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songs are musical manifestations of my
thoughts and feelings, and sometimes I
just have to find another way of saying
things.”
Ergo, Wolf Alice eluded the dreaded
sophomore jinx by simply ignoring it and
writing more and more material, with
Rowsell giddily pushing into all of the
aforementioned stylistic digressions.
“We’re a hard-working band – we chan-
neled all of our energy into writing and
rehearsing,” she declares, proudly. “I think
we were a lot braver on this record, and we
were afforded more time, so we weren’t
under any time constraints. So we’d do
something, and if we liked it, we moved
on, and we started to experiment, as well.
But I just think that when you’ve done
something once before, you learn from
those experiences. I mean, I wouldn’t
change anything about My Love is Cool, but
I know now about things that I could have
taken further, and I think I just feel more
confident. I’m not really sure how to put it
into words, but I guess I just fit into my
body a lot better and I feel a whole lot
braver.”
So emboldened, in fact, that the star is
fledge-flexing some new political wings
that she’d never attempted before. Wolf
Alice just played July’s Tories Out March
in London, protesting Britain’s new con-
servative government, and she even led
the crowd in a pro-Jeremy Corbyn chant.
And last December – with like-minded fel-
low UK performers Slaves, Peace, Swim
Deep, and Years & Years – they also organ-
ized a series of charity concerts called
Bands 4 Refugees, and Rowsell herself
even taped a pro-Labour video urging
young people to vote. She doesn’t fully
comprehend how to use her activist voice,
she cedes. “But you do start to realize that
you have a lot more power than the people
in power. And sometimes things become
so desperate that it’s difficult to let them
slip by without trying to use your power.”
With her dual role as the de facto leader
of a new women’s movement in England,
what wisdom has this Wolf Alice anchor
learned that’s worth imparting to follow-
ers? She’s not sure, she demurs – she has-
n’t acquired enough 20/20 hindsight yet.
“But there are a few old clichés that hold
true,” she says. “I only regret the things
that I didn’t do, I treat other people the
way that I’d like to be treated, and I pay
close attention to my aesthetic sense – they
give me my lust for life.
“But I think with some hindsight, that
movie On the Road will be a nice thing to
look back on. It’s still pretty fresh and
we’re still playing those tunes, so I don’t
look at it now and feel nostalgic. But ten
years or so from now? I think we will real-
ly value that movie.”
december
2017
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