Cover Feature The next life: Wolf Alice

When Wolf Alice wrapped up their final show in support of debut ‘My Love Is Cool’ on 1st October last year, it was an end, but also a beginning. Having toured incessantly for the previous three years - growing from nervous shoe-gazers, stumbling over their instruments in pub back rooms to defiant, joyful superstars in waiting, selling 10,000 tickets in their hometown on their last tour - they closed their first chapter with their first ever festival headline slot at Margate weekender By The Sea - less a misty-eyed, celebratory pat on the back, and more a hungry career milestone, already snapping at the heels of a stupidly exciting future. “It’s promising isn’t it?” grins bassist Theo Ellis. “It wasn’t like, oh that’s done now, that chapter’s over. It’s like when you’re gonna drop a sequel and you have a cliffhanger…”

Of course, because this is Wolf Alice, they also turned it into a massive party, shipping a “coach load of reprobates” up from London for the ride. But as far as putting an end to Part One, the quartet already knew it wasn’t a full stop, more an ellipsis. “We were so aware of what was looming ahead of us that we didn’t have that much time to sit down and self congratulate,” shrugs guitarist Joff Oddie, as his bandmates nod in agreement. What’s looming ahead of them, of course, is a record and touring cycle that could legitimately turn the group into next level stars. Universally acknowledged as one of UK indie’s biggest breakthrough artists in years, this is the time when they shake off all the caveats and grow from ‘best new band’ to plain ol’ ‘best band’. Everything is in place for it to happen and, even sat around in the teensy courtyard of a dingy Soho boozer today, there’s a confidence to the group – completed by vocalist Ellie Rowsell and drummer Joel Amey – that suggests they know exactly what they need to do to get there. They’re ready to fully, completely go for it. “It’s unbelievably exciting,” enthuses Theo, musing on the months the band have planned out ahead of them. And it really is.