Wolf Alice part with Dirty Hit and sign to Columbia Records

Wolf Alice were signed by Dirty Hit shortly before the release of their 2015 debut album, My Love Is Cool, receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance with the single “Moaning Lisa Smile”. The three album deal birthed the 2017 Mercury Prize-winning Visions Of A Life – making Wolf Alice the first female-fronted act to win the prestigious award since 2011, when PJ Harvey won for her album, Let England Shake – and their most recent album, 2021’s Blue Weekend. Now their contract with Dirty Hit is over, it appears that they've moved over to a major label.

Talk of the band leaving Dirty Hit has been circulating for a couple of years now. Their manager, Stephen Taverner, wrote an op-ed with Music Business Worldwide, and revealed that label owner Jamie Oborne understood that Wolf Alice's decision to leave wasn't "personal", but he was still "pissed off" by it.

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“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.”

Other signees to Dirty Hit include The 1975, The Japanese House Beababoobee, Pale Waves, and No Rome. Last year, Jack Antonoff and Bleachers announce a partnership with Dirty Hit, as well as a new label arm with Oborne. Wolf Alice's new label home, Columbia Records, looks after the likes of HAIM, Fleetwood Mac, Kendrick Lamar, Bring Me The Horizon, Harry Styles, Halsey, and more.