WOLFIE: THE LONE WOLF
From writing songs for superstars to being championed by Pharrell Williams, Wolfie has already had a musical career of some repute. But now in a new phase she is looking to stand out from the pack. We talk about tea, Rescue Mediums and sweet’n’sour chicken with one of the county’s most exciting musicians
Wolfie
“How’s the tea?” she asks.
“I’d give it a solid seven out of 10,” I reply. It’s an over-generous rating, but then Wolfie has invited us into her home and it was only polite.
In the very unassuming village of Kemsing, the less salubrious neighbour of leafy Sevenoaks, Laura Wolfe is in the attic bedroom of her parents’ house working on a new track. Surrounded by keyboards, guitars, mics and vinyl, discussing the merits of PG Tips is a less obvious way to start an interview, but then Wolfie – a nickname held by all in her family – has already had more apexes in her career than most musicians do in a lifetime. There is no obvious first question – except for maybe the Pharell question.
Back in 2016, fresh from signing a music publishing deal where Wolfie would go on to work with the likes of Tinie Tempah, Nana Rogues and Jesse Ware, Wolfie had released her album 8 Ball.
“Tinie Tempah hits me up and says there’s a producer that wants to work with you. Nana Rogues, Skepta and Tinie were in a session with Broke Mogul and Pharrell Williams, who do this show OTHERtone on Apple Music/Beats 1 Radio.”
After hearing an unreleased version of Wolfie’s track Faces, Pharrell wanted to play the demo on his radio show.
“I mean, you don’t say no to Pharrell, do you,” she says.
Amazingly, Faces isn’t the track that blew up the most from 8 Ball.
“Yeah, it was Obi Wan,” says Wolfie. And she’s not wrong. The Star Wars-inspired love song has R&B roots, soulful suggestions and even trance elements. Its multi-genre appeal led to its use in the hit Netflix show Dear White People, a poster of which still hangs on the wall of Wolfie’s attic studio, while it has also garnered some 2.8 million Spotify plays.
“It is mental. I love Star Wars. It was actually inspired by the PlayStation game Attack of the Clones on PS1 – I was obsessed with that game. I was smoking at the time and I really wanted to turn it into a song with a really trippy video featuring Obi Wan Kenobi, and it all just came to me.”
Wolfie, or Laura when at home, is coy on her early success, despite the obvious interest and fan base that came with the release of 8 Ball, putting a chunk of it down to her management by a former member of So Solid Crew.
“There was lots of hype around him at the time because of who he was. That got people interested and then they heard the music and thought I was all right.”
But this is really a disservice to Wolfie’s obvious talents. Having studied at the prestigious ICMP (Institute of Contemporary Music Performance) in London, her skills on multiple instruments have seen her meld genres to generate her own bespoke sound. It has seen her collaborate with the likes of UK Hip Hop star Nadia Rose (Better than Me) and world-renowned DJ Charlie Sloth (Think about Me). But things are changing.
DO OR DIE
Her successful songwriting career has allowed Wolfie to buy her own property (a cool houseboat in London), a fact that is not lost on her.
“I was very lucky to have my publishing deal when I had it because it was probably the most amount of money my family has ever seen when I signed that deal. It was very humbling and has allowed me to keep doing what I’m doing.”
“If you don’t have that early on in your career, I think you can f**k yourself up. You have those high highs and low lows. So I’m glad I had that dip early on in my career, too”
The artist has since left the publisher and moved away from her previous management to go ‘lone wolf’.
“I just wanted to have a bit of a breather... it wasn’t the right set-up for me any more,” she explains.
“When you’re self-employed, there are ups and downs, so when I come back to my mum and dad’s gaff and reassess things it is also very humbling. If you don’t have that early on in your career, I think you can f**k yourself up. You have those high highs and low lows. So I’m glad I had that dip early on in my career, too.
A self-imposed three-year studio lock-in is now bearing fruit, with new tracks Do Or Die, On Site and Vulnerable released in early summer.
“I’m producing my own stuff, which I wasn’t before, so I’m excited about that. It’s exciting and scary, but I’m in full control now.”
That level of control has seen further exploration into a world of new music.
“Maybe in my early career I wanted to do R&B, but now I don’t really have a certain sound. It’s not genre-specific any more.
“I’m listening to a lot of gypsy music. My mum is Romany gypsy, so a lot of that inspires me at the moment. Recently my grandad passed and before he died he was talking more about his Romany roots. I didn’t really talk about it when I was growing up because I don’t think you get a lot of love for it. It’s definitely something that inspires me now.”
But inspiration has come in many forms for Wolfie, and 8 Ball is testament to that with its ever-switching styles.
“It’s different every time,” she says. “Recently, I’ve been watching Rescue Mediums on YouTube. It’s incredible. It’s basically these two old girls who head over to America to get bad spirits out of people’s houses – so I wrote a song recently called Supernatural, just really based on that, because I’m addicted to it.
“When I get these stupid ideas, I tend to write the tunes really quickly because I get lost with it. I wrote a song about sweet’n’sour chicken before, and that turned into Sweet & Sour on 8 Ball. Just random sh*t.”
Her body of work and associations to this point don’t tally with the real-life Wolfie. She is chilled, down to earth and indifferent. None more so than when we managed to weedle out the name of a monstrous international artist who has asked to use one of her new tracks. We were more fazed by it than she was.
“I really just want to get more tunes out there,” she says. “I feel like my sound is shaping into something else – not completely different but changing. So I want to start drip-feeding that out.”
A live tour will be next on the agenda once her new music has “created a buzz worthy of a live show”. For now, she is studying, writing and recording.
“Do you want another cup of tea?” she says, ready to improve on her previous attempt.