{"id":92647,"date":"2025-08-25T22:48:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T22:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/92647\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T22:48:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T22:48:19","slug":"ellie-rowsell-covers-wonderlands-20th-anniversary-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/92647\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellie Rowsell Covers Wonderland’s 20th Anniversary Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

With The Clearing, their fourth album and first on a major label, Wolf Alice scale new heights while holding fast to their unshakable bond. At its centre, Ellie Rowsell embraces her role as Britain\u2019s defining frontwoman.<\/p>\n

\"TheEllie wears top & trousers MIL\u00d3 MARIA; boots JIMMY CHOO<\/p>\n

Within the opening lines of \u201cThe Sofa\u201d \u2013 the closing track and second single from Wolf Alice\u2019s transformative fourth studio album, The Clearing<\/a> \u2013 Ellie Rowsell makes perhaps the most revealing admission of her career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHope I can accept the wild thing in me \/ Hope nobody comes to tame her \/ And she can be free.\u201d<\/p>\n

It feels less like she\u2019s addressing an audience than confiding in herself: a plea to keep alive the same fire that\u2019s carried her band through a decade of tours, triumphs and defining moments.<\/p>\n

Ellie\u2019s wish isn\u2019t framed as sorrow, but as something more gracious \u2013 a cordial request. Now in her early thirties, settled into the contours of her life, she finds no refuge in excuses. She is an adult, unequivocally, and she accepts it. The title The Clearing suits the moment: the restlessness of her twenties swept away, leaving in its place acknowledgement, assurance, and the beginnings of peace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be fine, I\u2019ll be okay,\u201d her voice soars with warmth in the pre-chorus. And, with the journey of self-realisation she has undertaken throughout the album\u2019s 10 previous tracks, it\u2019s clear she means it.<\/p>\n

Today though, sitting in a charmingly tacky cafe in Seven Sisters, Ellie has seen better days. \u201cI\u2019m a bit hungover,\u201d she croaks wryly, guzzing down her flat white as if it\u2019s been medically prescribed. The night prior, she joined 90,000 others at Wembley to belt her heart out to Oasis as the band brought their reunion tour to the English capital. Aside from the Mancunian legends\u2019 unfiltered singalong joy, the show provided solid homework for the 32-year-old; later in the year Wolf Alice will embark on their own \u2013 a first \u2013 arena tour, including two homecoming shows across the capital\u2019s east at the O2 Arena. Ellie quietly relishes the notion: \u201cIt\u2019s intimidating, but I think it\u2019s also exciting. It feels like a new challenge,\u201d she smiles, twinkling at the prospect.<\/p>\n

\"TheEllie wears full look KNWLS; tights FALKE<\/p>\n

Ellie is a considered and complex character \u2013 \u2018sensitive\u2019 is her favourite adjective after all, a lyrical declaration from \u201cSmile\u201d on the band\u2019s third album that she still upholds today. \u201cImagine you weren\u2019t sensitive, you\u2019d be a psychopath,\u201d she giggles. Speaking wisely more often than not, she holds a propensity to sew answers that cover a tapestry of bases rather than committing to anything too parabolic. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she ponders slowly, thinking about whether she feels that she expects too much from herself. \u201cThese days I do think I am quite self-critical. Maybe I\u2019ve become like that. But I\u2019m also aware that you can\u2019t achieve perfection and the best thing to do is have fun. So I\u2019m trying to chase that more than some kind of self enlightenment.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an overcast, sleepy Sunday at high noon in early August, a matter of weeks before the release of Wolf Alice\u2019s highly anticipated latest record. Ellie is dressed down, suitably casual in a black and white sweater with the words \u2018New York\u2019 plastered across its front. The nonchalant fit is a far cry from the \u00e9clat flamboyance of her new album\u2019s eccentric visual identity \u2013 all leather-clad sex appeal and gaudy colour schemes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conceptualised by photographer Rachel Fleminger Hudson \u2013 a first time that Wolf Alice involved a singular creative to handle an entire album\u2019s visual presentation \u2013 Ellie (alongside bassist Theo Ellis, guitarist Joff Oddie and drummer Joel Amey) found full trust in an outside force. \u201c[Rachel is] very romantic and I actually was really moved by the way she worked,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes you get embarrassed about caring so much about your work so it\u2019s nice to meet someone that matches that energy. She made thousands of decks explaining what everything sounded like to her. She was so passionate and cared so much which was so lovely. From then on I didn\u2019t feel afraid to share the world with her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cover art in particular steals your gaze. A pitch black plain exterior setting with Ellie standing alone, central, spotlighted. Wearing knee-high boots and a skin-tight leotard, her waist length brunette hair flowing, she holds a microphone and leans back to the heavens. It\u2019s her and nothing else \u2013 allegorical perhaps, of her consequential step into stardom with this new album.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheEllie wears bodysuit BASS RANGE; boots MANOLO BLAHNIK; tights FALKE<\/p>\n

\"TheEllie wears top & briefs FRUITY BOOTY; boots PLEIADES<\/p>\n

The Clearing is an inaugural LP on a major label for the band, following a move to Columbia Records after three albums on independent imprint Dirty Hit. It arrives off of the back of a sensational sunset showcase at Glastonbury (\u201cAll our friends were very emotional, and I mean, why do you do anything if not to please your mates?\u201d) and with as much industry chatter surrounding it as any British album this year. All-in-all, it feels like Wolf Alice \u2013 and their iconic frontwoman \u2013 have never been bigger. So is Ellie feeling the heat? \u201cI don\u2019t get recognised unless I go to Koko or something,\u201d she shrugs off, hearty in her dismissal of notoriety. \u201cI think if I thought [about fame] then I maybe would quit. For the most part, my life hasn\u2019t changed. I still live in the same place and all my friends are the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellie is a born-and-bred Londoner \u2013 north of the river through-and-through. The city has been a constant thread throughout her life and artistry \u2013 whether it be moving into her own place in Seven Sisters and writing much of The Clearing on her new home\u2019s piano, or the triumphant and affirming embryonic memories with the band, the times that made them believe in what was possible. \u201cWe always talk about when we first played [Shoreditch venue] The Old Blue Last. That was our dream and we did it. It was ten years ago, but it\u2019s those first things that you do \u2013 having a real show where music lovers turn up, not just anyone who\u2019s passing by. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever matched that feeling,\u201d she says, almost blushing in the admittance, before adding only half jokingly: \u201cMaybe that\u2019s the best thing that ever happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the production of the new album though, Wolf Alice left their Metropolitan comforts for the opportunistic vibrance of Los Angeles, the second time they\u2019d done so after embarking across the Atlantic for their Mercury Prize-winning sophomore Visions Of A Life. \u201cI definitely think there is a romanticism inherently attached,\u201d Ellie says on the City of Angeles where the band spent around three months last year sharpening their LP with pop superproducer Greg Kurstin. \u201cGeographically, when you get there, you\u2019re like, \u2018This looks amazing.\u2019 All the lights and stuff, it is truly romantic there. And also, there is a musical romance there that I don\u2019t see matched here. People aren\u2019t afraid, they\u2019re less tentative to express their musical love. I went to a party and people were playing guitar and jamming, and they weren\u2019t embarrassed and they weren\u2019t on drugs [laughs]. Once you get over your Britishness, you probably will find yourself quite musically inspired there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheEllie wears bodysuit BASS RANGE; tights FALK<\/p>\n

Working with nine-time Grammy winner Kurstin, who boasts Adele, Lily Allen, Paul McCartney, Gorillaz and a further assemblage of stars amid his discography, was something the band always wanted to do. The choice paid dividends too; he facilitated Wolf Alice\u2019s unyielding vision for The Clearing rather than attempting to overreach his own influence. \u201cEveryone wants to work with Greg,\u201d Ellie says. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty anal and we like to make sure everything is watertight before we go into the studio. It can actually be quite laborious. So we had a very clear idea of what we wanted to do, but then working with Greg, he\u2019s so amazing that we were very much like, \u2018You do whatever you need to do.\u2019 We made some songs pretty quickly and then we listened back and it wasn\u2019t right. We told him, and he wanted to understand what we wanted. A good producer can do whatever \u2013 once we realised that he\u2019s not there to make his album, he\u2019s there to make ours, and we were brave enough to be like, \u2018Actually we were going for this,\u2019 he\u2019s like, \u2018Oh great,\u2019 and from there it was smooth sailing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the mid-May unleashing of the album\u2019s opening teaser track \u201cBloom Baby Bloom\u201d \u2013 a swaggered serenade of self-aggradisation told through melodramatic piano stabs and breathtaking vocality \u2013 it was apparent that Wolf Alice would be taking a turn away from what was expected. It\u2019s certainly not the first time they\u2019ve sought after new sonic terrain; in fact they\u2019ve shapeshifted at each possible checkpoint. 2015 debut My Love Is Cool brought heady folk and shoegaze, whilst the 2017 sophomore Visions of A Life ventured into synth-led productions, dream pop and scuzzy punk. Blue Weekend, 2021\u2019s third album, was their boldest, busiest and heaviest yet; carefree and cumbersome alternative rock to knock your socks off.<\/p>\n

\"TheEllie wears bodysuit ELISSA POPPY; tights FALKE<\/p>\n

\"TheEllie wears jacket & shorts MIL\u00d3 MARIA; tights FALKE<\/p>\n

After the musical intricacy and indulgence of its predecessor, for The Clearing the band went back to basics. \u201cWe wanted it to sound like you can picture the people playing it. That was important to us, because we didn\u2019t do that on Blue Weekend. So maybe it was a natural rejection of that style. We were thinking about our live show when making this record, because we realised that that is what we spend most of time doing so we might as well tailor stuff towards that this time around.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Written primarily on the piano and acoustic guitar, the record finds Wolf Alice and Ellie presenting a whole new artistic outlook. Gone is the glitzy youthful angst of \u201cDon\u2019t Delete The Kisses\u201d and \u201cBros\u201d, in its rich, often understated complexity. There\u2019s the gentle balladry of \u201cMidnight Song\u201d, the glam rock grooves of \u201cJust Two Girls\u201d, the free-wheeling psychedelia of \u201cWhite Horses\u201d. It\u2019s rooted in \u201870s zeal, with George Harrison, ELO, Fleetwood Mac among its influences. Yet it\u2019s fresh, revitalising and boundary-pushing \u2013 bulging with Kirstin\u2019s subtle production nuances that add modern flavour to the rich, naturalistic melting pot.<\/p>\n

Bolstered by the space and opulence of the album\u2019s texture, vocally Ellie has never sounded better. She approached the process with a new-found freedom, letting her inhibitions down, facilely exploring the crevices of her range. \u201cBloom Baby Bloom\u201d may be the epitome: \u201cWatch me, yeah, you\u2019ll see just what I\u2019m worth,\u201d she affirms, a fitting characterisation of her burgeoning self-worth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just being tired of this narrative of figuring stuff out and actually asking, \u2018Okay what have I figured out?\u2019\u201d Ellie explains on the lyrical core. \u201cThere\u2019s a directness in that that is appealing to me. I\u2019m done with vagueness and ambiguity. I want to be braver and more accepting. I used to hate writing love songs because I used to think you had to feel it to write it or that every time you write a love song, it has to be your best song. It\u2019s about rejecting what I felt was expected of me as a young woman.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The UK guitar sphere is now littered with strong female protagonists \u2013 from The Last Dinner Party to Wet Leg\u2019s Rhian Teasdale, Rachel Chinouriri to English Teacher\u2019s Lily Fontaine. But rewind 15 years, and there was a distinct lack of women in British rock music for developing artists to look up to. But Ellie was headstrong enough to look beyond what was placed in front of her. \u201cI\u2019m lucky because I didn\u2019t really take stock about it myself,\u201d she reflects. \u201cI felt like I could be Julian Casablanca or Kurt Cobain.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what changed? It\u2019s true that the industry has widened its narrow gaze \u2013 somewhat, at least \u2013 and realised that there\u2019s more to indie music than four mop-haired white lads. But someone had to set the blueprint, lay down the marker, stand tall in the cavalry for change. For such an emblem, we need look no further than Ellie. When there were mere few inspirations for her when embarking into the male-dominated industry (she does, though, pinpoint Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as an important figure), she proved a paradigm of progression, an empowered, vulnerable and unfiltered voice able to sell-out stadiums and tenderly pierce the soul alike.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even now, four albums and over a decade deep, Ellie feels the shackles of expectation loosening; the shedding of her instrument is symbolic of her continual growth. \u201cIt\u2019s been really freeing for me to not feel like I need to play the guitar to be taken seriously as a musician,\u201d she reveals. \u201cI find it really hard. I like singing but I always thought, \u2018Oh all girls like singing,\u2019 but now I\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t fucking care.\u2019 I don\u2019t need to have the guitar to prove anything to anyone or to myself, mainly. I don\u2019t want to be that person.\u201d<\/p>\n

She hasn\u2019t done it alone, though. In Theo, Joff and Joel, Ellie has found her closest confidants and collaborators. They\u2019ve stuck together through thick and thin throughout all these years \u2013 a rare achievement for the infamously topsy turvy nature of band life. \u201cYeah\u2026I don\u2019t really know,\u201d she chuckles at how the quintet have managed to stay united. \u201cI think just because we all have a mutual respect for our music, every time anything tries to get in the way, that\u2019s always been the prevalent thing. It\u2019s what I imagine parents feel if they don\u2019t like each other anymore but they love their children. But we\u2019re also friends and we enjoy each other\u2019s company and that\u2019s just lucky I think.\u201c<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Ellie wears jacket & shorts MIL\u00d3MARIA; boots ROKER; tights FALKE<\/p>\n

Whether it be Stevie Nicks stepping out of Fleetwood Mac or Hayley Williams\u2019 sonic sidequests from Paramore, eventually, frontwomen tend to plot a solo course. But Ellie holds only a single credit away from the Wolf Alice sobriquet \u2013 a feature on the Mura Masa track \u201cTeenage Headache Dreams\u201d. With her maturing musicality and personal metamorphosis, does she see that changing anytime soon? \u201cYes and no,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI feel like I would make something and then I\u2019d be like, \u2018What does Joel and Joff and Theo think of this\u2019, and then it\u2019d end up just being for Wolf Alice. I need constant validation so I don\u2019t imagine how I would do anything on my own. But I\u2019m open to anything really.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bond between Wolf Alice is esoteric, unable to be fully understood if not intertwined within. Ellie is strong, assured, steadfast, but unafraid to rely on her friends\u2019 wisdom and guidance. This joint vision, and The Clearing\u2019s fearless approach, sees Wolf Alice settling into their rightful position as their generation\u2019s quintessential rock band \u2013 and Ellie finally realising her position as Britain\u2019s defining frontwoman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the monumental autumn-set tour to come, Ellie and her pack have never felt so impactful. It feels like a summit; a creative peak reached after a decade of measured crescendo. And whilst that should \u2013 and will \u2013 be celebrated, where does it leave Ellie Rowsell and Wolf Alice? \u201cOnce you\u2019ve pleased yourself, then everything is easier,\u201d she concludes slowly as we leave the cafe, stretching her eyes around the high street, eager no doubt to proceed with an afternoon of recovery and shaking off the unshakeable cadence of \u201cSlide Away\u201d. \u201cAfter all, I\u2019m only trying to impress myself, really\u2026not to say don\u2019t care what people think \u2013 I really do. But once I\u2019ve achieved my own pleasure, I\u2019ve succeeded. That\u2019s all I\u2019m chasing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pre-order Wonderland\u2019s 20th Anniversary Issue now.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"TheEllie wears jacket MCQUEEN; tshirt LAG WORLD; shorts MIL\u00d3 MARIA; boots FENDI; tights FALKE<\/p>\n

Photography by James Robinson
Styling by Abigail Hazard
Words by Ben Tibbits
Hair by Yumi Nakada using Bumble and bumble.
Make-up by Anna Payne at Blend Management
Photography Assistant Pip Woolley
Fashion Interns Jiayue Jenny Li, Daryl Butler
Fashion Assistant Agostinho Sousa Junior
Videography by Lauren Austin
Special Thanks to The Zetter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With The Clearing, their fourth album and first on a major label, Wolf Alice scale new heights while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55,46090],"class_list":{"0":"post-92647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom","13":"tag-wolf-alice"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}