Remi Wolf Says Touring the World and Navigating Sobriety Led to Her 'Coming-of-Age' Album Big Ideas (Exclusive)

• Remi Wolf's new album, Big Ideas, is out now
• Since debuting in 2019, she's toured the world with Lorde, Gorillaz, Paramore and Olivia Rodrigo
• The musician tells PEOPLE about how experiencing success and altering her relationship to substances led to the new "coming-of-age" album
  

The last five years have been a whirlwind for Remi Wolf.

The soulful and funky pop star, 28, debuted in 2019 and swiftly garnered buzz online, before dropping her debut album, Juno, in 2021 and essentially touring the globe nonstop ever since. Her sophomore album, Big Ideas, was released July 12 and chronicles the personal growth she's gone through since hitting the scene.

Originally from Palo Alto, California, Wolf began playing music as a teenager before auditioning for season 13 of American Idol in high school (where she only made it to Hollywood Week) and later studying at the USC Thornton School of Music — where she became known for performing at raucous house parties.

Within two years after graduating in 2018, she was signed to Island Records and gaining momentum with earworm singles like "Photo ID" and "Hello Hello Hello." Following the release of Juno, Wolf toured worldwide as both a headliner as well as an opening act for Lorde, Paramore, Gorillaz and, more recently, Olivia Rodrigo.

However, Wolf's meteoric rise hasn't been without its roadblocks. Shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic's onset in 2020, she decided to face her personal issues with substance use head-on and checked herself into rehab. Over the subsequent years, she's navigated sobriety whilst working up the ranks of the music industry and found a unique path that works for her.

The experience, along with the general difficulties of growing through one's 20s, inspired the material on Big Ideas, a 13-track exploration of vulnerable self-discovery — complete with the sonic quirks and humorous lyrics that've drawn fans to the musician.

Wolf sat down with PEOPLE to discuss her rise to fame, making Big Ideas while on the road, her post-rehab relationship to alcohol and the advice she'd give her younger self in the American Idol audition room.

How does it feel to have this new album, Big Ideas, out in the world?

I feel so many things, and I'm also numb at the same time, I guess. I'm excited because it's truly been two and a half years of me waiting to put this stuff out. But it's also sad. I am birthing children, and I think that there's a comfort in having nobody know them. But there's also a relief in people knowing them. It's a mixed bag.

You just finished touring with Olivia Rodrigo and played some new songs. How did it feel to see people’s reactions?

It's interesting. When it's my show, you can tell the difference between the songs that are and aren’t out, because they know all the words on the songs that are out. The ones that aren't out, it's like a silent room, which is a little scary. For the Olivia tour, most people in the crowd didn't know my music anyway, so it almost felt like I was pitching my entire catalog to people, and they were responding to each song. It depends on the crowd, but it feels good too, especially for “Soup.” I wrote that song to play in arenas. It was really inspired by these big, fat arena songs, and it came full circle.

You created this album in some historic studios, including Electric Lady in New York City. How was the creative process different this time around from Juno?

Juno was made entirely in COVID in home studios with not very much equipment, very bare bones. We would travel with a mini setup to Airbnbs and our family's homes and stuff like that. Environment alone, this album is so different. I really wanted to get into studios that allowed my process to flow a little bit differently, and that facilitated an ease of operations, I guess. Like having an engineer and having all this gear plugged in and at our fingertips ready to play was really amazing.

Electric Lady, I am obsessed with that studio. I feel so endlessly inspired there. Also, I worked at Conway in L.A., which was an amazing environment, Diamond Mine in New York City, which was so sick because they recorded everything to tape — a totally different process that I've never experienced before. And then some of the songs were recorded in my friend Ethan Gruska's house in L.A. He has a great studio in his backyard, but also, I've worked with him so much before that it felt really comfortable and familiar. The environments were really important to me being able to come home from tour and just explode, let loose and be totally free in my writing before I had to go back on tour five days later. 

Did you feel any pressure from the buzz and success of the last album while making this one?

I don't know if I felt pressure in the writing sense. I feel like that's such a big thing with people's sophomore albums that everybody likes to talk about — the sophomore slump. I think because I was on the road and in these really, really extreme traveling environments and then coming home to get to go straight into the studio, essentially, I almost didn't even have time to think about anything, or to overthink anything. I was just on this crazy ride, letting life and my schedule take me wherever it went.

So, in that sense, I didn't really feel the pressure. I was just so immersed that nothing really, I didn't have time for anything to really get to me. I was just on autopilot, just rocking.

In addition to Olivia Rodrigo, you’ve toured with Paramore and Lorde since Juno. What did you learn from those experiences going on the road with those artists in massive venues?

Yeah. I think what I learned was, number one, I miss headlining my own shows. But also, I learned how to really expedite my connection with a crowd, which I don't think was a skill I was tapped into before I started doing the arenas. I always put the pressure on myself to do a good job for them because they're all incredible. I feel so grateful to be there, and I want them to feel like, when they come out, that the crowd has already been buzzing. I take it upon myself to really warm them up, and we do all these exercises together so they're ready to immerse themselves into a concert. That's been really important for me as an artist. 

I love creating almost this really communal party environment and being the leader of that. It's one of my favorite parts of performing. I want people feeling like they leave the show and they're leaving the best biggest house party they've ever been to, essentially. I went to school at USC, lived in this big house and we threw house parties every week. I was performing drunk, sober and getting all these crowds of college kids going, which was pretty easy when everybody was rolling on ecstasy or whatever. But I love that, that's my favorite energy.

The success of Juno and your latest tours all come after you went to rehab for addiction in 2020, and you've talked super openly about your experiences with alcohol and substances. Was it difficult to navigate that part of your life as you were releasing the album and hitting the road?

Yeah, that was a time filled with the most change I've ever experienced all at once. Going to rehab at the time, my career was taking off as COVID was hitting, and I was a kid in my early 20s drinking as any kid would. I think going to rehab was my attempt at taking care of myself in that time when I had no idea what to do. I'm so grateful that I went, and I was able to be sober for a while and write the album soberly. If I hadn't been sober at that time, I don't think I would've been able to get that album done and keep pushing. But my journey with sobriety has been up and down, and I'm taking it day by day. I'm not sober right now. I think there's been times in my life where I really needed to be sober and times where I'm chilling with it. Right now, luckily, I feel pretty at peace but it's my own journey. Everybody has their own f—ing journey with it. All respect to everybody who's just trying to do something really good for themselves.

I think a lot of people, especially in their 20s, look at sobriety as an all-or-nothing ordeal rather than something you can strike a balance with. Considering you’ve been able to figure that out for yourself to this point, do you feel like that makes it easier to navigate life as a musician?

Definitely. More so than anything, I feel like I have more experience in this career, and that's priceless. Just knowing that I will go through hard things, come out the other side and be okay. At the beginning of my career, everything was new, everything was overwhelming. I had no idea what to expect. I pretended like I did because I think the only way to get through those times is to go forward with full confidence and charge the situation. Now, I have more of an idea of what is coming. There's still always all these unexpected things that happen as my career grows, my team grows and I grow, but I have more experience with dealing with those challenges, especially sobriety. I have more experience with moderation, knowing when to let myself have fun and when I need to rein it back. 

It's not like this willy-nilly experience for me anymore as it used to be. I felt like I really needed to check myself and get rid of any temptation because I didn't have the skills to function productively in a time where I really needed to. But now I think I have a more solid footing on myself and on my life, and I'm able to let myself relax a little bit more than I ever used to. That's been a really welcomed change that I've really needed for a long time. I think this album is a coming-of-age album in that sense. All these changes and mindset differences that I've come to were all in the past two years through making this record. 

Is that why it's called Big Ideas?

Yeah, totally. I feel like all of the big ideas of life, especially your 20s and trying to figure yourself out, were all just rattling around in my head, especially the balance thing — and relationships and what I'm chasing. The hamster wheel of it all. I was thinking a lot about that.

From where you're at now, do you ever reminisce on going on American Idol as a teenager?

Oh my God. Literally, no, never. I haven't thought about that since I did it, to be honest. It was such a strange experience. I was 17, my mom was there with me, it was a completely different life. I was in high school. I was barely aired on the show, it's pretty meaningless.

It's so nuts to hear when people leave a singing competition show so early and then end up having a real career as a singer. You, Tori Kelly, Maren Morris and so many others did not make it far in the competition.

Yeah, sometimes they just don't pick them right.

Is there any advice you would give that version of yourself?

Maybe go to therapy earlier, but other than that, I would just say let yourself be free, let yourself have fun, and don't take anybody's opinion of you very seriously.