If you stand on tip-toes and peer over the sea of heads and flailing limbs before you, listening intently over the hollering fits of love, you can just about recognise Wolf Alice destroying the William's Green tent in their less than secret set at Glastonbury.
It's a fairly modestly-sized tent, but the pull of Wolf Alice sends the masses streaming out of the area and well into the field. It's the week that they've finally dropped their incredible debut album, My Love Is Cool - probably the best record of the year so far, let alone best debut. It's an instant classic, and greatness awaits. It seems only fitting that the true champions of 2015 should launch themselves into the future here, at the daddy of all festivals.
To celebrate the year of the Wolf, we sat down with the band backstage at Glasto to talk about hype, Drenge, The 1975, the Manics, their fans, playing Brixton and what the future may hold.
Were you expecting that incredibly heaving crowd at your 'secret' set?
Ellie Rowsell: "Everyone thought that our secret set was a Paul McCartney secret set so maybe that's why they were there."
Theo Ellis: "No, I don't think we were expecting that reaction at all. That took us aback a little bit. It was mental, it was also really fun to have Eoin come on with us and do 'Moaning Lisa Smile'. We did it once before in Sheffield where those guys are from. That felt like a fun little moment for us."
Would you like to collaborate with Drenge in future or do you hate the idea of an 'indie supergroup'?
Ellie: "Oh, sure - we all think they're an amazing band, so maybe? "
The album is sitting at the No.1 spot. It's by far one of the best albums of the year so far. How is it to finally have your baby out there in the world?
Ellie: "Great - I can kind of breathe now and get on with being in a band. I always felt like we were trying to be in a band and now we finally are."
Photo: Gigwise/Tom Pullen
Would hitting No.1 on Monday mess your ambitions? It's incredible to hit that milestone so soon.
Ellie: "I don't know, we've never done anything like this before. I don't know what we'll feel like when we release album No.2, with any higher expectation. As long as we feel happy with what we've done, I think we're pretty good at accepting what comes our way. As long as you've made the music you wanted to, not to sound wanky, then you'll be alright."
How does it feel to finally have this one body of work that fully represents you, as before you had so many EPs showcasing different sides of you?
Theo: "I think it's better that we have this now. We've always struggled to give a parametre to what we sound like and now people just juge it based on this body of work, and we're really proud of it. It's out there now."
Now that it's out there, it must be hard for people to keep falling for the same old misconceptions about you as a band, or that 'grunge meets folk' or '90s throwback' tag?
Theo: "I don't know. We've explored lots of different avenues and probably will continue to do so. It's still open to see what we will do next. I don't know what the misconceptions about us might be because we don't know how to describe ourselves either. I don't blame anyone who might say something that we don't think is true because it's hard to label anyone who isn't an obvious pop band or an obvious rock band or whatever."
Photo: Gigwise/Tom Pullen
You're playing Brixton Academy which is massive. Do you feel the wave of the huge mass of fans behind you?
Theo: "We've been really blessed with our fans. I almost feel like a lot of people who come to our show on the front row all the time, we really know those guys. I would definitely want to hang out with them - they're really cool. We have a really nice, eclectic mix - it goes across the spectrum of younger 15-year-old guys to the older people who maybe remember some of the things we touch upon in our music. We've definitely got a batch in our fans."
Touring with the likes of The 1975 and Manic Street Preachers are two extremes, but do you feel like you've picked up their fans?
Ellie: "Oh yeah! They're two good ends of the spectrum."
One thing that people often say is that Brixton is the springboard to arenas. Do you see that in your future?
Ellie: "No I think we're all pretty baffled that we've put on a Brixton show and we're in no rush to get to any one specific place or anything. If anything we'll want to take our time and be 110% ready to be there. Arenas have not crossed our mind at any point."
The 1975 could probably sell out The O2, but you sense they'd rather do two nights at Ally Pally.
Theo: "Your first album is nowhere near the time to start thinking about that type of stuff. The 1975 are heading to Hammersmith Apollo on their next tour, and we're just nowhere near ready for that kind of region yet. We haven't got enough songs!"
Certain buzzphrases are often thrown at bands like yours, like 'headliners of the future'.
Theo: "Yeah, that's the future! We've got to write a shit load of more records, but also that's not for us to decide."
Wolf Alice perform at Glastonbury again at 5pm on the Park Stage today, while today also sees the likes of Florence + The Machine, Motorhead, The Cribs, The Vaccines and more make appearances.
My Love Is Cool by Wolf Alice is out now. Their upcoming UK tour dates are below. For tickets and information, visit here.
Wolf Alice will play:
16 - Bristol Academy
17 - Birmingham Institute
19 - Glasgow ABC
21 - Newcastle University
22 - Sheffield Plug
23 - Southampton Guildhall
25 - Manchester Albert Hall
26 - London Brixton Academy
Wolf Alice release my Love Is Cool on 22 June. This summer sees them play T In The Park, Latitude, Reading Festival, Leeds Festival and many more.
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