From Manx Pubs to World Tours, Penelope Isles Share Their Journey
Penelope Isles are what many Manx bands might call an Isle of Man success story: they’re signed to a record label, and they’ve played major shows and festivals across the UK and beyond ー in fact, right now they’re gearing up for a summer of touring Europe and the US. With their sophomore album Which Way To Happy getting its vinyl release this week, we thought it would be a good time to share a chat we had with Lily Wolter, who leads the band with her brother Jack.
When I spoke to Lily back in December, Penelope Isles had just finished a tour and were preparing for another ー expected practice for a band just weeks after an album has dropped. Lily was hung over and I had just finished climbing Snaefell when we started the Zoom call. If we add in the dodgy Laxey WiFi cutting out halfway (rural islanders will know), then it’s safe to say that it wasn’t the smoothest interview in the world ー but we had a laugh!
The full band once visited the old shop for an impromptu gig, but this was back in Spring 2019, before I started working at Sound Records. So, as a fan of their music and now connected to them through the shop, it was wonderful to finally meet Lily face-to-face / screen-to-screen. Between working out whether we had any mutual friends at school (again, rural islanders will know), we chatted about the never-ending hustle of the music industry, making friends with a Cocteau Twin, and how they made an album in lockdown.
From Manx Pubs…
Before they were Penelope Isles, siblings Lily and Jack Wolter were living on the Isle of Man and gigging in a band called Your Gold Teeth. The summer before Lily went off to university, the band would play a gig every weekend ー perhaps in the corner of a pub or in someone’s garden ー getting hammered at house parties and staying with the extended group of fifteen-or-so friends that followed their mini-gig circuit. Sundays were spent roaming the island: jumping off rocks, going swimming, exploring.
“Everyone was so in love and it was so much fun. It sounds really arrogant to say but we were a bit of a soundtrack to our mates’ summer. I think it was maybe 2013...” ー Lily Wolter, Penelope Isles
Some gems from the depths of Your Gold Teeth’s Facebook page, circa 2013-14
Soundtracking this summer, even if only for a few people, is the first taste Lily had of musical success and influence, and that feeling stuck with her. Jack, on the other hand, had had his taste years earlier: he’d been at uni and gigging in the UK before all of this. Six years younger than her brother, Lily was happy for Jack to guide her through the experience when Penelope Isles first formed, soon after, in Brighton. Of course, she feels she’s matured since then, and both siblings share the steering wheel: “Now I’m 25 and me and him are equal with our drive, I’d say.”
Though they’ve only ever returned to the island to play as this band once, Penelope Isles, as the name would suggest, is very much rooted in the Manx mentality.
“All of it comes from when we’ve grown up and where we’ve grown up. And I wouldn’t change that because I think [it’s] a massive reason why we work so hard.” ーLily Wolter, Penelope Isles
At End of the Road festival in late 2020. Photo by Tessa J Pearson.
Meeting the two other members of the band was eye-opening. Hailing from Lewisham, Joe and Henry’s upbringings contrast greatly with that of the Wolter siblings: the former grew up surrounded by culture and diversity, whereas Lily “only had one black kid at my school.” Though she realises the limits of the sheltered existence she grew up with, Lily appreciates her youth on the island and acknowledges its advantages too ー especially with regards to teaching her a good work ethic. You have to make things happen for yourself on the Isle of Man, and that attitude hasn’t been lost on Jack and Lily in Brighton; if anything, it’s what they’re known for.
Penelope Isles are self-driven, and they do everything themselves: they write and produce their own music, they drive their tour van around ー they even used to make their own merch in their garden and burn their own CDs in the van! Self-motivation is one reason for this process, but another is budget:
“It also comes from a place of not having any money. It’s like ‘I can’t afford to spend £500 getting a load of T-shirts pressed, as much as I’d love that, so I could spend £100 on a load of blank T-shirts and get a load of paint and a screen-maker.’ The amount of time we [Jack and Lily] have spent in people’s gardens or garages surrounded by wet T-shirts just thinking ‘oh for God’s sake, this is so long, what am I doing?’ It’s just what you’ve gotta do.” ーLily Wolter, Penelope Isles
Even now they’re signed, the hustle isn’t over. Here is Lily atop the raft that Penelope Isles made for the Iced Gems music video, shot in the label exec’s back garden. Photo by Times New Gothic.
Lily estimates she and Jack must have folded thousands of CD sleeves in their time. All of this changed when they met famous Cocteau Twin Simon Raymonde at one memorable gig.
…to World Tours
The night’s story goes ー a story I realise I have heard before, but one I can sense Lily loves to tell ー that the band were on the last leg of a tour, all having fallen out, none of them speaking to each other. For whatever reason, they played a great set anyway, and Simon happened to be in the crowd after hearing about the band through a chain of obscure music industry connections. He came up to shake hands with Lily after the gig, but she had eyes for someone else at that moment: Matt King (aka Peep Show’s very own Super Hans) was at their merch table. While Lily promptly ran away to fangirl over Super Hans (and sell him quite a lot of merch, she assures me), Simon was left hanging. Luckily, he found the whole situation endearingly hilarious. They all went and had pancakes together a few days later and got on swimmingly. He decided he wanted to sign them to his label, Bella Union. Nowadays, they’re great friends, and they still joke about this first encounter.
As part of ‘80s and ‘90s alt rock band Cocteau Twins, Simon Raymonde pioneered an ethereal, effect-laden sound known today as dream pop. This sound is very much alive and popular amongst indie bands in the twenty-first century ー like Penelope Isles, as heard in their latest album Which Way To Happy. Perhaps this is part of what first drew Simon to the group’s sound. He is genuinely passionate about their music and their success as a band, and so in turn he’s there for them if they come needing advice. After all, anything they’re going through he has already been through himself.
Photo by Sam Hart.
Released on streaming platforms in late 2021, Which Way To Happy hits more melancholic notes than the band’s 2019 debut Until The Tide Creeps In ー even the song titles, Terrified at #1 and Rocking At The Bottom at #2, hint at darker places. From whispered conversations barely audible under the music, to highly strung, heartfelt lyrics, the record seeps with the cramped anxiety of a certain Covid-retreat cottage in Cornwall, where the album was made. The resulting sound is both cinematic and intimate, widely expansive and deeply vulnerable. Jack’s solemn ballads lament in earnest; Lily’s angelic falsetto whispers, recedes, echoes. With songs that scratch the five-minute mark, the music allows time to explore every emotion. Cohesive yet sprawling in its genre reach, the band’s signature dream pop and shoegaze are influenced by electro pop and even touches of psych-rock.
Until The Tide Creeps In is consistently a shop favourite, so we’re excited to finally be able to stock Which Way To Happy when its vinyl hits our shelves on Friday 18th February.
Which Way to Happy was BBC6 Music’s album of the day when it was released on streaming in November
Lily’s brother Jack has produced Penelope Isles’ music since the beginning, and he’s grown and matured alongside their songwriting. Having Dave Fridmann (Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev) mix and Noel Summerville (3345 Mastering) master only made their music better, buffing and shining the jewel, if you will.
“It’s been a good thing that we didn’t have money to do that because it’s made him [Jack] an amazing producer: he’s all self-taught. With the difference between the first and second record, he’s just evolved. He’s worked really hard to get to that [level] and we’re really proud of him for that.” ーLily Wolter, Penelope Isles
Other big name collaborations came thanks to the newly-found label connections ー like Fiona Brice (an orchestral composer and violinist who’s worked with the likes of Kanye West, Boy George and Simply Red, among others) who did the string arrangements for the album.
In 2019, Penelope Isles opened for The Flaming Lips, fellow labelmates on Bella Union. Here they are with frontman Wayne Coyne.
Jack and Lily have big plans for 2022, but are also aware that they have to prepare for everything to be cancelled. With cases over the Atlantic on the rise, the March tour across the US with Pom Poko (including a dream festival spot at South by South West) is especially at risk, but so is the summer festival circuit across the UK and Europe ー some UK shows from February have already been rescheduled to later in spring and September. Thus, Lily told me she’s trying not to get too excited.
Still, if Which Way To Happy has proven anything for Penelope Isles, it’s that they can make their magic even in the most strained of situations. Lily wrote 11 11 and Have You Heard during the pandemic, and the whole album was recorded and produced post-March 2020, so they know they have it in them. If they can’t tour, they’re still going to make something ー Lily hinted that there could be talk of a film in the works.
Wherever they end up next, I have no doubt Penelope Isles will continue to keep us on our toes. Lily gave me a sneak preview in the interview that they were booked to play Isle of Man festival Dark Horse in 2022 ー and, while I was in the process of writing this, it was announced officially. I’m excited to meet her and the band in person, where we can all be “frolicking in a field” (her words) in Lezayre, and hopefully all finding our way to happy. I trust Penelope Isles to point the way.
Written by Owen Atkinson
This interview with Lily will also feature on an upcoming article series about building connections and finding your own success in the Isle of Man music scene and beyond. Keep up to date on our social media to see when they drop.
Which Way To Happy is available to stream now. The vinyl will be available in Sound Records from Friday 18th February.
Penelope Isles have been announced as the first act headlining Dark Horse festival this summer. Tickets are on-sale now.
