Jack: Right at the start I’d say we were particularly prolific
Angus: B-Sides and rarities…
and that was when we had nothing to do but write songs, in our third year of uni maybe. I remember a particular period
Kristian: When we go back in to record more music I’d like
when we would sit in the lounge and just hammer them out
to see us try new shit that we haven’t tried before…
and then go down to the basement and just play them. Angus: I’d like to do an RnB record. Angus: Golden years, that was formative. Kristian: Pure synth, autotune. Jack: It’s funny because that was four or five years ago and we thought we’d written the album then, so we would
Angus: Just bass drum and keyboards.
literally sit there and be like, “this will be track 4”. Little did we know it was gonna be another four years…
Is it still all about The Beatles and The Beach Boys for you guys?
Kristian: We thought all the tunes were like fucking perfect, like, “this is so deep, this is perfect”. The reality is each of
Kristian: I love those guys man. I’ve had to make myself
us also make a lot of crap, not crap but a lot of stuff.
not listen to The Beatles anymore so that I can appreciate other music.
Jack: What keeps me up at night is the idea that we might have boyed off really good tunes, like “ah fuck, what if
Jack: The Beatles are the main one, I think we like the idea
that was the one that was gonna get us the Honda advert!”
that it’s four people coming together with different vibes,
Maybe not Honda cos that’s Peep Show. Yeah you have
four characters and they’re really interesting people, even
tunes where its like, “what if that was it?” What if George
just to watch on video. Even if you watch videos of them
Harrison wrote some of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’
recording, it’s fascinating. Four different voices together.
and then was like, “nah, it’s a bit shit”. It’d be horrible. When we last spoke about the band’s intentions the term Kristian: What I think is that you write the same song over
was ‘stadium fillers’, what are your intentions now?
an over again until you get the best version of it. Jack: Still stadium fillers Angus: It is frustrating being at this point and having so many songs, we’ve got enough for like two or three other
Kristian: My intention is to make people shit themselves
albums, whether or not they’d be good albums I don’t know.
and make them think that they actually need to start getting good at trying to write songs again. I read this thing by
Jack: Could be a ‘Be Here Now’ though.
Quincy Jones earlier and he said the reason why a lot of music sucks these days is because people don’t spend
So are some of the songs you’ve got left over going to be
enough time getting good at what they do, so my ambition
the next album?
is to convince others to spend a little bit more time on what it is they’re trying to do and try and create some longevity.
Jack: We’re too obnoxious for that, we think the newest
My idea is to encourage people to work harder at what
thing is the best thing at the time so we’re never gonna be
they’re doing and stick at it a bit longer. To inspire a new
like, “let’s just go back to the bank”. We’re too arrogant for
generation of kids to learn their chords and scales.
that, It’ll be whatever we’ve written nearest the deadline of recording will be the second album.
Jack: We’re not trying to be rockstars in any way, we’re trying to make it more about the songs. I think we realised
Angus: But then even in the last two or three months,
very quickly that we weren’t going to be “cool”. Our
between us there’s like ten new songs.
aesthetic is that we look like we’re having fun on stage and it’s incidental but I think that’s something to be quite proud
There’s gonna be a lot of lost music...
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Words by Sam Ford and Josh Whettingsteel, illustration by Valat Ampavat