Mercury Prize winners Wolf Alice believe social media is having a negative impact on stars of the future.
The rock group – comprised of Ellie Roswell, Joel Amey, Joff Oddie and Theo Ellis – picked up the coveted honour for their second album ‘Visions of a Life’ at the prestigious ceremony at London Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo on Thursday night (20.09.18), and singer Ellie was keen to point out how damaging apps can be for budding musicians with "ever-lurking trolls" watching their every move and quick to pick up on mistakes.
The 26-year-old singer/songwriter told the Daily Star newspaper: "I do feel a sense of vulnerability. People who have any celebrity status are scrutinised infinitely more so than the normal person, which is quite scary.
"The intimidation comes because of the online tendency to make mountains out of molehills, but also ever-lurking trolls and the social media currency of abuse.
"Everyone grows up making mistakes, and if everyone’s watching you all the time, then your mistakes are going to be there for people to scrutinise."
The ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ hitmakers were previously nominated for the album of the year award for their debut LP ‘My Love Is Cool’ in 2015, but on their Mercury Prize-winning record Ellie says she felt confident enough to tell her bandmates if she didn’t like something.
She said: "If I had an idea but was too embarrassed to suggest it, on the first album, I would just sit there and would keep my mouth shut.
"But then on the second album, I was more like, ‘What have I got to lose? I might as well try.
"What I’ve learnt most is not letting go of those things that you felt at the start, to not try and normalise your work too much."
During their acceptance speech, band member Theo revealed how overwhelming it felt to win the prize as they had been told by record label executives that they had no future in music when they first started out
He said: "Listen. So basically, when we first started as a band. I remember the first label meeting we ever had, we walked into the room, and the geezer said ‘The f**k? You lot don’t look like a band at all. What are you? What are you supposed to be? All your songs sound different, you don’t look like each other.’ And we never really figured it out. But here we are – so f**k you!
"He also said he didn’t wanna work with women who wore make-up because it was a bunch of fuss, but here we are. And you know what? This is … I actually can’t believe it. Noel Gallagher’s f***ing sat there looking at me, what are you supposed to say? Big up everyone who was nominated, thank you so much to everyone who’s ever supported us. This means the world. Thank you so much!"
Wolf Alice: Rising stars susceptible to social media scrutiny
