I
By Tom Lanham
t’ s what every artist aspires to, one would imagine – a famous director one day finding their life so remarkable and their look so photogenic that it warrants its own documentary. But UK rocker Ellie Rowsell was just surprised that hers happened so fast, last year when her quartet Wolf Alice had only a single album under its belt, 2015’ s Grammy, BRIT Award and Mercury-Prize-nominated debut My Love is Cool. Still, when British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom – of The Trip and 24 Hour Party People renown – approached her management with the novel concept of following the group on tour for his new feature On The Road, she wasn’ t too flummoxed.“ He wanted to know if we’ d be interested in meeting up with him to discuss his idea, so we did, and it was all pretty casual,” recalls the firebrand vocalist, 25, who’ s found herself at the forefront of a movement of female-fronted English rock outfits overseas that includes The Big Moon and Pale Waves.
Winterbottom wanted to replicate the casual offhanded style of D. A. Pennebaker’ s classic 1965 study of Bob Dylan, Don’ t Look Back.“ So he told us,‘ Just carry on doing what you’ re doing, and I’ ll work around you and do my thing,’” recalls Rowsell, who also understood that Wolf Alice concerts would provide the backdrop for a loosely-scripted storyline of a millennial couple – played by virtually unknown young actors – falling in love backstage.“ So I don’ t know how much the movie comes across like that, but that’ s what we all agreed to, anyway – we were just the setting for these two characters.”
The Wolf Alice members( including guitarist Joff Oddie, bassist Theo Ellis, and drummer Joel Amey) finally got to view Winterbottom’ s finished product at a
22 illinoisentertainer. com december 2017
British Film Institute premiere screening. And they found it odd to see themselves immortalized on celluloid, just as sonic experiments were beginning for their stunning new sophomore disc, Visions of a Life, which they’ re currently back in the States promoting.“ And I guess it’ s always weird to have a camera in your face, if you’ re hot friends with the person behind it,” is Rowsell’ s theory, in retrospect.“ So I don’ t think you can ever really be yourself. So( Winterbottom’ s) task was to get everybody to act naturally in front of the camera. And for me, personally, I just tried to ignore the fact that the camera was there, but not to the point where I let myself do anything incriminating.” So when America eventually gets the chance to see On the Road, she warns, don’ t take it as Wolf Alice Gospel:“ It’ s just one side of our touring – you’ re never going to see them all.”
Of all the bands at his fingertips in England, why had Winterbottom chosen this particular one? A chain of serendipitous coincidences that mounted up, apparently. First, he loved their staunch work ethic – Rowsell and Oddie had started as an acoustic duo in 2010, and happily paid their dues playing every UK pub they could in what Rowsell laughingly terms“ the toilet circuit”( and the quartet logged 147 dates in 2016 alone). Second, he was impressed that they’ d taken their name from Angela Carter’ s surreal reworking of vintage fairy tales, The Bloody Chamber – his first gig was doing research for the enigmatic author. And third, he was a huge fan of their youthful energy and their vibrant, punk-edged songs, like squealing debut single“ Fluffy” and powerchord-pounding ballad“ Moaning Lisa Smile”( which earned that coveted 2016 Grammy nod for Best Rock Performance). And he was on
Using Their Voice
the money – Rowsell truly is a superstar, just waiting to happen, and an exhilarating inspiration to girls across Europe to pick up a guitar and start playing, just like she did in her early teens.
Pale Waves bandleader Heather Baron- Gracie – who, like Rowsell and company, is signed to The 1975’ s posh imprint Dirty Hit – is a huge Wolf Alice booster.“ I think they’ re an amazing British band, and Ellie as a frontwoman is just taking over right now,” she observes.“ And more women are coming out of the shadows now, and I feel like the industry really needs that. At our shows we get a lot of girls coming up to us, saying that they wished they played in a band, too. And we’ re like,‘ Go and do it! Find other people, learn an instrument, and just do it!’ There really needs to be more of us. Because sometimes, men don’ t seem to like women to play music. And Ciara, our drummer gets that quite a bit. But I think a lot of people underestimate us as musicians. And I’ ll slam into my guitar just as hard as any bloke will, and Ciara will just smash those drums. And yet we’ ll play with such technical precision that it shocks a lot of men.”
Another Wolf Alice acolyte is Juilette Jackson, of London all-girl foursome The Big Moon, whose Love in the 4th Dimension debut was snapped up this year by classy company Fiction. She grew up idolizing Aussie male upstarts The Vines, but never once considering forming a band herself.“ I felt like there wasn’ t a place for girls in groups, because I hadn’ t seen or heard any,” she recalls. Then she caught her first White Stripes concert at 14, saw Meg White pounding her percussion with an animal ferocity, and started learning sixstring the next day.“ And now we get a lot of young girls telling us that they bought, say, a drum kit because they saw us in a band,” she adds.“ And that’ s just amazing. It makes me feel … useful, you know?”
Baron-Gracie – whose Pale Waves is only three singles old – already has an army of young women in the audience who meticulously copy her silent film star look, down to every last cloud of Clara Bow eye shadow. She calls them her“ mini- Heathers,” and sometimes they’ ve commandeered her Gothic fashion sense so completely, she’ s taken aback. But such is the nature of this women-who-rock groundswell – if 20-somethings of Jackson and Baron-Gracie’ s generation had few female artists to idolize, it stands to reason that the following generation – once they discover Wolf Alice, Pale Waves, and The Big Moon – will adopt them with an unparalleled passion in this shallow Vice / X-Factor / American Idol era. None of this is IKEA-prefabbed in cold, clinical hitmaking Sweden. These are real women, writing and recording their own music, each with something diverse and original to say.“ And Wolf Alice are not only great people – we’ ve met them several times – but their new album is just amazing,” praises Baron-Gracie.“ I can’ t wait to see where they go from here.”
Rowsell’ s own style is difficult to pin down. She’ s recently lopped her long blonde hair into a Suzi Quatro-chic shag, and she’ s traded her signature babydoll dresses and scuffed Doc Martens for a more Americana look of black stovepipe jeans and white cowboy boots. And on Visions of a Life, she puts in a performance that’ s positively schizophrenic. On the ethereal opening track“ Heavenward,” she wafts over the dreamy galloping mix like some 4AD veteran, but on Track Two,“ Yuk
Continued on page 47