announced their much-anticipated debut, titled My Love Is Cool, last week and are currently crossing the nation on a tour that sees stops this Friday at Rickshaw Stop and next week in Austin, Texas for SXSW. The record is due June 23rd via Dirty Hit and RCA, and features lead single, “Giant Peach,” which is reportedly an ode to growing up in lead vocalist Ellie Rowsell’s native London. Artwork for My Love Is Cool was revealed earlier today via Facebook.

We shotgunned some questions to drummer Joel Amey; hear the song and read below for Amey’s take on the upcoming release, the band’s fruit of choice, and getting plane tickets upgraded.

We just heard about your debut record! How’s that coming along?
It’s all done! We completed it with our producer Mike Crossey just before Christmas, and we’re very happy with how it all turned out.

Is it all new material? Or will we see some previously-released songs on there? 
There are gonna be two songs that we’ve recorded that everyone will know if they dig us already, but other than that it’s all new material which we’re very excited for everyone to hear.

Do you think listeners will be surprised by the new material… can they be surprised, considering the span of stuff you’ve released in the past? What should we expect?
Hopefully! We’ve pushed the extremes of what Wolf Alice is at this stage in our lives — bigger distortion pedals, sweeter melodies. Hopefully everything that people already love about Wolf Alice will be on there — we aren’t intending to alienate anyone with new material, but we certainly didn’t hit recycle with our old sounds. We had a blast exploring what we could sonically get out of each other.

In this interview with Interview Magazine, you predict that your LP “won’t sound as good as the EP.” (This interview was probably done shortly after Blush came out in 2013.) Now that you’re wrapping up My Love Is Cool, do you still feel this way?
That was a long time ago! And yes, I can assure everyone that we have improved since 2012… I think.

Tell me about “Blush” — that was the first song I heard of yours. Is it directed at someone?
I don’t think so, but it’s awesome that people relate to it. When we played it at Reading Festival, the crowd was singing so loudly that it moved me, and I feel like it’s always going to be a great song for us to play live, no matter what album we get to.

“Giant Peach.” Do you like fuzzy peaches (the candy)? What about real peaches? Or are you more of a nectarine band?
Wolf Alice welcome all fruit, no matter what colour or creed.

This will be your second time playing SXSW, correct? What events are you looking most forward to?
Playing! We have some amazing shows that we’re so excited to play, and we’re pumped to see as much music as possible. Me and Ellie spent most of our day yesterday RSVPing to events so hopefully we’ll have enough downtime for a boogie and a BBQ.

Who can do the best Texan accent?
Probably none of us, least of all me. We love the Texan accent though, so maybe after a couple of Bloody Marys in the sunshine, we’ll give it a go.

We always get bored on planes and at airports. What will you be doing on the cross-Atlantic plane ride home, between tours?
On the way home from NYC recently, Joff [Oddie (guitar)] tried to scam his way into first class by pretending he had a groin injury and didn’t have enough room in economy. It backfired when he milked it too much, and the air hostesses questioned if he was fit to fly, so he had to verbally backpedal to stay in the plane. Basically what I’m saying is try to entertain yourself by coming up with different ways to get a free upgrade, but don’t feign injury because karma will teach you a little lesson.

Article by Joanna Jiang