Bonnaroo 2021 Artist Spotlight: Remi Wolf

As we’ve been doing for the past several years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorites acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2021 lineup. However, to say that this year’s Bonnaroo is a bit of an unconventional one would be an understatement. Postponed from 2020, moved later into the summer, and with a lineup, schedule, and enhanced Covid-19 precautions all only announced and finalized mere weeks from the fest’s Sept. 2-5 weekend, we’re starting our preview coverage later than usual now that we have the full rundown, and will only be highlighting a handful of artists we want to make sure are on your radar this year, reflecting the full gamut of the festival’s days and stages, and even some performers from the plaza lineup. Additionally, look out for our full list-style lineup guides for each day of the fest, with many other artist recommendations, to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s stacked and sprawling 20th-anniversary slate.

Tickets for 2021 sold out in record time, but if you already have yours, or you manage to snag some from a reputable 3rd party, we hope you’ll do everything you can this year to keep yourself and your fellow Bonnaroo attendees safe throughout the fest, and to behave as cautiously as possible after to limit your risk of exposure to others. We’re thrilled to have music back, but, as the Delta variant fuels a rise in Covid cases, if we want it to stay back and stay safe, we all need to take care of one another. That said, we’re hoping this year’s Bonnaroo marks another important milestone on the road to normalcy, and some welcome solace for those in attendance. To help you get ready, read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight.

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Los Angeles based, Palo Alto raised funky, experimental bedroom pop artist Remi Wolf has been living life and making art fiercely on her own terms for years, and it’s that unrelenting personal style and aesthetic that has quickly positioned as one of the next buzzworthy darlings of the indie scene ahead of Bonnaroo, one of her most high-profile gigs to date. Raised by “pretty weird and very confident” parents, Wolf juggled an early interest in music with a budding career as a Youth Olympic skier, eventually putting her athletic ambitions aside to attend USC to further study music, at the time obsessing over classic LA punk and funk, and radio-primed pop, rock, and r&b, all while honing her sound as a writer with longtime collaborator Jared Solomon. Upon graduation, Remi quickly captured attention online for her genre-bending and confident debut EP, You’re a Dog, in 2019, giving way to a major label deal with Island, who released follow-up EP, I’m Allergic to Dogs, last year, spawning the viral TikTok single “Photo ID.” Wolf spent the pandemic writing what would become her debut LP, Juno, due out this October and named for the dog she adopted during that time, who was her companion throughout the process. 2020 also saw the young singer combat a growing problem with substance abuse by going to rehab and getting sober, an experience reflected in recent single “Liquor Store,” one of the more personal and confessional of Remi’s latest tunes, which can sometimes be more off-the-cuff and avant-garde in theme. Though her visual aesthetic, both in her attire and music video choices, is bright and colorful and psychedelic, Wolf’s music is far less definable, jumping between musical influences and alternating between mainstream pop accessibility and refreshingly weird individuality, earning the budding star some impressive fans like Nile Rodgers, Beck, John Mayer, and Willow Smith. Easily one of the most exciting up-and-coming artists on the entire Bonnaroo lineup, we hope you’ll make Remi Wolf a top priority at this year’s fest!

WATCH | “Liquor Store”