Theo Ellis and Ellie Rowsell from Wolf Alice stopped by the KROQ Studios to chat with Kevin Ryder about their new album 'The Clearing' due out August 22.
00:00Wolf Alice, welcome to the K-Rock Studios. How are you guys?
00:04Great. Yeah, we're great.
00:06Ellie and Theo from the band got a new album coming out in August. Is that, what is it, August 29th?
00:12August the 22nd.
00:1322nd, my bad. And what does that feel like, having it done but no one has heard most of it yet?
00:18Right. We were talking about that the other day. It's quite a weird feeling, kind of like,
00:22the best thing to do with music is let people listen to it, not describe it.
00:26So we've been on a kind of prolonged period of describing it to people, but we're so excited for it to come out.
00:31We've got kind of first album syndrome again, I think. We've got real excitement.
00:35We put the last one out really in the peak, kind of, of COVID.
00:39Yeah. You guys sort of secluded yourself during COVID, right? In a studio?
00:45Yeah. Yeah, the record was made in ICP in Brussels, which is a great studio.
00:51But, yeah, COVID hit and that meant that all you could do was stay there, which is, well, there's worse places to be locked than the studio.
00:57Sure. But did you have to, did you work every day?
01:00Yeah, we worked every day and then we were all staying at the studio as well.
01:05So it was a weird family vibe. I don't know, it was just strange, but it was actually amazing.
01:13Did you guys start to hate each other?
01:17No, I actually still really like you guys.
01:20Yeah? Yeah.
01:21Well, there's the other two on here.
01:22You don't know what we've done with them.
01:24We have left them out on purpose?
01:26No, no. You know what? We're doing good.
01:28I was saying the other day, we're proud.
01:30Like, we've been a band for a long time now and it's rare that it's still the same four people, you know?
01:34Yeah, true.
01:35It's like, really, I'm into it.
01:37When you started, you put a song on SoundCloud, is that how it all began?
01:42Yeah, I think SoundCloud or Bandcamp, I can't remember.
01:45I put like a kind of self-made EP. Oh, we have MySpace actually first.
01:49MySpace. Wow.
01:51Yeah.
01:52Kids, look it up.
01:53Yeah, is it still there?
01:56Anyway, yeah, I think.
01:59Yeah, because I remember we, I was so desperate to make MySpace.
02:03We didn't even have a name.
02:04I was desperately trying to find a name and just purely to make that MySpace.
02:09Yeah.
02:10What kind of dreams did you have as new musicians coming together, making a band, putting it up on MySpace or wherever?
02:18Could you see being here today?
02:21No, I don't.
02:24Probably not.
02:25I mean, I think, yeah, your first dream is just to play a show and maybe, and then it becomes a show with an audience.
02:34Preferably.
02:35Right.
02:37I think that's it, isn't it?
02:38It's like your goal, like when you're a band, you're so like, it was like the biggest deal in the world to sell this venue, to have this venue at capacity called the Old Blue Last in East London, right?
02:48How many people?
02:49200 people, maybe.
02:50But that was your everything because that was, you know, what you were going to do.
02:54And then like, it would be like, okay, the opportunity to get into a studio.
02:57And I think keeping yourself like goals, you've got aspirations, but within your kind of world, like to be like, I want to be in Los Angeles playing the troubadour or whatever.
03:06It's just kind of a foreign concept when we were very lucky though.
03:09Do you guys get tired of people trying to figure out what genre you are?
03:14Because your music is sort of between genres and it seems like everybody's trying to figure out your rock band.
03:20Yeah.
03:21Not really.
03:22I actually think it's kind of a good thing if someone can't figure you out because it kind of leaves you like open to be able to do whatever you want because you don't really disappoint too many people because you not suck in one box.
03:37So not really.
03:39The two songs that you've released from your new album, Bloom Baby Bloom and Sofa are very different, the sofa.
03:45I also love to lay on the sofa.
03:48You made art about it.
03:49So you win.
03:50Yeah.
03:51At what point did you think, hey, this might be a song?
03:56I kind of didn't even really think about it being much about the sofa, even though I realize now it says the sofa so many times in the song itself.
04:06But I don't know, it was more about, yeah, I guess it was like, yeah, it's just a metaphor of just taking a moment and being okay with everything rather than being stressed essentially.
04:18Right.
04:19And feel like, I think I just generally did one day just be like, hold on one second.
04:24Like just sat down on the sofa and didn't answer any calls or just, I just want to do nothing.
04:30Yeah.
04:31Yeah.
04:32I want to be happy doing that and not, you know, like sometimes when you watch.
04:36Guilty.
04:37Yeah.
04:38It's kind of hard to watch maybe like 10 episodes or something in a row and not feel guilty about it.
04:45Yeah, true.
04:46And if you can achieve that, then you're like, oh, nice.
04:49It's like a new kind of meditation.
04:51It's a highlight.
04:53I made 10 episodes.
04:54Fantastic.
04:57What's your favorite TV show over there?
04:59In the UK?
05:00Mm-hmm.
05:01Oh, my God.
05:02Oh, wow.
05:03Yeah.
05:04I don't know.
05:05That is really too hard.
05:06So what are the ones that you like to watch on rerun?
05:08On rerun?
05:09Peep Show?
05:10Do people watch Peep Show over here?
05:12I don't think so.
05:14Yeah.
05:15If you like this truly a British, that's an insight.
05:18Peep Show on Netflix.
05:19Yeah.
05:20David Mitchell.
05:21That is great.
05:23British TV.
05:24Fantastic.
05:25The new album is coming out the 22nd of August.
05:27It's called The Clearing and it's really great to have you guys in.
05:31Thank you for joining us today.
05:33Thank you so much.
05:34And we're going to play Bloom Baby Bloom from Wolf Alice now on K-Rock.
