An Interview with Shelley Wolfe: Television’s Favorite Drainer

Although she hasn’t even watched any of the episodes on which she appears, Shelley Wolfe stole the hearts of fans who watched the most recent season of Netflix’s “Love on the Spectrum,” a reality show where single people with autism go on dates and try to find a partner. Her boyfriend, James B. Jones, has been on the show since 2022. None of us at Sadprt have actually watched “Love on the Spectrum” either; we instead know Shelley because she’s a big Bladee fan and we made a post about it. After that, she followed us to stay up-to-date on Drain Gang or Sadboys-related news. Instead of talking about the show or her relationship with James, I wanted to get to know Shelley Wolfe and hear about her life as a drainer.

Shelley, hailing from Southampton, England, went to university in Japan and lived there for “seven or eight years,” learning the language. She now resides in New Hampshire, and when she isn’t on TV, she works as a senior advertising manager where she’s able to put her Japanese to use by communicating with clients overseas.

Shelley Wolfe: There's so many different subcultures in Japan, like Gyaru, like they're so different from whatever I've experienced in the U.K. I was just fascinated by different Japanese subculture, the media, films and, like, the way they advertise, like I said, with different colors.

Jack Tellier: So you're very into the arts, you would say?

SW: I mean, art is everywhere, so it does really fascinate me how different cultures can portray their way of living through a different kind of lens. Yeah, I do find it very interesting.

JT: I'm pretty sure almost everyone who follows you knows you from the show, but us at Sadprt, we found you because someone made a Reddit post that you were a fan of Drain Gang, and then we made a post of that. When did you first start getting into Drain Gang?

SW: Well, I can’t remember exactly when it was, but I actually found Drain Gang through—well, at that time it was Gravity Boys. I found them through, first of all, Yung Lean. I always really liked Yung Lean.

Shelley took a second to remember before explaining that she found out about Drain Gang through a Sadboys compilation online.

SW: … And I've always been a huge fan of Whitearmor. I don't really think that he gets the recognition that he truly deserves, because he's so talented, and I really like how he mixes so many different genres together to create this unique sound. As I said earlier, I like Eurobeat; I was brought up in England when you had, like, Basshunter and a lot of the Swedish kind of Eurobeat kind of sound. And I really like how Whitearmor mixes all of these different sounds to get, like, Drain Gang’s unique kind of sound with Bladee and Ecco2k.

SW: I just like this dreamy type of cloud rap. It’s this different, internet-born kind of vibe I really enjoy. Plus, the quirkiness of pop culture and putting all those things together.

We talked briefly about Yung Lean’s new tour. Unfortunately, Shelley has tickets to see Bladee and Yung Lean back-to-back this month in Boston and cannot attend. She laughs about the situation and says she can’t go because she has to go back to England for a bit. Shelley isn’t too upset and knows there will be other opportunities to see them live. She actually asked me a week later if I knew anyone who’d want the Bladee ticket, and by the time this comes out, one of you guys will have gotten it for free. If you won the ticket to Bladee in Boston, say thank you to Shelley.

JT: Out of all the Drain Gang guys, what would you say are your favorite albums, off the top of your head?

SW: That's such a difficult question for me because, to be honest, I have SoundCloud, right, and I just normally...

She trails off for a few seconds to think.

SW: I am a big fan of the “Crest” album. (Laughs) I really like that album; I really like the, as I was saying earlier, I really like the mixture of sounds. It’s almost like a lullaby to me—Bladee and Ecco2k. Bladee … his voice is so unique, it’s like a soft voice. And hip-hop and rap are normally quite aggressive in tone, but Bladee, he has such a nice, sweet voice that it’s very nice to listen to it.

Now, I wanted to know some of her favorite songs.

SW: On “Crest,” I like “White Meadow,” “Faust.” Yeah, I have so many Bladee songs on my liked songs on SoundCloud. And sometimes on SoundCloud, it always confuses me because sometimes it's not even the actual title of the song.

JT: Yeah, it’ll be like a leak or something, and people will rename it and, yeah, it's confusing.

SW: Yeah, and lately I’ve been listening to Bladee and Black Kray, their “Friday Nite” song.

JT: Have you met or do you know anyone associated with Drain Gang?

SW: (Giggles) It would be creepy for me to say. … I don't want to seem like I'm creeping—I’m creeping on them or something. No, I haven't, no.

JT: I mean, would you like to eventually know one of them?

SW: Yeah, but I'm not too fussed, because I enjoy their music and, I mean, it would be cool to meet them and say “hi.” But I know that especially Bladee and them are all quite private people, and I think that's what makes them unique too because they're much more private than, say, other people in the limelight.

SW: That makes them mysterious, so I think meeting them and knowing them could possibly take that mysteriousness away, perhaps. I'm not too sure.

Shelley has had her own fair share of bizarre interactions where fans of “Love on the Spectrum” acted in a way that embarrassed or upset her. Most recently, an older man saw Shelley and James out in public and couldn’t figure out how to take a selfie with them. Instead, he just took a picture of the couple, and Shelley found it online the next day. “I kind of don’t really like that behavior in a way, like ask someone,” she says.

JT: Do you think your respect toward [Drain Gang’s] privacy is formed by your own experiences with having a following?

SW: Yeah, kind of, I think. But with my following, it literally just came about overnight. … I’ve always had this thing, I don't know, maybe it's something to do with my autism or something, but I don't really care or judge other people. I don’t go crazy over fandoms or anything.

JT: There's a lot of people who get really attached to a famous person, and it's not healthy.

SW: No, I don't think so, and when you think about it, they're just normal people like us too. And it's like, when [you] want some downtime, you want some downtime. They don't want people—oh, one time when I was at the Renaissance Fair with my boyfriend, before the show even came out, there was this fan—

Shelley starts cracking up in the middle of the story.

SW: —who came up to us. And she just started SCREAMING, like screaming and shaking. And like—he—he’s on a reality TV show (more laughing). I’m not being terrible to him, but he’s on a reality TV show. You don’t need to start screaming and shaking!

JT: What has it been like dealing with that overnight following and the people that come up to you?

SW: … Well, I don’t want to be rude to people, but it’s like, why do you even care? … People obviously didn’t know me and didn’t care about me, like, before I was on the show. Then I was on the show, and I really don’t think it did a great job portraying myself—like me as myself. And I’ve got this huge following that kinda think that they know me, and some people will say like, “Oh, she’s so autistic, you can tell that she's autistic,” and this and that.

Shelley wasn’t diagnosed with autism until around age 28. As she tells me, she went her whole life thinking that her classmates and peers were all going through the same difficulties in school and that they just weren’t vocal about it. Although the autism diagnosis recontextualized some of Shelley’s past, she chooses not to let it define her or dictate her future.

JT: It's gotta be a little hurtful when people make these sweeping judgments of who you are just based on a TV show you were in for like 20 minutes.

SW: Yeah, I mean it is. It is quite sad in some ways, but the thing is that everyone's going to just judge you from what they see, and they don't really care too much to actually want to change their opinion. That's what I've learned.

JT: There's been a running joke online about Drain Gang fans being autistic, or Drainers will call each other autistic. How do you feel about that?

SW: (Laughing) I find it funny, and I can definitely understand why that might be. Yeah.

JT: What do you think it is that attracts autistic people to Bladee or Drain Gang?

SW: Maybe the sound, maybe because there’s so many different sounds sort of merged together and they create this new sound. Yeah, I'm not too sure, … but the music is all calming too, I find. I'm always listening to Drain Gang when I'm working or even in the gym. Or doing different things because I find it very calming and relaxing.

As mentioned earlier, Shelley likes to attend Renaissance fairs. I’ve always wanted to go to one but never have. Judging from her Instagram, she goes to quite a few of these fairs with her boyfriend, James, so I wanted to know why she likes them so much and how I should prepare for my first.

SW: I like castles, I like swords, just the architecture back then … all those humans working together, back then, building this beautiful castle. The clothes, the swords, the fantasy of it all. I can't really explain why I like it, but I've just always been interested in it.

JT: Maybe it's just in your English blood.

SW: (Laughing) Perhaps, maybe.

JT: I do want to go to one. For anyone else who wants to go to their first Renaissance fair, what would you tell them to do, prepare for, or to experience while they're there?

SW: Well, I would say you don’t even really need to dress up for your first time to go there. You can just wear your usual clothes and enjoy the different live entertainment, all of the games and the different merchants. Another thing that I really like is that the different merchants who are at these Renaissance fairs, they make everything by hand, and it's normally locally sourced too, so it's nice to have different things that are made with love instead of in a factory in China, I guess.

I don’t drink, but a lot of people go to Renaissance fairs to do the pub crawl. You know, it’s fun to do with your friends. You can go there, you can drink some beer, and then you can play some old medieval games, and watch medieval entertainment.

JT: What other music are you into besides Drain Gang/Sadboys?

SW: I always have such a hard time trying to explain my music choice to people because it’s literally everything. I mean, I go to heavy metal concerts; I recently saw Pantera in concert. When I grew up in England, I mean, at the time it was the early 2000s, we had garage music that was popular, and then we also had, like, Basshunter — all of those kinds of songs. … But then I was also into post-punk music, and that’s probably why I do like Drain Gang. They mix so many different genres together. I listen to a lot of genres besides pop music.

Shelley also explained that, when she was younger, she was into the Tecktonik era that was popular in France in the mid to late 2000s. The Tecktonik scene is remembered not only for its electronic club music, but mostly for its almost robotic arm-flailing dances done by guys in skinny jeans with spiked mullets. She cites an Ed Banger record she owned as what got her into French electronic music such as Justice. Of course, Shelley is also into English electronic music and names Underworld, Aphex Twin and Simian Mobile Disco.

While researching, I found that Shelley has a Letterboxd account and that she seems to be frugal when it comes to giving out “stars” to a movie. I also have a similar tendency to grade movies somewhat harshly, and I wanted to hear about some of her favorites.

SW: I really liked “Memento,” [it] was definitely one of my favorite movies just because it’s like—I like movies that you watch and then you think “what the hell was that?” or something that makes you continuously think about it. People get annoyed with me, but I like watching something that makes me think and uses my brain. … Some people want to watch movies and relax. I get that, but I want to watch something that makes me think. “Memento” is great, and a lot of Christopher Nolan movies, I think they’re good.

Shelley is also a big fan of Gregg Araki’s 2004 film “Mysterious Skin.” Anyone who has watched this movie knows it is quite a tough film to stomach and deals with some pretty heavy themes. It’s definitely not something you can just throw on the TV and watch while eating.

SW: That one, it left me just shocked for days. I watched it when I was about 13 or 14; I watched it and I had no idea what I was getting into. And I was like, “what the hell is that?” It left a lasting impression on me, and I think that's what I really look for in movies, is a lasting impression.

James and Shelley have recently been watching a lot of “Hammer horror movies,” something James is really into at the moment. Shelley finds that she rarely ever gives any movie five stars. “Five stars to me means that it's basically perfect.”

JT: I think I've pretty much gone through everything I wanted to ask. Is there anything you want people to know?

SW: Um, not really, but you’ve actually allowed me to express myself quite nicely, so thank you very much.

Up to this point for Sadprt, I had only really interviewed active players in the underground rap scene—whether that be a rapper, meme page, or whatever categories that Strappnasti and Rhonda fall into. Besides Bladee, I was not sure what to talk about with Shelley Wolfe, as I had not watched the show that made her so popular. We had a great conversation that, at points, had a profoundness which Sadprt followers might not be used to. Shelley has a well-developed taste in art and a broader cultural perspective than most of the people who overanalyze her behavior or interests and backhandedly write it off as “autistic.” I had fun interviewing her, and I hope she gets to watch Bladee perform soon.

JT: What does being a drainer mean to you?

SW: … Um, I think being a drainer is just to not take life too seriously, I guess.