Wolf Alice on touring with Harry Styles: ‘It felt like a small family’
The Camden band went on the road with Harry this summer
By Nick Reilly
Wolf Alice have opened up on their experiences of hitting the road with Harry Styles, after supporting the singer on his recent stadium tour of Europe.
The Camden rockers opened for the pop giant in cities such as Paris, Stockholm and Berlin this summer as he toured his latest album Harry’s House.
While they were tasked with warming up Styles’ crowd for the majority of the dates, the final show in Lisbon on July 31 memorably saw lead singer Ellie Rowsell join Styles on stage for a duet of the band’s 2021 single ‘No Hard Feelings’.
Opening up on the experience, Rowsell told Rolling Stone UK: “That duet was great. We didn’t have much time to practice but it felt like a great moment and it’s been a really nice memory I have to look back on. I loved being on stage with Harry and his band. It was the last day of the tour and it felt like a really nice day.”
Hailing the support from Styles and his team throughout the tour, drummer Joel Amey added: “We’ve had the summer of our lives going around Europe with Harry and we’ve been super lucky. We feel very blessed for that. When we were making this record we hoped there’d be the chance for these songs to exist in the live setting and that’s happened and it’s been amazing experiences.”
He added: “It was incredibly warm and it felt like a small little family from Harry and his team. On paper it’s like OK, but it felt like it worked and his fans were incredible to us. Playing our songs to a crowd that we hadn’t done too much of before too in terms of age or certain places in Europe we hadn’t been too. A huge thanks to him.”
The tour came a year after the band’s third album Blue Weekend, which secured critical acclaim and the band’s third Mercury Prize nomination, having won in 2018 with Visions of a Life.
“It’s lovely to see how people have responded to that record,” said Rowsell.
“It was a very intense recording process and we came away saying we had no idea what this even sounds like any more. When you’re so intensely involved with something it’s hard to see the wood from the trees. It could have gone any way and we wouldn’t have been surprised. It was a relief to see people enjoy it, dissect it and it was a joy really.”
Rowsell and Amey were talking to Rolling Stone UK after joining forces with celebrated headphone brand Bowers & Wilkins to celebrate the Px7 S2, their innovative new active noise cancelling wireless headphone range.
“Beyond Wolf Alice we’re music listeners and lovers,” said Amey.
“Bowers & Wilkins make unbelievable headphones and their studio speakers are amazing. As much as we play live the studio is so important to us and the way our songs sound are incredibly important to us. That’s how you hear it, so it’s an incredibly important brand to us.”