Mixing with the band’s structure

DEEP within many bassists is a frustrated lead guitarist wanting to get out but forced by circumstance into occupying a role within the rhythm section.

For Wolf Alice, though, this extends across the whole band, according to bassist Theo Ellis, inset.

“We are a band of four guitarists,” he says from Mike Crossey’s studio in Wood Green, where the North London quartet are mixing their eagerly awaited debut album.

“The guitar was everyone’s first instrument, which I think is cool. I really like that crossover part of our band. On the last tour Joel [Amey, drummer] took lead a little bit.

“We always loved watching The Last Waltz, with Levon Helm taking the lead behind his drum kit. I like that idea that you don’t know who the front person is.”

Had Wolf Alice been around in the 1990s there was a danger they could have been lumped in the sub-genre memorably described on a T-shirt worn by Sleeper frontwoman Louise Wener as “Another Female-Fronted Band”.

The guitar-led sound of the BBC Sound Of 2015 longlisted outfit certainly takes influences from the explosion of indie music in the mid-1990s, but Ellis says this is not a conscious thing.

“I don’t think we have ever consciously gone out and bought a Hole or Elastica record,” he says. “We are permeated with 1990s culture – it’s in our DNA and in every little bit of music we listen to. It is an easy reference to make, as we are a female-fronted band, and have grungey elements. We haven’t released our album yet – that might do us more justice.”

The band dates back to 2010, when Ellie Rowsell and guitarist Joff Oddie formed a duo taking its name from an Angela Carter short story. Those origins are touched on playfully in the video for early single Fluffy, which begins with Rowsell and Oddie’s sugarsweet acoustic YouTube video being spotted by Amey and Ellis’s leather-jacketed rockers.

“It was supposed to be an extreme parody,” recalls Ellis. “I have got happy memories of doing that video.”

It was the first in a series of highly theatrical videos to accompany their early EPs, from the critique on music management in Giant Peach, to investigations into the world of drag for Moaning Lisa Smile and Blush.

“The concept of drag was more to do with the story of Moaning Lisa Smile,” says Ellis. “Blush was supposed to be about a character so obsessed with a girl he wanted to be her.”

The band is trying to take the theatrical side of their videos out on the road with them for their live show – which at Glastonbury saw them break into Chris Isaak’s Wicked Game midset.

“I admire bands that think about their production,” says Ellis. “Theatrical doesn’t mean high production values. The theatricality can come from anything. At some punk shows you will have the best time in your life.

“When people buy tickets for a show they want to get into it – when you see The 1975 or alt-J they have got that down to a tee.”

The band is looking forward to unveiling some of the new material which has been penned for the album.

“It’s been amazing to have been offered so much time,” says Ellis. “So many bands that came up with us at the same time have released their album. We have been able to use the EPs to experiment and find ourselves.

“We have always had a broad spectrum of sounds in our songs, from Heavenly Creatures to Giant Peach, which is the heaviest song we have done. The album is more refined, mature songwriting. It feels a little bit more grown-up and less all over the shop!”

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