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Associated Press
6 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Friday Harbor unveils AI-powered condition engine to deliver faster, cleaner, audit-ready mortgage files
- New functionality generates plain-language, color-coded conditions with full audit trail, enabling originators to resolve issues in real time and cut days off the loan process - SEATTLE, Wash., May 29, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Friday Harbor, an AI-powered platform that helps loan officers assemble complete and compliant loan files in real time, today announced the launch of a retooled condition engine that automatically generates actionable underwriting conditions based on borrower source documents and loan guidelines. Unlike traditional 'stare and compare' tools that flag generic issues, Friday Harbor's condition engine reads the full context of the loan file—including borrower documents, AUS findings and lender overlays—and outputs conditions that are immediately usable by loan officers, processors and borrowers. Each condition is written in plain English, color-coded by urgency and supported by documentation that gives underwriters a ready-made audit trail. 'In most mortgage workflows today, identifying conditions is a game of hot potato between departments. Friday Harbor solves that by delivering conditions in real time that are actionable at the beginning of the borrower journey, not just in the underwriting queue,' said Theo Ellis, co-founder and CEO of Friday Harbor. 'We're empowering originators to spot and solve issues earlier, which leads to cleaner files, faster closings and dramatically lower costs to originate.' The new engine doesn't just catch obvious clerical gaps. It's also trained to spot nuanced issues such as: For each flagged issue, Friday Harbor provides a proposed resolution path and direct links to applicable guidelines. For junior loan officers, the engine pairs with the platform's AI-powered Scenario Desk to explain next steps or script borrower communications. For underwriters, it offers full traceability, with source documents and reasoning behind every condition. Friday Harbor's AI underwriter is already used by some of the nation's most forward-thinking lenders, including Partners Bank, NewFed Mortgage, Developer's Mortgage Company and Paramount Residential Mortgage Group. The company is backed by the AI2 Incubator, a technical incubator born from the Allen Institute for AI in Seattle, and was recently funded by leading Silicon Valley venture firms including Abstract Ventures, Mischief and Wischoff Ventures. To learn more about how Friday Harbor is helping level the playing field for the more than 4,500 mortgage lenders competing with the tech arms of Rocket and UWM, visit About Friday Harbor: Friday Harbor is an AI-powered platform that helps loan officers assemble complete and compliant loan files in real time. The company combines deep fintech expertise with cutting-edge artificial intelligence to remove complexity, slash origination costs and deliver a better borrower experience. For more information, visit Tags: #mortgagetech #AI #fintech NEWS SOURCE: Friday Harbor ### MEDIA ONLY CONTACT: (not for publication online or in print) Leslie W. Colley Depth for Friday Harbor [email protected] (678) 622-6229 ### Keywords: Mortgage, Friday Harbor, AI-powered condition engine, fintech for finance, AI underwriter, compliant loan files in real time, SEATTLE, Wash. This press release was issued on behalf of the news source (Friday Harbor) who is solely responsibile for its accuracy, by Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P126577 APNF0325A To view the original version, visit: © 2025 Send2Press® Newswire, a press release distribution service, Calif., USA. RIGHTS GRANTED FOR REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART BY ANY LEGITIMATE MEDIA OUTLET - SUCH AS NEWSPAPER, BROADCAST OR TRADE PERIODICAL. MAY NOT BE USED ON ANY NON-MEDIA WEBSITE PROMOTING PR OR MARKETING SERVICES OR CONTENT DEVELOPMENT. Disclaimer: This press release content was not created by nor issued by the Associated Press (AP). Content below is unrelated to this news story.
The Guardian
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Our peers have come and gone. We're still here': Wolf Alice on ambition, ageing and why they've left Labour behind
Paper tablecloths, blazing sun, spitting grill, plastic chairs, dishes of tzatziki, an expectant cat sidling up to diners: we could be in Greece. 'It's like a holiday,' marvels guitarist Joff Oddie, sipping an enormous iced coffee. But Wolf Alice are not on a Mediterranean jaunt – they're at a restaurant on an industrial estate in Seven Sisters, north London, a few doors down from the studios where they wrote their upcoming fourth album The Clearing and its chart-topping predecessor, Blue Weekend. 'We used to call this street Anchovy Mile,' reminisces front woman Ellie Rowsell. 'Because it smelled like fish.' That might be the tip round the corner or, thinks bassist Theo Ellis, a nearby brewery ('something to do with filtering through fish scales'). Either way, such an odour would only cement the seafront ambience of 'Costa del Tottenham', as Ellis names it. The only thing that could disrupt the serenity of this scorching Wednesday lunchtime is a spin of Wolf Alice's new single. Bloom Baby Bloom is a genre-bending rock bonanza: squealing guitars, bone-shaking bass, ostentatious drum fills, but also honky tonk piano and a dreamy pop chorus. Throughout Rowsell veers between breathy folk croon and a hair metal wail. To underline the retro vibe – and the vocal gymnastics – the video has Rowsell writhing in a sparkly, glam cut-out leotard amid a Fame-style dance troupe; in the promo images she is clad in cherry-red hot pants and matching knee-high boots. The band aren't just going hell for leather aesthetically. After 2021's Blue Weekend, the foursome left indie label Dirty Hit and signed with Columbia Records, part of Sony. The move to a major means more money for spangly Lycra – but is it also a sign of prospective world domination? 'English bands are so hesitant to ever admit ambition, but I am ambitious with this record,' says drummer Joel Amey. Sony has the ability to spread the word globally, says Oddie: 'I'd like every person to be able to have the opportunity to say whether they like or don't like Wolf Alice.' Ellis looks bemused: 'That's a dangerous thing to wish!' By many measures, Wolf Alice are already colossally successful. They are Brit and Mercury award-winners, and Grammy-nominated. Blue Weekend reached No 1, while their first two albums only narrowly missed the top spot. In 2016, they were the subject of a Michael Winterbottom film; the director called them 'the best band in the world'. They're high up on next month's Glastonbury bill. 'In many ways, bucket lists have been filled like five years ago,' admits Amey. They have transcended the folk-punk shoegaze of their formative years to become omnivorous guitar music masters, incorporating hardcore, chamber pop, country, industrial, funk and psychedelia. On The Clearing they nod to krautrock, glam and trip-hop; one song sounds like a bossa nova Carpenters, another recalls Steely Dan's Reelin' in the Years. Yet what made the band an instant success story remains the same – Rowsell's precise, poetic millennial vignettes, and an ability to make every song stylish and memorable. As a genre, rock is experiencing a decades-long decline; there are no journeymen any more. 'Our peers have come and gone,' says Amey. 'We're still here.' The only way to be a rich and famous – or even solvent and vaguely recognisable – rock band in this day and age is to be exceptionally good at it. And yet, you might also consider Wolf Alice underrated. They've never had a hit single. Gratifyingly, their most popular song on Spotify is also their best – 131m streams for 2017's Don't Delete the Kisses, which preserves the turbulent ecstasy of fledgling love in hypnotic indie electronica – but that's mostly due to a 'really big' TV sync. Which was …? They puzzle over the answer. Heartbreaker? suggests Rowsell. Heartstopper! says Ellis, suddenly remembering the name of Netflix's queer teen drama phenomenon. While Oddie seems the most business-minded (he tells me the band 'wouldn't work if it wasn't making money'), Ellis and Rowsell clearly can't fake an Ed Sheeran-style stats fixation. It's a decade since Wolf Alice's debut album My Love Is Cool. Oddie's face lights up when reminiscing about the low-stakes euphoria of nascent rock stardom. 'Everything was a win. People coming up to you and saying that they liked your music; being buzzed about 20 people turning up to a gig in Leicester!' At that point they had been a proper band for less than three years – originally Wolf Alice was an acoustic duo comprising Oddie and Rowsell, who met via an internet forum. But nostalgia makes Rowsell shudder: she can't believe her youthful chutzpah, performing songs she didn't know on instruments she couldn't play. 'I didn't even know …' 'Where A was?' says Ellis. 'I still don't know where A is …' she mutters mordantly. I first met the band in the run-up to that album's release, and they remain meticulously self-deprecating. Ellis and Rowsell both grew up in north London and still live here, as does Oddie (Amey has moved to Hastings). On The Clearing's sweetly harmonic closer, The Sofa, Rowsell reflects on youthful fantasies of escape to California, but sounds almost relieved at the prospect of being 'stuck in Seven Sisters' for ever. But Wolf Alice are not immune to the march of time. They are all now in their 30s, and The Clearing is a meditation on the first stage of the ageing process, a time when the 'frantic' struggle to navigate adult life begins to ease, says Rowsell. On Play It Out, a kind of self-soothing lullaby, Rowsell contemplates the rest of her life: a future without children and, eventually, parents. She wonders whether she'll still be valued and adored 'when my body can no longer make a mother out of me' – an anxiety partly prompted by acquaintances on social media posting about 'their mums or their partners being mums. It was the nicest things I'd ever heard coming from men about women. I was like: oh my God, I hope that you can not be a mother and people can think you're that amazing.' The proverb 'the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world' was also stuck in her head: on Play It Out, Rowsell attempts to make peace with the inescapable spectre of motherhood, even if it only exists in the form of 'an empty pram in my mind'. Rowsell has an extraordinary ability to whittle her internal monologue into lyrics, but on The Clearing she begins to doubt her instincts. Opening song Thorns reflects wryly on Blue Weekend's account of a devastating breakup – that she must be a 'narcissist' to literally make a 'song and dance' about the split. At the time, she claimed Blue Weekend was her least autobiographical album. 'Yeah, I was lying!' she laughs. In reality, the album combined real details with fictionalised elements, which often felt like the worst of both worlds. 'I was like, maybe it's not truthful, or it makes it sound worse.' Did she regret writing it? 'I wasn't sitting there being like: nooo,' she says, miming anxious despair. 'Well, actually I was …' Rowsell still doesn't know how much of her real life to put into her music. 'What is the stuff that's supposed to be kept for your DMC [deep meaningful conversation] with your mate? If I'm such a private person then why am I doing this?!' Does she find writing about her problems cathartic? 'I must do because look how much stress it's caused me!' On the new album, Amey – too unwell to come to lunch, so we speak the following day – offers Rowsell a brief respite by taking the mic and pouring his own heart out. The sonic touchstones for the song White Horses were The Sunshine Underground by the Chemical Brothers, and Can; the lyrical inspiration was the lifelong mystery surrounding his heritage. Previously, the 34-year-old had no handle on it. Taxi drivers routinely asked 'if I was from where they're from because of my dark colouring', but he couldn't say either way, because his mum and aunt were adopted. Then Amey's family found out his grandmother was from Saint Helena – a discovery that chimed with the 'strange in-perspective bullshit that starts happening in your 30s'. The resulting track alludes to his grandmother's 'very tough' journey to England and doubles as a love letter to his chosen family: his friends and bandmates. Everyone agrees that they're in Wolf Alice for the long haul. But while getting old in a band is par for the course for men, there's an added self-consciousness for women. Rowsell ends Play It Out with an optimistic manifesto: she wants to 'age with excitement – go grey and feel delighted'. She is 'less worried' about her future as a frontwoman than she used to be, she says, partly thanks to a selection of inspirational peers, including Charli xcx, Caroline Polachek and Self Esteem. All three of those women are knowingly camp and committed to mining cool from unlikely places – all of which Wolf Alice are doing in their flamboyant new era. When Rowsell, 32, was growing up in the 00s, zeitgeisty rock was 'quite cold and aggressive, black and white, not warm' – think angular post-punk revivalists such as Interpol. The Clearing skews instead towards 'softer and more colourful' 1970s guitar music; Fleetwood Mac, Pentangle and Steely Dan were all references. Liking soft rock was 'embarrassing for so long', she continues. 'I don't care any more.' The bold new look is an extension of this. When Rowsell was younger she agonised over wearing the right thing. 'Now I'm so tired of caring that I just want to do something fun.' Not funny, though. 'I don't want people to think it's a joke,' she says. 'It's self-aware, but not self-deprecating.' The Clearing was recorded in LA, with Adele's producer Greg Kurstin, but its gestation period ran from spring 2023 to the end of 2024. Rowsell says that witnessing everyone 'noodling' and 'pottering' in Get Back, Peter Jackson's epic Beatles documentary trilogy, inspired a leisurely, tech-free, in-person writing process. Yet the band assure me it is merely a coincidence that the beginning of the album sounds so Beatlesque: Thorns' pared-back piano intro and swelling strings land somewhere between Let It Be and I Am the Walrus. 'Every song sounds a bit like the Beatles,' says Oddie. 'They invented everything.' They are well aware that having such space and time is a luxury for a band, especially in the current economic climate. Costs of touring have almost doubled since they started, Oddie explains, but ticket prices have only increased by a small amount. Plus, it was hard enough back then – the foursome were only able to make tours viable by cramming themselves into a single small hotel room or sleeping on friends' floors. The tacit agreement was that the stay would turn into a party, say Oddie. 'You'd be having big nights out for weeks on end, it was exhausting.' But even that didn't last. 'If your friends start leaving uni and you're doing a regional tour, you're like: I don't actually know that many people in Sheffield now I'm 23,' says Ellis. Last week, Oddie told MPs in a parliamentary meeting that he didn't know how his band would survive if they were starting out today. He was giving evidence as part of an effort to safeguard the future of live music in the UK amid rocketing costs and shuttering venues, suggesting a £1 levy on tickets for larger gigs, with the proceeds going to support up-and-coming acts on tour (the band are donating £1 from each UK ticket sale to help grassroots venues). His appearance recalls the late 2010s, when Wolf Alice were never far from the cut and thrust of Whitehall. The band heavily endorsed Jeremy Corbyn in the 2017 election, played anti-Tory marches and kicked off their 2018 Brixton Academy show with Danny Dyer's expletive-riddled viral rant about Brexit, in which he called David Cameron a 'twat'. Back then, they were driven by a genuine optimism about Corbyn's message and the excitement of being part of a genre-uniting 'youthquake'; 2017 was the year Stormzy paid tribute to the Grenfell victims and participated in pro-Corbyn chants at Glastonbury. It all seems like a very long time ago. Can they see themselves speaking out about politics again? 'It depends if we're represented by someone,' says Ellis. 'Personally, I don't feel particularly represented right now by many things.' Oddie thinks they should use their platform 'sparingly – if you talk all the time about something, people switch off.' The band's focus is now on some secret-ish Irish dates (they never officially announced them; they sold out anyway) to warm up for that Glastonbury performance and Radio 1's Big Weekend, although Ellis is concerned he might have forgotten 'how to stand'. For their end-of-year arena tour, they're hoping to transform their usually straightforward live show into a spectacle: the current West End production of Cabaret, which Rowsell recently took Ellis to see, may be an influence; there might be a wind machine. With an exceptional – if characteristically unconventional – new album and major label money behind them, perhaps Wolf Alice will also take things to the next level commercially this time. But global superstardom isn't the be-all and end-all; to be honest, they seem more than happy on Anchovy Mile. Bloom Baby Bloom is out now on Columbia Records. The Clearing is released 29 August
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Wolf Alice Is Teasing a Comeback — and It Could Be the Band's Biggest Era Yet
Even the most patient and forgiving of Wolf Alice fans have had to learn how to love at a different rhythm than the fans of other artists. Waiting for a new record, without knowing if anything is coming at all, seems to have become a primary act of their devotion. 'Is it over?' exclaimed one despairing Reddit user a few months back, exasperated by the British rock band's radio silence throughout 2024. 'No more music?' On April 22, after a near four-year wait, an eon in an ever-changing industry, their qualms were put to rest. Breaking cover, all posts on the London four-piece's Instagram page were swiftly archived, while its previously dormant TikTok account began to flicker into life. Soon enough, a carousel of striking, retro-leaning images — including bassist Theo Ellis wearing a leather jacket adorned with a gem-encrusted 'Wolf Alice' motif — was uploaded with a call-to-arms caption: 'We've missed u.' Major festival slots at Glastonbury and Radio 1's Big Weekend, meanwhile, were also confirmed for the summer. More from Billboard Lorde Lands First ARIA Top 10 Since 2017 With 'What Was That' Maroon 5 Teams Up With BLACKPINK's LISA for New Single 'PRICELESS' Selena Gomez & Benny Blanco Share the Love on 'I Said I Love You First' Deluxe Edition: Stream It Now Offering a glimpse of what may lie ahead, it's a new look for the band, and a new way of marketing its music, heralding in the group's next era with aplomb. Unlike most contemporary acts subject to mass idolatry, Wolf Alice's online presence (which, historically, has been minimal) has never been part of the appeal. Dozens of accounts have instead become dedicated to posting whatever updates they can find, often rehashing photoshoots from their early career. In a world of algorithm game-playing and lyrics bundled with gossipy subtext, the band's songs — which deftly blend garage rock and shoegaze — function as talismans affirming the importance of standing tall by your convictions. The subtlety and class with which they choose to signal meaning to their audience is something that has long defined their music; in knowing relatively little about the band's own inner lives, fans' desire to get closer only grows stronger. Young, terminally online pop fans feel drawn to the notion of artist folklore, having grown up watching the likes of Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande incorporate 'Easter eggs' (hidden messages and references) into their videos. It's an idea that extends to other genres that are popular in stan culture forums, where lost songs and 'will-they-won't-they' social media teasers are analyzed feverishly. In the case of Wolf Alice, the group has earned a committed Gen Z fanbase who gravitate toward them as much for the element of surprise as they do for the music. The anticipation around the band's next steps, therefore, couldn't be greater. Wolf Alice's last record, 2021's Blue Weekend, ushered in a new commercial zenith, landing a nomination for the Mercury Prize (which the group won for 2017's Visions of a Life), topping the Official U.K. Albums Chart and leading the band to its first-ever BRIT award the following year. The campaign steamrolled ahead across a further 12 months, during which they opened up for Harry Styles in stadiums across Europe and completed an extensive headline tour. In 2025, each of the members are now in their early 30s. No longer the wild-eyed 20somethings they emerged as with fiery 2013 EP Blush, they have spent the past decade quietly unlocking emotional discoveries in their songs, flowing with their shifting perspectives on ambition and desire. Across three studio LPs, it's become clear that guitarist and lead songwriter Ellie Rowsell focuses on growing privately in order to bloom publicly; she can do huge indie hooks with the best of them (2015's 'Freazy' or the endlessly affecting 'Don't Delete the Kisses'), but has never sounded quite like any of her peers because of the strength of character at the center of her work. Consistently ducking the expectations of indie's upper echelons — the ones which the band vaulted into with 2015's My Love Is Cool — has only further affirmed Wolf Alice's influence and longevity. You can see the band's gnarly, incisive showmanship in the likes of Wunderhorse or rising stars Keo, or hear the band's incandescent take on indie throughout You Can't Put a Price on Fun, the debut EP from Manchester-based artist Chloe Slater. 'Seeing them live was the most joy I've ever felt,' the latter recently recalled of a formative Wolf Alice gig, which she credits with changing the course of her burgeoning career. Intriguingly, the band's period of downtime was interrupted last year with the announcement that it had left its longtime label home of Dirty Hit — home to The 1975 and Beabadoobee — to sign with Sony imprint Columbia. According to a report from The Independent, the move stemmed from the members wanting 'to experience something different,' having previously been in the same deal for nearly a decade, and that Rob Stringer (chairman of Sony Music Group) 'is a huge fan' of theirs. Though Blue Weekend was rapturously received by critics, with The Observer describing it as 'alchemically good,' the question of whether the band can level up to festival headliner status has long hung over reviews of its electrifying live performances. Groundbreaking things can happen if a band is given the time and space it needs to truly develop into greatness, and one can hope that with the support of a major label and a new team around Wolf Alice, the group's music will be able to travel further than ever. It's fascinating to think what they might do next. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
