Two things are clearly of vital importance to : her family and making the perfect chilli. One’s secret ingredient is a healthy dose of Coca-Cola, the other is composed of blood relations and bonds formed throughout her career. Wolf spent the previous evening in an unusually rainy LA, trick-or-treating with her niece and nephew, dressed, aptly, as a “sexy cat”, despite the glaring disapproval of her dog, Bo.
We’re almost a month on from the release of ‘’ – Wolf’s third full-length – and she’s taking time to recuperate from the process (“I feel good, and excited, and tired”), while finding space to reflect on the resonance with fans. “It exceeded my expectations,” she tells CLASH. “People seem to really love the super devastating songs, which I’m stoked about! I can be my devastating self, and people will still resonate with them. I put so much feeling into all of these songs.”
Writing songs has “always been a kind of therapy” for Wolf, but this time was different; she was able to be honest and forgo emotional barriers which sit at the the heart of ‘Mud’. “I’ve always valued having people around me that are good friends of mine, and that know me really well,” adding that she’s known her main collaborator Jared Solomon since the pair were teenagers. “On this record, I went really hard. I decided I was only gonna have my best friends around me, and that we were going to be the family for the entire year-and-a-half-long process.” This was the longest amount of time Wolf had ever dedicated to writing a record, and despite the darker narratives woven throughout ‘Mud’, she was able to be the most vulnerable version of herself. “I could be my broken little self, and not feel weird or self-conscious about it.”
This ability to be completely vulnerable shaped the narrative arc of the album. Ruminating on how her relationship with music has changed, she says, “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised the gravity of how amazing it is that I get to write songs and make music”. Wolf sees it as a duty both to herself and others to “be as honest as you can in your songwriting,” which has led to her leaning more on songwriting as a kind of therapy. Here, she likens the concept to a physical relationship with another person. “You’re always fighting and figuring it out.”
At the forefront of this are tracks ‘Twiggy’ and ‘I Won’t Cry’. “These songs makes me feel seen, that they make other people feel seen.” They’re just two of eleven tracks that would make the final cut, whittled down from an astonishing 130 fully-formed songs. “Essentially,” she begins with a chuckle, “I just kept writing and writing.” Midway through this process, she penned ‘Covered In Mud’, swiftly followed the next day by ‘Bottle’. As soon as the former was brought to fruition, she knew ‘Mud’ would take the title and become a central theme, but it was the latter that steered the sonic direction. “We came up with this phrase called ‘SpongeBob Ascendance’,” referencing the meme where we see our protagonist levitating through technicolour skies, donning headphones, a moment that became attached to ‘Bottle’. “It had this euphoric, floaty, ascending feel to it.”
Those became the two central pillars. First, every song would need to be “emotionally and sonically muddy”, denoting an unclear, washy, and raw affectation, and the second was the SpongeBob aspect, which made the role of selecting what would appear on the album an easier process. “So many songs didn’t make the album. They just weren’t ‘Mud’ to me. Maybe they’ll see the light of day,” she playfully teases. “There are too many for me to not go back and fuck around with some of them.”
With the concept of revisiting projects at the forefront of her mind, Wolf dives headfirst into nostalgia: her first taste of the limelight came from American Idol, auditioning three times before she made it to . Despite not making it further than the top 55, she has no regrets or apprehensions about the path she would eventually travel down. “I don’t think I’d tell her [my younger self] to change a single thing,” she admits. “Be yourself, keep going, keep following your heart. I’ve had twists and turns in my life, but I’d tell her that everything’s gonna be okay, as long as you keep your heart in it and follow your passions.”
It’s this final, lingering sentiment that led Wolf to pursue a more hands-on, creative role for the visuals of fan-favourite cut, ‘Twiggy’. Though not a direction she always intended to take, Wolf had an intrinsically clear vision of what she wanted ‘Twiggy’ to encompass. “I’m a control freak, and I love to be able to do everything,” she laughs. “I knew what I wanted everything to look like, so I decided very early on in the album process that I was gonna take on the role of creative director.” Wolf confesses that she didn’t quite realise the volume of work involved, but she learned quickly, leaning on her “family band” for support. “I brought on my friend Milo, who I’ve known for a long time,” she says. “He and my friend Liz are dating, so it’s a huge family ordeal happening over here. That made the visuals, as well as the music, feel really personal, handmade and honest.”
Noting that while the videos for ‘Mud’ are some of her favourites, Wolf has conflicting emotions about bringing them to life. “It was really fun but very stressful. I don’t recommend it,” she says with a giggle. “I don’t recommend fully creative directing an entire project yourself, if you’re trying to stay sane, but it’s worth it in the end. The most stressful part was having to think through , because I’m very detail-oriented.” In the past, when Wolf had grand ideas, the task of delegating, synthesizing and figuring out the minutia was in someone else’s remit, but here she had to “make it happen”. This meant that the videos were guided by her sense of creative autonomy. “They’re my little babies,” she confesses affectionately.
Learning curves and on-the-job training are an integral part of being a musician – whether it’s figuring out a new production technique, organising live sets, or pushing the boundaries of what it means to be a rock/pop star – an admirable quality she points out in past collaborator Dominic Fike. “Dom is so awesome. I love what he’s doing right now with [‘How to Quit Smoking’]. He’s just made videos and dropped them the next day. I was like “hell yeah, we can do that?!”. Wolf also takes time to reflect on performing live with Thundercat. “I love Stephen [Bruner], he’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever met. It’s so fun to get to be around other people who are super serious about music but also hilarious. And to be able to just fucking shred!” She admits, though, that it’s not just her close-knit pool of collaborators she learns from: “It can be an artist or just a random ass person on the street.”
There is one artist that fans are imploring Wolf to partner up with, and one that’s perhaps not too far out of reach. In 2023, Paramore released the remix album ‘Re: This Is Why’, featuring an incredible consortium of creatives: Foals, Wet Leg, Julien Baker, and most notably, Remi Wolf. Wolf contributed to shaking up ‘You First’, and fast-forwarding three years to Newport Folk Festival, Hayley Williams brought her out as a surprise guest, dueting the live debut of ‘Twiggy’, prompting fans to request an official version. “Oh, I’m not even tapped in enough to know that,” Wolf humbly admits with a chuckle, “ but that’d be sick!”
“I fucking love Haley, talk about an inspiring person!” Wolf beams. “She’s a fucking powerhouse of a human being; she’s so talented, nice, kind, and down to earth. I love hanging out with her because she’s the sweetest person ever. I’m so happy we’re in each other’s worlds.” Perhaps the most interesting collaboration origin story started with an Instagram message to John Mayer (‘Moon So High’), but her “dream” would be Paul McCartney. “I’m definitely too scared to DM him,” she admits, before being reminded of Dominic Fike’s connection to the Beatle (‘The Kiss of Venus’). “I’ll ask Dom,” she jokes before clarifying that she’s “not that scared of DMing people; it just has to be the right time (but maybe I am a little scared of DMing Paul)”.
After a half-hour of diving in deep and dredging through the transcendent moments of her latest character-building release, Wolf offers a final piece of self-probing introspection. “Serious, silly, and… tired” is how she would characterise herself right now. The latter is to be expected, but at least there are ~120 songs in her back pocket for album four.
‘Mud’ is out now.