Singer/songwriter Ira Wolf released her fourth album Rock Bottom, her first in several years, via Nettwerk in October. Through the gradual roll out of singles from the album, and along with her openness with her audience on social media, Wolf made it clear that the album documents a period of intense emotion and introspection that she faced following the breakup of a major relationship. Having always shared her inner life through her music, it makes sense that Wolf would take audiences on this journey with her, but the motivating factor for Wolf was, at root, creative. These are the songs that she needed to write and this is the ground that she needed to cover.
Interestingly, taking on such emotional territory led to both bigger sounds through the development of a more robust rhythm section, and also through the layering in of electric guitar. Alongside that, Wolf’s powerful vocals also take center stage, carrying the required intensity from the subjects she plumbs on Rock Bottom, such as heartbreak, self-examination, confrontation, and the shape of the road ahead. I spoke with Ira Wolf about the uncertainties she faced early on about her next album, how working with friend and Producer Kevin Harper helped her navigate rough terrain, and what her goals were for these challenging songs.
Hannah Means-Shannon: I’ve noticed that you interact a lot with fans on social media about your songs. How do you feel about talking about songs in a public way?
Ira Wolf: I like people to be able to bring their personal emotions to songs and I think it’s really special to let people make what they want to or need to make out of songs. But then, when I am consuming music as a listener, I do like that personal connection also. I think, “Alright, this is what this song means to me as a listener, but where did it come from? What made that person want to say those things?” It’s an interesting perspective for me, as a listener, so I think it’s cool to be on the other side of things and be able to share.
I see that, like many Nettwerk artists, you seem geared towards releasing singles and giving them real focus and discussion as they come out, but also support the physical release of an album. Do you have personal preferences about that?
This is my first label release. Everything before that has been independent, so it’s been cool to see how they operate. Typically, I would only put out two or three singles from a record, and then have a collection come out as a creative thing. But it was cool to focus for a month or two on each song that we put out, with five or six singles before the record came out. I think it allowed for more people to connect with more of the full album before it was available. I think that was a cool thing. I’m really glad we did that.
Especially, since this is your first album in a while, it deserves some fanfare! It also left room for more of that engagement, like we were talking about. When did you start making mental steps toward recording songs, or the full album?
The first steps actually started in 2019, when I met with my Producer and we started thinking towards a next record. It had been two years at that point since I’d put out my last album, which came out in 2017. I didn’t know what the next album would be, and I started getting some ideas down. Then I went through a really horrible breakup, and it turns out that was all I really needed to inspire a whole collection of songs. It was in the summer of 2021 that I really got into writing this album, specifically.
I knew that I needed a breakup album, and this was the direction we headed in. Most of these songs are from that summer. The last song that I wrote for this album was this year, in January, so it spans the whole breakup and healing phase of the last two years. So most of these tunes are a few years old for me.
Did you have any personal resistance to letting yourself write about such difficult subjects? I can see how suddenly being inspired by a subject, though, might be a real impetus since it was a specific creative direction to take.
Creating music for me has always been a very therapeutic experience. My entire life, music has been the way that I process emotions and sort through my feelings. In that way, writing the album was almost like it wasn’t up to me. It just needed to happen. The daunting part of it was that I’ve made a career of sharing really vulnerable and honest material, and putting this specific album out into the world, knowing that people knew a lot of the history around my relationship, was difficult.
They knew who I was talking about, they knew about my mental health struggles, so this album felt like a much deeper dive into my way of experiencing the world in a way that I hadn’t allowed myself to before. This was really vulnerable and scary, and it still feels a little scary to have it out in the world. To put the darkest parts of your soul on display is a weird thing.
It seems to me that audiences are really ready to have that conversation with artists these days. Previous barriers have dissolved a little. I can definitely understand it being scary from an artist’s perspective, but from an audience’s perspective, I’m sure people will be receptive.
The pandemic was a hard few years for a lot of people, myself included, and I think mental health really took the spotlight. People suddenly had to address their mental health. Part of that was through social media because we were so isolated. We had to find communities of people who were not in physical relationships. Some of that, I think, was about being more vulnerable publicly and discussing what you were going through.
In doing so, it helps you and other people feel less isolated. I think that can really be a helpful thing. I think people didn’t have time for anything that wasn’t authentic anymore and they didn’t want to see beautifully curated content. They wanted to see what was real, and what was real was heavy for a lot of people.
Because your songs always had a lot of honesty to them, I can see how writing these songs might be a challenge to hit that previous level.
It was challenging. I think sharing it is more challenging than creating it for me. From the time I was a kid, I always wanted to sing, but I didn’t start songwriting until I was in my early 20s. At the time, I never envisioned myself sharing that material. But as I did so, I began to realize how magical it was to be able to have a deep human connection through art. That’s the catch, since that’s how I create since I don’t know any other way than to be brutally honest. That part feels easy, but sharing it, and knowing people might have their own judgment about it is a little scarier.
You mentioned your Producer, Kevin Harper, earlier. Is he your first audience for these self-revealing songs?
He is, actually. I really struggle to share my music before it’s perfected. I get very shy about sharing stuff in the works, even with the people I’m closest with. Kevin has become a very dear friend over the last ten years. Having worked on my third record together, and then becoming such good friends, made this album a lot easier to work on together. I feel very comfortable being a mess in front of Kevin. We record in his home studio and it’s a very laid-back experience to go cry in the vocal booth for a while. Then Kevin’s going to make me tea, and we’re going to talk about feelings, then we’re going to get back to work. He’s a big part of why I think I was able to make such a personal collection.
The vocals on this album are really a development, in my opinion. They take on an even bigger role in delivering the emotion needed for these songs than in the past. That goes alongside a layered, more electronic sound, of course.
Absolutely. We re-recorded the vocals, I think three times. We did a full live band in February of 2022, got everything tracked, and then we started heading in the direction of mastering. Then we stepped back and I felt like the vocals were not where they needed to be. I felt like I was performing really small at that point. I think I was afraid of letting myself getting to the emotional space that the vocals required. We redid the vocals a couple of times, and Kevin would be saying, “Give me more!” The emotions would take over. I’m so grateful that we were able to do that. I was so proud of what we got out of it. I’m so glad that it comes across.
That’s harsh for the Producer to keep pushing, but I can definitely hear it! That’s also really going back to the well after a time of writing to return to the vocals. Was having some time between the writing and recording helpful?
I think it was good to have a little space between the writing and recording so I could step back a little bit. Then I could tap into those emotions again without it spiraling me into depression. There are still songs that are tough to perform, but I think that’s just part of creating art. When you’re in that space, you have to dip back into that emotion on occasion. But the time allowed space for me to get there without being too overtaken by it.
One of your singles, “Find Less” was a really great introduction to the album. I love the premise and the way that language works in the song as well as the music.
I wanted to be able to represent that I was in a state that I was in where I could say, “I am sorry, and I forgive you.” I sat down to try and write that song and “Find Less” came out instead. It was interesting to realize that I was still kind of pissed off about a lot of stuff and needed to be angry again for a minute. It ended up being one of my very favorite songs on the record. It’s kind of the anthem from the album.
It helped me reclaim something about myself that I didn’t realize that I’d been giving away. I didn’t realize how small I’d been making myself or how much I’d lost of myself in the years of that relationship. “Find Less” just kind of poured out, and with all my favorite songs, that’s what happens. They say whatever I don’t realize that I need to say. For that one, which was the last one, we brought the band back in for one day. I think from the time I wrote that song to the time it was mastered was maybe two weeks, which is the quickest I’ve ever recorded a song. I’m typically much more of a perfectionist than that.
There’s a big dynamic vocal range in that song from the quieter parts to the parts that build up. It makes sense that it was the last song because I’m sure some of your vocal discoveries on other songs contributed to it.
Yes, I really got to yell on that one. [Laughs] It really helped me get some feelings out.
I don’t think this song has to be gendered at all, it could apply in any human situation, but there has been a lot of conversation in recent years about the ways in which women are encouraged to take up less space. Women do often face pushback when they express emotions openly, so I appreciate the ways you brought that in.
That has been really a huge, important thing in my healing process, and not just from this specific relationship. It’s been part of healing from life, in general, as a woman. I agree that, as women, we’ve been told to take up less space and to be more palatable. We are supposed to be sweet and accommodating. Starting to realize my people-pleasing qualities, that have come from childhood, or from religion, or from society in general, I’m still working through that.
I’m still learning how to take up space and be okay taking up space. It’s really uncomfortable for me. I’m not a conflict person. I don’t love to be the center of attention or affect anyone’s experience in a negative way. I feel like I’m constantly navigating other people’s emotions and making sure that everyone else is comfortable, regardless of how I’m feeling. It’s been a really big shift for me, to start recognizing that it’s important how I feel. That I’m not responsible for other people’s emotions. That it’s okay that I have big emotions.
