Remi Wolf

“I can be anything I wanted to, any colour of the rainbow”, Remi Wolf sings on ‘Cinderella’ the first single from her highly anticipated second studio album Big Ideas. A celebration of everything the 28-year-old artist stands for – musically and otherwise – the project is, in her chosen three words “Free, progressive and nostalgic”. AKA utterly Remi.  

“I wrote this album when I was on a massive two-year tour run,” she tells me as we chat mere days, in fact, before she heads off on another tour for the foreseeable. “When you’re travelling around and touring you have no solid base, you don’t know where the hell your friends are or what the hell is going on. I just felt super ungrounded. I was going in and out of relationships, using vices and then going sober. I was experimenting with life just to make it through that period because it was really fun but really tough: the writing process between tours helped me process everything that I was going through.”  

Grounding herself and freeing herself, then, became the priority for Remi: in the moments when she was home from tour, she found solace in songwriting, composing an album as therapeutic to listen to as it was to create. Having found herself limited by anxiety, imposter syndrome and self-doubt in the past – notably in the year after her debut, Juno, when she spent days feeling unable to leave the house or see friends – the Palo Alto artist knew that for her second album, she had to let loose.  

“In terms of my writing, because I was stripped back so raw, I got really honest and I started telling specific stories with specific imagery about my life,” she confides. “I had insane stories from travelling around and I felt like I needed to write about them, be honest about it and open myself up. I think through that I really grew as a writer – and also as a person – because I was able to process and observe myself in these really short periods of time. There were so many highs and lows. I was a raw nerve: it was just pouring out of me so quickly that I had no time to overthink. I was home for like six weeks in total for 2022, I’d be home for a week and a half at a time and just fucking write. I made this album in like five chunks of writing sessions, and then in between just head back out on the road.” 

Delving into this emotional rollercoaster through Big Ideas, the opening track ‘Cinderella’ – as she described in a statement upon release – is the exemplification of that journey: a “lyrical collage of the ups and downs and mood swings and transient lifestyle I was experiencing while writing this album.” With a funk-inspired bassline, triumphant trumpets, horns and whistles, it’s a full, free and joyful track with contrastingly delicate lyrics. In a quiet moment, Remi anxiously asks “Is there something wrong with the way I am designed? / Can’t find comfort in anything / Should I change, should I leave myself behind / And buy a boat to a private island?”, before jumping in and acting as her “own fairy godmother” promising herself “Don’t need a thing because you’re in control”. A definite thematic thread through her second album, this is a reclamation of herself, as well as of the freedom and control she’s sought to balance across both her personal and professional life. 

Talking through the composition of the album, Remi Wolf explains, “Similarly to the lyrics, sonically we wanted to keep it real: all real instruments, super analogue vibes, all vintage gear. We leaned heavily into that, I don’t think we have any digital instruments at all on this record which felt really good because I wanted to be able to get this kind of alternative pop sound. Because of covid with my first record, we were having to be really scrappy about it: in-home studio vibes, using a lot of digital shit as we were still figuring out what to do with production. On this record, I wanted to go to studios and use gear that sounds really good. I don’t want to be hunched over a laptop in my living room, I’m fucking sick of that. Let’s just go to a studio and make some fucking band-ass music. And I think that’s what I did.” 

“I’m incredibly detail-oriented,” she goes on, “I’m so particular. I’m like ‘I want all the spaces that I want filled to be filled’. I’m very anal about arrangement and tones and shit like that. There’s a couple of songs on the record where I really let it breathe. There’s this song called ‘When I Thought Of You’ which was our demo, we were like ‘We’re not going to touch it, we’re not going to add drums, it’s perfect the way it is’. For me it was like, which songs do I have to pay attention to and really build, and which ones can I leave with that raw energy of the first draft. It was fun striking the balance between where to stop and when to keep going. ‘Motorcycle’ and ‘Just The Start’ were one-take songs, compared to filled fun shit like ‘Cinderella’ and ‘Tora’, which were both incredibly detailed. Balancing the super raw with the super detailed percussion – it’s fun striking the balance and figuring out where to go with each tune. Trying to let the process of creating each song speak for itself. I really really love this album.” 

A major part of this process was of course Solomonophonic, otherwise known as Remi’s longtime friend, collaborator and co-producer Jared Solomon. Meeting back when they were 15, the two bonded over music, forming a band and rehearsing in Jared’s basement, going on to play covers and “a couple original songs we’d jam together and create”. Discovering various musical realms together, the pair would “listen to a bunch of music down there”, she recalls, “he showed me Wilco when I was in high school and we listened to Red Hot Chili Peppers a fuck tonne.” Then there was Citrus, a fruity girlband where Remi sang harmonies and was named Lime, she describes, “My friend Chloe was Lemon and then my friend Tatiana was Orange”. “We were so young and deeply cheesy”, she laughs, although we agree it’s still a very good band name, even more so because it’s what led her to where she is today. 

For Remi Wolf, that’s always what music has been about: finding friendship, coming together to make art, and just simply connecting. That connection stems from both the making of and the sharing of what is created, “I think what really drew me to music ultimately was the community aspect of it: I loved hanging out with my friends and creating something. The bond that comes from that is what really mattered, that’s still my favourite part about music,” she smiles “the community and the expressiveness of it. That feeling of getting something off my chest, but having it be this little thing, my little baby that I can choose to share. I started to really feel that when I was 14 or 15: it sunk in for me then because I started playing in bands and songwriting, and it was how I forged all my friendships, they were all created through music. So that friendship aspect is a deeply important part of it for me, and has been since I was little. I love my band now so much, and it’s so important for us to feel free because friendship allows us to express ourselves so vividly.” 

It’s clear that this desire for community and collaboration has remained with Remi since those teenage years; from Kenny Beats to Cautious Clay, she’s encompassed herself with creative minds and embedded herself in a close-knit circle of Californian artists. “Sometimes I have to take a step back and be like ‘Holy shit I am friends with some of the most talented and strangest people in the world’,” Remi laughs, “We’re all so fucking weird but it’s so fun! I’m surrounded by characters all the time, which is a really exciting and stimulating vibe. I’m so lucky that’s just part of my life now. I’m around interesting people who have a point of view and something to say, who are working towards big goals and are like-minded with me: that’s kind of all I can really ask for.” 

Having supported both Paramore and Lorde last year, and now readying to head off on a UK and European tour with Olivia Rodrigo, Remi’s world undoubtedly is growing by the day. “I am stoked to be on tour with Olivia,” she grins, “I’m very excited to integrate myself with her, her team, her band and the dancers and everything. I’m so excited to see the show. I’m excited to travel around Europe in the springtime because I’ve heard it’s beautiful. I want to post up on a beach, and eat tapas then play a show… Maybe I’ll do some hiking in the Swiss Alps, kiss a cow or something.” 

And so what can people expect from her support shows, especially in the lead-up to her album launching on 12th July? “I would say expect a lot of energy, a lot of fun, a lot of body bending, a lot of belting, a lot of drums, a lot of tights and maybe some leotards. Old music, new music,” Remi teases, “maybe a cover here and there. It’ll be a little mini variety show. My job is really to get people warmed up for Olivia, so I just want to make people as hyped as possible, so that when she goes on everyone is ready to really get down.” 

A variety show is definitely a perfect descriptor for anything Remi Wolf: whether running around on stage in coloured tights and leotards or dancing down the street in music videos, both her performances and her vibe are pure organised chaos, drawing her audience deep into her weird and wonderful world. It’s Aquarius energy through and through: airy, whimsical, expressive, free and full of zest for life. “What I know that I love is dancing, I love moving my body and I think luckily I can do it on camera and I can do it on stage. Obviously, I’m obsessed with colour, I love saturated colours. I love music videos that give you this feeling of escapism or just unadulterated and unhinged joy. I’ve leaned heavily into those feelings when I make music videos and what feels the most authentic to me – which is what I think creates this world – is that I allow myself to play, I allow myself to have fun.” 

“I love just running out onto the street and waving at pedestrians,” she laughs “That’s also the energy I bring into making these songs, it’s so off the cuff and intuitive, all about trusting myself and my body to do what it’s got to do: I really rely on that.”  

Trust in oneself, we agree, is a vital lesson learnt as you enter your late twenties, and definitely something that Remi has worked on in her years in the industry so far. “I think as I get further into my career,” she muses, “I feel a little bit more relaxed than I felt at the beginning. I was 23 when shit started really happening for me, and I had no idea what the hell was going on. There was so much being thrown at me and I couldn’t even digest it: I was really anxious for a lot of years and so I’m happy to be towards the tail end of that period of my life.”  

In general, Remi and I discuss, the industry right now feels like it’s undergoing a tidal wave of positive change. In the aftermath of arguably the queerest and most feminine Coachella ever, and what many Very Online™ people have declared to be the year for WLW (‘women who love women’), I wonder if it feels like a positive time to be a bisexual woman making music? “It’s really cool to see that the girls are resonating around the world, and on top of that queer girls are killing it”, Remi expresses, “There has not been a lot of bisexual representation in the media in our time – at least not in a positive way – and now it’s so much more free.”  

“I think it’s all really amazing and congratulations to all my peers – I love you all!” Remi giggles, “I really do! I love being around artists, it’s really fun to be around people doing the same shit, especially women. It’s so validating and inspiring all the time.” 

Personally, though, Remi Wolf explains, “I’m allowing myself to have more experiences and trust people. I’m leaning into friendships, trusting that they’re real and are not going to go away. That’s been a welcomed recent mindset switch.” But if there’s one thing that all this growth and learning stems from for the artist, it’s that all of it – identity, creativity, spirituality, you name it – comes down to feeling free. “Most of all,” Remi Wolf wisely states “I’m trying to give myself as much freedom as possible because life is just better that way. It’s fun!” 

Remi Wolf’s sophomore album Big Ideas is out 12th July 2024.