What does that mean? It means different things to different people, so whatever. At the end of the day, I can’t really care about what people think about me too much, and I’ve learnt not to care about it.
You get to a point where you’ve got to follow your heart. If you know in your heart what’s right, and you know in your heart what’s true, then you’re doing an okay thing. It really doesn’t matter what other people think.
- Absolutely. Also on the new album, perhaps more so than the first two, there’s a broader range of styles and influences. Where did you draw on for them?
We’ve always listened to more than just punk or just ska. Hip-hop has been a huge influence, drum and bass. When you’re growing up in London...there are parts of West London where you can’t even get Radio 1 because there’s so many pirate stations coming in, reggae, drum and bass, every turn of the dial. It’s impossible not to be influence by that, and that eventually becomes our music.
- In a recent podcast, you noted that some of the songs for the album had been kept from a previous session, and some had been completely re-worked or not used. What prompted that change?
Well, this government coming in, really. We were at a point when we were writing a deeper album, a more philosophical album. When this government came in we saw peoples’ futures been taken away from them.
We saw people losing their jobs, losing their houses. We saw an all-out attack on the working class, an attack on the poor. We were like...we can’t sit back and not take notice of this.
We’ve always felt that we’re a very small part of a much wider movement, and that we need to address these issues. At that point, we had that muse and then it was a very quick process to write the record.
- Some recent issues include AV (alternate vote) not being voted in. What did you think about that?
To be honest, I think it’s a case of looking at the bigger picture. At the end of the day, if you’re voting for one person who’s supposedly going to look out for what the majority of people in this country need, how many more years can we give this system a chance? We’re always told that this system is gonna get better and better.
Every year we see the poor get poorer and the rich get richer, and the gap widens. This system clearly doesn’t work for everyone. When it comes to AV, us as a band, our standpoint is that we don’t want anyone to lead us.
I don’t care how they’re voted for, I don’t want anyone to be my leader. Especially someone who, at the end of the day...it’s a minority vote. The majority of people just feel such little faith in politicians they ain’t even gonna make it to the voting stations.
It’s like...what’s the change? We go back from left to right to Labour to Tory to Labour to Tory...nothing ever really changes. Nothing ever changes between those leaders.
You have a choice of two different parties who really want the same thing. So, AV or not, it doesn’t make a difference to our lives.
- Moving onto the future of the band, what are your immediate plans now that the album’s out?
A lot of festivals this summer, we’re going to tour in November, and then we’re going to take it abroad this year.
- What kind of final message would you give to everyone reading this?
I dunno, man. At the end of the day, our message as a band is very simple, and that’s just to love. I really believe that it comes down to just as simple as that. Just believe in love, and that’s it.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge
Photo - Joe Speak