Interview – Theo Ellis of Wolf Alice

Hi I’m Theo from Wolf Alice and I’m sat at Orange HQ, playing through my favourite bass head the AD200 and trying out some cool pedals.

The first time i properly got to know an Orange head or really understood what it was, was our tour manager the infamous Dave Danger, took us away. It was like our first tour round the UK and I needed to borrow an amp and his friend Skipper lent me this head and the two cubes, with the sub and tweeters and stuff. I had been used to just showing up at the venues and playing whatever stuff, with knobs falling off. I just fell in love with it and I really liked playing it. I remember having it in my flat at the time and pissing everyone off because I had this huge stack and I would just noodle away which isn’t a very social way of playing the bass.

So my rig as it stands at the moment is pretty basic, its very low end heavy, all the low 200 stuff that hits you in the chest, is the stuff we are trying to achieve. So its this, with bass rolled up to about three quarters up, the mids scooped to a little bit below half way and the treble is tweaked a bit.

Its quite hard to put a finger on why I have always used this head and Orange as a brand. I think a lot of the sounds I am trying to get are quite like fuzzy and driven and stuff like that. What this gives you is a great base to build your effects on top of that. It always cuts through, its chunky, its got that really smooth base to layer you effects on.

Its a big music players honour to see Jimmy Page up there, it goes from Jimmy Page through to Laurie from Slaves, so I have my two biggest inspirations in the world! Its a very British thing as well which I think i’m proud of, its like a staple brand, people recognise that symbol everywhere. Growing up and looking at other peoples gear and stuff, to sharing a roster and be recognised by the company is a real honour for me.