You can’t embody the ‘90s in one band, because Oasis didn’t sound like Nirvana or whatever. “Well, I haven’t heard everything that was in the ‘90s. “Sometimes people are outright hostile about it, like, ‘Oh yeah, why is everyone digging Wolf Alice when they just sound like the ‘90s? I’ve heard it all before…’” Rowsell says. Regardless of all of the triumphs the band has experienced in the last six months, Rowsell seems to feel as if she won’t be able to declare victory until those last stubborn perceptions die. Despite having used the interviews leading up to the release of My Love Is Cool to dispel any notions that Wolf Alice are, in fact, grunge revivalists, they have failed to escape the comparisons. Second, she wants to push back against the impression that Wolf Alice are a living amalgamation of ‘90s rock tropes. During our hour-long conversation only two topics seem to bother her at all.įirst, she bristles at the suggestion that Wolf Alice is an overnight sensation, pointing out that the London quartet has transitioned through five years of lineup tweaks, a couple of EPs, and hundreds of gigs before arriving at this point. headlining tour, first late-night TV show appearances -but she doesn’t show any signs that life as the lead singer of one of indie rock’s most-acclaimed new bands is wearing thin. It has been a chaotic year of firsts -first full-length release (the Mercury Prize-nominated My Love Is Cool), first U.S. With a triumphant summer tour and a series of high profile festival spots now in the rearview mirror, she has spent the last two days alone in London, sleeping, listening to long-neglected CDs, and wishing she was back on the road. It’s easy to see how she can win people over before she ever sings a note. Though she’s sober to the point of seeming disinterested at times, she’ll occasionally flash a mischievous smile, then look away shyly, like a child caught making faces behind the teacher’s back. With dark, unblinking eyes, she’ll speak about how disorienting it is to be caught in the whirlwind of media and touring, then humbly admit that her life probably isn’t that much more chaotic than those of other early 20-somethings. Soft-spoken and understated, she has a self-effacing laugh that punctuates moments of gallows humor. Though she’s only 23, Rowsell has the perspective, if not the demeanor, of a much older person. She opens her eyes, bites the end of a pen, and begins. She’s heard this all before -how their guitars grunt and drums crash in ways that prove they’ve mastered the loud/soft dynamic, how their sound owes so much to a generation of alt rockers that it couldn’t be anything but intentional -and she seems tired of explaining why all of this seems so strange for someone who is barely old enough to remember life before the millennium. Here it comes: the questions about how Wolf Alice sounds so much like a ‘90s band. Ellie Rowsell closes her eyes and winces.
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