When London band Wolf Alice were nominated for the ‘British Breakthrough Act’ category at the Brit Awards last month, the band’s social media reaction seemed to exude unadulterated joy at reaching the domain of Adele and Coldplay.

Whilst Joff Oddie (a founding member with singer Ellie Rowsell in 2010) speaks of the ‘privilege’ of the nomination today, however, his subsequent thoughts reveal that such a glitzy event isn’t really Wolf Alice’s scene.

“It’s a strange world,” says the guitarist. “It was very nice to be there, but I think that world of major labels and celebrity bright lights felt like an alien environment to us. We were underdogs from the very start really. Just look at the scale of the event…the machine that is James Bay. I didn’t write any acceptance speech, put it that way.”

Oddie, an evidently grounded and affable person, is nonetheless savvy to the potential spike in popularity such industry recognition can bring. “It’s very boring but it’s all publicity for us, it keeps our story going. Who knows what it will do for sales though – ask our label!”

Whilst Wolf Alice lost out to Catfish and The Bottlemen on the night, Oddie and co are clearly on the verge of something big; indeed, their profile has already reached the point of a headline show at The Dome on Tuesday. “I really can’t believe it’s the Dome this time,” says Oddie, after reminiscing about playing The Great Escape in the band’s early days and ‘sitting on the sunny beach going: ‘this is f****** great.’”

The video for single Giant Peach reflects Wolf Alice’s tongue-in-cheek – and apparently conflicting – attitude to mainstream rock success; a shady executive type tries to teach Oddie guitar power stances, to his disdain, before posing for a picture with a reluctant Roswell. The songs on last year’s debut album My Love Is Cool range drastically in tone, too – from the intimate acoustics of Fluffy to the soaring stadium grunge of Moaning Lisa Smile.

“We didn’t have enough money for equipment when me and Ellie were starting out – all we had were acoustic guitars,” says Oddie of Wolf Alice’s varying tonal approach. “We were really young then, and all that nu-folk stuff was coming out, like Jeffrey Lewis and Laura Marling. They only had acoustic guitars, so we thought: ‘we can do that.” A lot of the transition to a faster, heavier sound was out of boredom really; we’d been playing the old songs for years at open mic gigs in empty rooms.”

Wolf Alice had released enough material before the album came out for My Love is Cool to fall into the category of ‘eagerly anticipated’, but Oddie insists the band’s eclectic songwriting approach was an antidote to the weight of outside expectation.

“I think the nice thing about us is people didn’t know which we were going. I’m not sure we even completely knew ourselves until we finished the record! There is no set way we go about writing; it has always been and probably always will be a complete f****** mess. I think you need to keep some sense of chaos and innocence about the process though.”

One constant in the group dynamic is the close friendship between Oddie and Rowsell, touchingly illustrated in the song Bros: ‘there’s no one who knows me like you do/stick it out together like we always do.’ On this topic, Oddie’s tone takes on a new sincerity.

“We know each other pretty much inside out. In a very scary way, we probably know each other better than anyone else. Scary, but definitely true. We never go more than a few days without seeing each other or spending all day together.”

Whilst Wolf Alice can consider The Dome, with its prestige and grandeur, as an exciting new frontier for a young band, Oddie expects to see one very familiar audience demographic on Tuesday.

“We get a lot of daughters and dads at our show, having a bonding experience,” he laughs. “The daughter will be in the mosh pit and the old man hanging around at the back.”

WOLF ALICE

Brighton Dome, Church Street, Tuesday, March 22

Doors 6pm. Tickets £18.50.

Call 01273 709709.