Wolf Alice's Ellie Rowsell Is the Coolest in Indie Rock. Even Harry Styles Agrees
The frontwoman talks new music, working with the 'Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally' singer, and what's on her playlist.
If you ever wanted to know who is on your favorite singer's playlist, or what albums inspired the latest “it girl” the most, tune in for Marie Claire’s resident music franchise Listen Up. In this interview series, we ask musicians about their listening habits and the specific records that informed their taste—and inherently their journey as an artist.
It’s hard not to see Ellie Rowsell, the lead singer of Wolf Alice, as a forerunner of the female-led indie rock takeover of the past decade. You would’ve been hard-pressed to hear many guitar bands with a female vocalist on alt-rock radio in the mid-2010s—but the British group emerged as iconoclasts of the Tumblr generation with their instantly iconic 2015 debut, My Love Is Cool.
Eleven years later, and they’re indie rock mainstays, with their 2025 record The Clearing earning them Best British Group at this year’s BRIT Awards—and Rowsell is still cool as ever.
Speaking with Marie Claire, the musician reflects upon what she wished she knew when Wolf Alice was still playing small gigs in Shoreditch: “I always thought my best work or even the best version of myself was something that would happen in the future, but actually you should treat your present days as paramount or at least as equally precious as the future.”
Rowsell explores just that sentiment on The Clearing, a coming-of-age album about entering your 30s and disavowing expectations placed upon you, especially as a young woman. “Once I realized that I wasn't going to figure myself out and be able to present myself in an easily consumable way, I was liberated,” Rowsell says.
Wolf Alice released The Clearing to acclaim in August 2025.
Most recently, Rowsell lent backing vocals to Harry Styles’s Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. After Wolf Alice joined him on tour, Styles tapped her to contribute to his new dance-pop-leaning “Aperture,” “Taste Back,” and “Season 2 Weight Loss.”
“I love singing harmonies, and I love Harry, so I was excited to sing on those tracks...Harry has a huge range vocally. I was really impressed by his placement of harmonies and stuff, I just copied what he’d already done!” Rowsell says.
She adds, “It’s nice to go into the studio with other artists and see how they work and what vibe they create when working. I’m not sure it's as common in indie/rock as it is in other genres because, I guess the nature of being in a band is that you are always collaborating, so maybe you don't feel as much of a need, but it's really fun.”
With Wolf Alice already gearing up to get back in the studio—Roswell teases they’re itching to write more danceable music—she tells Marie Claire about her musical tastes, from the pop star she wants to work with to the recent movie music moment that made her cry.
Kings of Leon got me into indie music… Those first three albums are great songwriting—a mix of emotions from a singer who can do sensitive as well as abrasive.
I was also very inspired by Patrick Wolf, who produced all his own stuff. He can’t really be pigeon-holed; I hear musical theatre and folk, but I also hear something quite industrial and futuristic. I found a lot of music through my friend's older sister, and MySpace introduced me to a lot of stuff outside of my parents' influence.
I remember receiving P!nk’s M!ssundaztood early on and really being obsessed with it as an album rather than just one song.
When I was younger, it was Grace by Jeff Buckley. I often bring up Lemonade by Beyoncé as a no-skipper (although, secretly, I have one song I skip). Then yesterday I re-listened to Chris by Christine and the Queens and was like, Oh, yeah, this is 10/10.
Wolf Alice previously joined Harry Styles on the European leg of his Love On Tour in 2022.
I loved the Yeah Yeah Yeahs growing up, and I think Karen O is one of our best rock stars.
It would have been fun to have been around for the post-hardcore scene ‘80s D.C. I like Fugazi, but I imagine it would have been a whole other experience to see [them] live back then.
Recently, it was "On the Nature of Daylight" by Max Richter in Hamnet. I know a lot of people were annoyed by that moment because that song is used in a lot of movies—and I guess it did take me out of the moment a tiny bit. But it also just complemented it so perfectly, and maybe we should try to experience things without context. It also reminded me how powerful music can be; I literally involuntarily started weeping when I heard it again a few days later on TikTok.
I watched my friend play a show at the Green Note in Camden fairly recently with his group called A Curious Dance, which is two pipe players, a double bass, and a guitar. There is no singing, no performing, really—just four talented musicians playing beautiful music in a tiny room.t I think I'd been thinking a lot about the other stuff that comes with putting on a show, and it was a nice reminder not to get too bogged down in that stuff and forget why you're there in the first place.
"I was inspired a lot by watching 'grey' characters in film and TV, especially female ones," Rowsell says of writing lyrics for The Clearing.
We start at about 3 pm, when the sun is high. We are out in the field to watch Stevie Wonder deliver his greatest hits, then we all go and mosh amongst the trees to Pond. As we need a bit of a break after, we sit down on the grass to watch Big Thief and gather our breath as the sun goes down. Then we move into this disused barn where FKA twigs is performing, followed by Rosalía and a full orchestra. We go outside where something akin to The Globe has been built, and we watch Christine and the Queens when they were touring with that amazing dance troupe. And then we go behind the stage where there's a little bar, and we watch Lankum, who then opens the floor to anyone who wants to sing a tune, and Elton John delivers an acapella of “Tiny Dancer,” which everyone joins in, before we go outside to rave the rest of the night away to Underworld.
Rosalía. You can't second-guess what a Rosalía song will sound like anymore, so I'd be fascinated to see what it turned out to be.
I listen to music without words, so I can indulge in my own feelings, so a lot of contemporary classical or film scores. If I'm really feeling masochistic, I might listen to The Hours soundtrack.
On the other hand, I might listen to something fun and empowering to remind me of joy, like Chappell Roan or something I liked in my childhood, like All Saints.
“One Strike” by All Saints.
Wolf Alice will play several festivals across the globe this summer, including Lollapalooza, Mad Cool, and Osheaga.
"Midnight Song" because I think I kept it outwardly vague and poetic so people can take from it what they want, but everything makes perfect sense.
It's about my grandparents. They were both Irish, and they were also very fun and loved to party. When they both died, my cousins and I were worried about who would carry on the party and whether that part of our family identity would still be present, along with feeling Irish at all without them.
My favourite song at the moment is "be the girl!" by Hemlocke Springs. I'm thinking a lot about my past and about girlhood, and there is an extremely youthful and feminine energy to that song.
