Rock band Wolf Alice leave Dirty Hit and sign with major label Sony Music

Mercury Prize-winning band Wolf Alice have quietly left their former label, Dirty Hit, and signed a new deal with Columbia Records, an imprint of major label Sony Music.

The London-formed rock band comprises singer Ellie Rowsell, guitarist Joff Oddie, bassist Theo Ellis and drummer Joel Amey.

The Independent understands that Wolf Alice signed a three-album deal with Dirty Hit, which they fulfilled upon the release of their critically acclaimed 2021 record, Blue Weekend.

Wolf Alice are now listed on the Sony Music/Columbia roster. A representative at Columbia confirmed the signing to The Independent.

Plans for the move were originally mentioned by the band’s manager, Stephen Taverner, in a 2022 interview with Music Business Worldwide.

In the first-person piece, Taverner claimed that label boss Jamie Oborne, who also manages The 1975, was “pissed off” by the band’s decision to leave Dirty Hit but understood it was “nothing personal”.

“They were signed to him since their early twenties and they want to see what it’s like elsewhere,” he said.

“The band wanted to experience something different and Rob Stringer [CEO of Sony Music Group] is a huge fan.”

The Independent has contacted a Dirty Hit representative for comment.

Wolf Alice’s jump from Dirty Hit comes after Pitchfork reported that Healy had stepped down as a director of Dirty Hit Limited, the limited company behind the British record label, following a string of controversies including a podcast in which he made a number of derogatory comments about women and Asian people.

He was called out by his Dirty Hit labelmate, Rina Sawayama, during her performance at Glastonbury Festival, while the pop artist was introducing her song “STFU!” on the festival’s Woodsies stage.

The 33-year-old Japanese-British artist told her audience: “Tonight, this goes out to a white man [that] mocks Asian people on a podcast... he also owns my masters... I’ve had enough.”

Healy apologised for his recent behaviour during The 1975’s show at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, pledging to “do better”.

“Because some of my actions have hurt some people, I apologise to those people, and I pledge to do better moving forward,” he said in footage shared on X/Twitter.

“I think it’s also important that I express my intentions, so everybody knows that there is no ill will coming from me. You see, as an artist, I want to create an environment for myself to perform where not everything that I do is taken literally,” he continued.

“I’ve kind of performed exaggerated versions of myself on other stages, be it [in] print or on podcasts and in an often misguided attempt at fulfilling the kind of character role of the 21st-century rock star. So, it’s complicated.”

He concluded: “Sometimes playing pretend is the only way you can truly find out who you are, and you could probably also say that men would rather do offensive impressions for attention than go to therapy.”

Wolf Alice released their debut album, My Love is Cool, in 2015, receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance with the single “Moaning Lisa Smile”.

This was followed by 2017’s Visions of a Life, which won the 2018 Mercury Prize over artists including Arctic Monkeys, Lily Allen, and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. Wolf Alice were the first female-fronted act to win the prestigious award since 2011, when PJ Harvey won for her album, Let England Shake.

The four-piece, who also won a Brit Award for Best Group in 2022, are one of just a handful of bands to have been shortlisted for the Mercury Prize for each of their consecutive albums.

In the MBW article, Taverner also spoke about how he came to manage Wolf Alice after they signed a deal with Oborne at Dirty Hit.

“Ellie [Rowsell] sent me all of their demos and I was blown away so I thought, ‘Why not?’” he said. “Not thinking for one minute that now they had to go and fire Jamie [as manager] and I’d be working with him as the label!”

“[For that reason] the first album was tough,” he continued. “We were at loggerheads, but we managed to get through it over the course of three albums.”

He added: “I’ve got a lot of respect for Jamie – he stepped up and saw their potential. Same with The 1975; he’s stuck with them through thick and thin and you’ve got to admire someone like that.”

In a five-star review for Blue Weekend, The Independent praised the “more assured – but still intensely emotional” song structures: “If you imagine their old songs as rally cars, the new ones are still driven as wildly, but with steelier focus and in-built roll cages.”

Critic Helen Brown added: “As with Visions, this third album sees the band hopping between styles – folk, garage rock and shoegaze – only now they’re steering deeper into the corners and controlling the skids.”

The Independent understands that Wolf Alice are currently working on new music.

A representative for Wolf Alice declined to comment on the label move.