Remi Wolf on “Big Ideas” and how she makes her face shake

Remi Wolf may have started her career on American Idolbut their music was never aimed at collecting votes on the radio. At the 2021 Juno — a stylish debut full of raunchy metaphors, unusual production choices and singing vocal layering — Wolf sang about orgies in Five Guys with five guys, a grumpy old man and “two fish kissing my clitoris.” As funny as it was, it was also, as Wolf admitted, difficult to analyze for people who not them. “There was an element that hid the real story in these little hidden metaphors,” Wolf says now. But everyone will be able to understand her rocking new album Big ideas. While it’s still recognizably Wolf-esque (there are frog noises in one song and group chants throughout), it’s much more lyrically direct than her debut, with the 28-year-old artist singing about touring life and the relationship problems it can cause without much coding..

Despite Great ideaDespite her increasingly accessible narrative style, Wolf maintains her relaxed demeanor. She’s less concerned with becoming more popular than with showing where she is at the moment. “In the studio, I feel like I can do anything, and I like to surround myself with people who have that freedom in their hearts,” she says. “I’m not actively trying to pretend. I’m trying to be myself out here.”

What goals did you have for this album when you started writing it?
At the beginning, I had no idea. I started touring at the end of 2021 and went until the end of 2023. I was on the road for almost two and a half years. I was barely home and when I was, it was in the studio. The magic and the story of this album is that I didn’t have enough time to think about anything. I went on tour, came back and documented these experiences – my emotions, the complexes and the changes I went through as a person. Looking back, the record is this coming-of-age drama about starting a career and experiencing all the ups and downs of that lifestyle.

Big ideas feels like another side of you vocally – it sounds bigger than Juno. How did you approach the recording?
I always see my voice as just another instrument that I can play with and layer. In every song I’ve ever done, I try to sonically embody a different personality. I’m not afraid to go completely crazy and sound like a crazy person. There are certain songs where I sing with a British accent.

I’m thinking of “Alone in Miami,” where you sing your heart out. What is Remi Wolf’s singing personality?
It’s me, but it doesn’t come out that often. At my live shows, I scream like crazy. I love to scream. It’s part of my DNA. Sometimes I just go too far and, to be honest, it’s hard on the vocal cords. You get really tired.

Will you be able to sing Big ideas live the whole way through?
I mean, we’re going to get through it one way or another. I always get mad at myself because every time I write a song and then bring it to rehearsal, I’m like, “Jesus, girl, these songs are so hard to sing.” I’m setting myself up for failure a little bit. It’s an uphill battle. But most of the time I’m able to rise to the occasion. One day I’ll write a song that’s easy and laid back.

You say you sing more live, and then on Big ideasYou sing louder than ever before while on tour. Do you think this had an impact on your singing on the album?
It’s not something I actively thought about, but you’re probably right. I sang loudly all the time when I performed live, and it makes sense that I took that into the studio. When I think about my back catalogue now, singing is much more common in live performances than in recordings. This is honestly partly to do with the fact that a lot of my earlier stuff was recorded in bedrooms of apartment buildings where we had to be quiet. For this album, I was able to work in larger studios where the sole purpose of those buildings is to make noise. It was liberating.

A word that is often applied to you is quirky. How do you take this?
When I think of quirky, I think of the twee era New Girl and the hipster movement or something. I’m confused by the idea that people perceive me in any way at all. I try not to think about it, and if they think I’m quirky, that’s cool. I think I’m free. It’s so interesting because it’s the job of journalists to actively describe me, and maybe the best word to convey that is quirky. I don’t know if I would use it. I mean, what do you think?

I think the word may be accurate, but there are also connotations that give it a somewhat derogatory character.
I can say that. But to be honest, I just don’t give a shit and if people want to say that about me, then let them.

I ask partly because Big ideas feels less ‘quirky’ – you don’t have ridiculous songs like ‘Grumpy Old Man’ and the lyrics are easier to understand. Why do you think that is?
It is definitely more grown-up. Within JunoI wrote about things that were very personal to me, but I also wanted to hide the true story. Through the songwriting on this album, I became more direct in my language. That was a conscious step on my part. I wanted to open up.

While listening to the album, I noticed a song that I wanted to leave out: “Cherries and Cream.” There is a poignant self-loathing in this song. Can you tell me the story behind it?
We’ve been working on it for so long and I feel like it takes you to a whole other dimension. It’s its own universe. This song is about being in a relationship with someone who is in another relationship. It’s about being a lover, which unfortunately I’ve been in my life.

It was an unconventional writing process because normally I have 80 to 90 percent of the song done on the first day when I go into the studio. With this song, we spent so long refining all the little details. I wrote the lyrics over a period of months, which is also unconventional for me, and it kind of gave me time and space to figure out what I wanted to say.

What influence did the lengthy writing process have on the song?
I wanted it to have a psychedelic vibe in the style of Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the 70s, which is difficult to be authentic. We had to get the right equipment. I also wanted to use that lyrically. Led Zeppelin wrote a lot about Lord of the rings and these wide open places: grass and fields and hobbits and stuff. I was inspired by them and approached the telling of this lovers’ love affair through that lens. “You fly, morning dove, far above my terrain.” I used nature and mystical metaphors to tell this story. In the pre-chorus I sing “Is it wrong? Are you afraid?” To me that was a magic god coming down and shining his light on this messed up couple doing morally reprehensible things.

How has this newfound directness and maturity influenced the visual style of Big ideas?
I think the music videos are just as silly and funny, but I think it’s obvious that we relied less on the VHS processing and it’s a bit more clean and direct. The “Cinderella” video is hi-fi and looks good, but it still has the super-fun editing and I was able to go out there and be myself, on the grassy knoll and rolling around and stuff. But as far as the cameras go, we used a lot of film or film-emulating techniques. There aren’t many occasions where I’ve gone into narrative music videos or storytelling and with “Motorcycle” I wanted to go there because that song went deeper into the imagery of what I was saying. It still has the surrealist vibe, but the visuals have become a bit more direct.

Where did the need to be more direct come from?
I’ve been through a lot in my life. I’ve had all these crazy experiences. I’ve been in and out of relationships, shit’s been hitting the fan. I was 24 when I wrote Juno. I released it when I was 25. Now I’m 28. A lot of time has passed. I think I just grew up while writing this album. I started thinking about the bigger picture and these big ideas about my life: how I wanted to interact with the world, how I wanted to behave.

Does the immediacy make releasing music scarier?
There’s a little bit going on. I think the main thing I’m feeling right now is excitement. I’ve had these songs inside me for two and a half years. They were ready to be born, otherwise I would have gone mad. So I’m excited. It’s going to feel like a cleansing or purging of sorts. I’m really excited to get stuck in and make the show great, to be honest. And then write a new album as well – I’m ready to get back in the studio as soon as possible.