LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Remi Wolf is not entirely new to NPR audiences. Last year, she showed up in a Tiny Desk concert by hip-hop producer Kenny Beats.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR VIDEO)
REMI WOLF: (Singing) You stole my heart. Itchy-gitchy airplane. I say goodbye just to miss you.
FADEL: Some might also remember Remi Wolf from her run on "American Idol" in 2014 - and she's come a long way since then. She's now an established solo artist who describes her sound as funky soul pop with a streak of magical realism. And today, her second album is out. It's called "Big Ideas."
WOLF: I kind of call this my variety show album.
FADEL: I spoke to Remi Wolf about her new album and started with the song "Cinderella."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CINDERELLA")
WOLF: (Singing) I can be yellow. I can rearrange by the afternoon and I'm purple, so quick when I switch it up - hurtful to mellow. I can be anything I want to do, any color of the rainbow. Yeah.
FADEL: There's something really relatable about the words here. And maybe I'm injecting my own fatigue about having to be all the colors of the rainbow. Is that something you find yourself having to do, morph into different people?
WOLF: Definitely. I mean, more so than even that, I think I'm kind of flip-flopping between all these emotions and all these...
FADEL: Yeah.
WOLF: ...Versions of myself kind of constantly, especially when I'm on tour.
FADEL: So is this song "Cinderella" kind of you working that out for yourself a little bit?
WOLF: Yeah. I think while I was writing this song, where I was at in my life, I was in the throes of tour. And it was getting to this point where I really felt like I needed someone to tell me I was doing a great job and to, like, keep going. And I didn't really have anybody pulling me up in that way. And this song kind of was an exploration in me figuring out if that was something that I could do for myself.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CINDERELLA")
WOLF: (Singing) Baby girl, won't you dry your eyes? Dont stress because you're doing it right
I was imagining the voice that came down in the second part of the bridge as kind of my fairy godmother, who was telling me, like, you don't need to cry. It's OK. You're doing everything good, and you can keep going, and you're supposed to be doing this.
FADEL: In that same vein, I do want to talk about "Motorcycle."
WOLF: Yeah.
FADEL: Because it gets at a little bit of that on-the-road roller coaster, but then this desire to kind of sit home with the people or person you love. Let's play a bit of that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MOTORCYCLE")
WOLF: (Singing) When we're waking up in the early morning, I could kiss your forehead, send you down the doorstep. Say goodbye and get right on my motorcycle.
FADEL: This one is so soulful. But it's, like, two versions of you again. Are you craving domesticity here? And then at the end, you're like, and then I'll get on my motorcycle.
WOLF: Yeah. I think when I wrote this song, I was really exploring these two sides of myself, one side being the part of me that wants to be at home and, like, have a dog, clean the garage, just do normal domestic stuff. And then the other part of me kind of wants to experience the world by myself, and just, like, be free and do reckless stuff, or do not reckless stuff, but just kind of do it on my own. And when I was writing this song, I was entering into a new relationship. So I think I kind of put all those feelings into the song.
FADEL: This is your second album. Your first album was called "Juno," and that came out in 2021. How has your music changed since then?
WOLF: I feel like I've been pulling back, like, a lot of emotional screens and kind of letting myself be seen a little bit more in my music. Like, I'm trying to be more vulnerable and direct within my lyrics and with my audience.
FADEL: I mean, I think there was something that drew me to a lot of the songs 'cause it was almost like I was listening to the thoughts in my head that I don't say out loud about myself, like some of the negative talk that I think all of us have in our heads. And then you're writing them down to these really fun beats. And I think of "Pitiful" here.
WOLF: Yeah.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PITIFUL")
WOLF: (Singing) Why do I feel so yuck? Yuck.. And I'm so pi-pi-pi-pi-pitiful. Yuck.
FADEL: What were you thinking when you wrote this song down?
WOLF: Oh, man. Well, this song was really inspired by this one experience I had in college, actually, and seeing this person that I liked or was kind of maybe seeing at the time and seeing them making out with this other girl. And I felt embarrassment, and I felt like I just had to document it and being like, OK, I am being pitiful right now. Like, get a grip, kind of, I think, really helped.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PITIFUL")
WOLF: (Singing) I'll go home. I'm pi-pi-pi-pi-pitiful.
Also, I think the track is just so fun.
FADEL: Yeah.
WOLF: I love juxtaposing kind of dark lyrics with really funsounding music.
FADEL: Which is really this album. It's so fun. And then you listen, and you're like, oh. But this is also quite intense.
WOLF: I think it's one of my favorite tools to explore in writing and production.
FADEL: There was a song, "Just The Start."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUST THE START")
WOLF: (Singing) Yeah, I call myself an artist and sometimes I think it's true, but I walk heavy across the water. I debunk myself to blue.
FADEL: Where it's like, I thought I was on the top, but now there's more things I have to do, and there's even more things I have to do.
WOLF: Yeah (laughter).
FADEL: Tell me about writing that song. I mean, 'cause I was listening to it, and I've had that feeling where I'm like, oh, I thought this was the top. Oh, I have to do more things. No, I have to try this.
WOLF: I think I was just kind of trying to process what my life was. And then just, like, observing my behavior and all of my insecurities kind of from this bird's-eye view and the end being, like, the thing about the chase is...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JUST THE START")
WOLF: (Singing) Is it plagues the human race. And the thing about a net is it only works when it's wet with the fishes or with the worth of a check. And the thing about getting caught is you think it's the end, but you know that it's not. It's just the start.
We're all out here chasing something that we think we want. And as soon as we get it, there's more.
FADEL: There's more.
WOLF: Like you said.
FADEL: Remi, thank you so much. And congratulations on your album.
WOLF: Thank you so much.
FADEL: Remi Wolf's album, "Big Ideas," is out now.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "KANGAROO")
WOLF: (Singing) I'm talkin' my big ideas. Oh, please, stay, call me honey. We could go upstate and make some money. I will run away... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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