Artist Interview: Remi Wolf

By Resonate | November 13, 2020

Words by Hannah White

Photos by Sophie Hur and Agusta Yr

In a saturated pop universe, Remi Wolf’s eccentricity is a breath of fresh air, with the essence of a character straight out of a Dr Suess film. However, she is in fact, very real. Beneath her hyper-reality aesthetic is a 24 year-old Californian girl with a budding musical talent enriched with a vibrant imagination. 

Escape is a word that frequently comes up as Wolf tells me over a Zoom call where her visionary style originated. “I wanted it to feel like an escape back to childhood, but with this evil adult irony to it,” she explains. Growing up in Palo Alto south of San Francisco, music was deliberated throughout Wolf’s childhood, running alongside her 10 year competitive downhill skiing career. With her decision made at 18 years old to pursue music, Wolf packed up and moved to LA to begin a degree in Contemporary Popular Music at USC’s Thornton School of Music.

“We studied ear training, music theory, performance, vocal training, music history and music industry. It was a bit of everything, and then general education classes to which I didn’t show up much.” 

Yet like many creatives in a more authoritarian environment, the inevitable pressures of music education played out its effects. “To be honest, I hated it,” she confesses. “I grew a lot but it felt too academic and it just didn’t lend the right mindset for the music I wanted to be making. It was all too structured, which is like literally the opposite of what I think the music creation process should be!”

In spite of the tedious ebb and flow of higher education, Wolf graduated, eager to take the suppression off her incipient and experimental individualism. Her new found freedom took her to the other end of the spectrum, inspiring colourful, perplexing aesthetics to accompany a lively, funk-infused take on pop music. Instead of letting the conventional studies numb her mind, Wolf metamorphosed like a butterfly, her reformed creative vision painting a big middle-finger to the restraints she once felt. 

I’m Allergic to Dogs! is the name of Wolf’s second EP and first release on a major label. It follows up 2019’s You’re a Dog! depicting her infatuation with man’s best friend, particularly her French Bulldog, Juno Jameson. Believe it or not, she really is allergic to dogs. “I just love them so much that I’m willing to pay,” she exclaims, “I’m actually thinking about getting allergy shots, where they put dog dander into your skin, and then you get more immune to it.” Wolf’s commitment is undeniable, and it doesn’t end with her dog. 

With the future of live music in blind eyed jeopardy, Wolf had an EP to release and was not letting any uncertainty stall her. Pioneering LA’s first ‘drive-in’ concert, Wolf expressed her excitement to me the week before the event took place. “I’m just going to perform like I normally do with my band. It’s going to be super cool because there’s not gonna be any speakers or anything. They’re broadcasting the set into the radios of the cars.” Summer 2020 would’ve seen the performer at a number of international festivals, now instead of a crowded field of people, there was a sea of engines, greeted with nothing less than her usual abundance of energy.

The EP is filled with wit, grooves and vivacity from start to finish and seems almost antonymic with the current social state of the world. From the playful and punchy Hello Hello Hello, to the soul-enriched Disco Man, every mood is delivered with a splash of positivity so desperately needed right now. Not one to shy away from talking about mental health, Wolf tells me how her educational experience also taught her about handling depression and managing stress in an industry where your emotions are your work. She reminisces on the writing process of the chaotically emotion-fuelled second track Woo. “The day that I wrote that song, it was such a release for me,” she says. ”There’s just something about it – it was so cathartic!” The song embodies the intensity of youth and self identity. “I just remember that feeling of being on top of the world. I was so depressed before writing it and like 20 minutes later, I was like, ‘Oh, this feels great”’.

The majority of I’m Allergic to Dogs was written in collaboration with Wolf’s right-hand man, Solomonophonic AKA Jared. The LA based composer/ producer/ pianist is behind all of your favourite Solange, Frank Ocean, Harry Styles and Blood Orange tracks, and so his collaboration with Wolf only further proves that she is headed in a star-studded direction. 

Another one of Wolf’s infamous partnerships is with director, editor and all-round artist Agusta Yr. If you’re unfamiliar with her work, you’re simply missing out. With imagery resembling a millennial acid trip, take any of Wolf’s signature music videos and you’ll see Yr’s ability to chew up reality and spit it back out with an unearthly twist. Combined with Wolf’s passion for early 2000 cartoons and Dr Suess’ cinematography, the pair have created a universe that accentuates the musician’s songs as much as it showcases her effervescent and bewilding personality.

Their introduction to each other seemed to be at fate’s hands. “I found her on Instagram. My friend sent me one of her posts, and I thought it was like the sickest thing ever. I’d been looking for a creative partner for my visuals for months, so I immediately hit her up on Instagram and said I loved her stuff.” The Icelandic artist is based in London and miraculously Wolf was performing in London at the time. She explains, “It was all very surreal and happened so fast. Literally the next day, we met up and got coffee and just talked through creating this visual world and if she was interested in working with me on it. We instantly had very similar references and inspirations and just really connected!” 

Any artist with releases over the absurd summer of 2020 would certainly never have imagined dropping music during a pandemic, however the cancelled shows and festivals have allowed a good amount of time for her, and many others, to look into their identity and experiment.

“I’ve been doing a lot of exploring with my sound, songwriting, structures and lyrics. So many interesting new avenues have come along. It’s just been me and a guitar which I haven’t done in a while. It’s been very freeing for me.” Of course, this still leaves room for a dose of less productive forms of entertainment. She explains, “I’m also obsessed with Tik Tok, I love it. People are so fucking funny and smart – I’m blown away by it!” 

As things slowly edge back to some semblance of normality, Wolf offers a undeniably funky soundtrack, whether you’re back in the pub gardens or still riding it out in your humble abode. Colourful in every sense of the word, the EP provides an energetic listen, wrapped in honeyed vocals and zany expressionism.

“I would love for people to be able to listen to it in their car while driving around, if you want to take a 25 minute little drive whilst you’re in quarantine, that’s the best way to enjoy it. Or maybe if you’re two glasses of wine in for the night. Start listening to it two glasses in and get loose!”

Since speaking to the endearing pop star in-the-making, she has offered up another gem of a track titled Monte Carlo. Plus the opening track of the EP became the sound behind the launch of Snapchat’s new music feature. Even a Tik Tok sound of Wolf’s tune Photo ID is beginning to go viral, much to her delight! Wherever you look, it’s difficult not to find Wolf and her kookiness settling comfortably into the music world. She stepped onto the scene and rather than becoming  ‘one to watch’, she simply said: ‘watch and learn’. And that is exactly what we will be doing!

‘I’m Allergic to Dogs!’  is out now on EMI/ Island Records.

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