Your lyrics dive into some pretty strange rabbit holes. What’s going on there?

Nat: I’m never short of ideas and generally I just work with things that interest me or stuff I hear at bus stops and that. I’ve always written songs since I was a teenager, but soon fell out of the “me, me me” mode of songwriting, bearing feelings and all that crap I have little time for. There’s a whole world out there that you can draw inspiration from, and when you got the ADHD it turns out you just intensely focus on things that you’re interested in, so I’ve decades of experience reading the entirety of Wikipedia, which is always good for source material or titles, getting trapped down little rabbit holes.

Films and games also provide a lot of similar inspiration, Disco Elysium and its fantastic realist setting have been really influential on some of the songs coming up on the new album, David Lynch and his exploration of the dream consciousness also comes up a fair bit. A lot of songs come from a title; you can conjure up a whole world, series of characters, bunch of emotions etc. from a good title, so I always keep a list from which I can draw from and the rest of the guys always chip in when we’re travelling together or at rehearsal and that. Then you get into the weeds of what you feel like exploring, often from a title, but also big paragraphs or stanzas might just come to me when I’m in the flow state, whether it’s social media brain rot, true stories of football bastards or more narrative-driven songs inspired by dreams and walks around Hucknall’s green parts.
I try to not stick to one approach though, once you get settled into one mode of writing and start knocking off slabs of the same old thing it’s time to give up, so I try to keep pushing myself, whether writing from different perspectives ( I got one written from the point of view of a Soviet passive bug they hid in the US ambassadors office, but we didn’t get a chance to record it this time round), or alternate histories, speculative fiction.

I see bands trying to give everything away for free to get attention, or treating social media as a hack to success, without wanting to put the hard work into their craft. I really hate it, the whole performative nature of it, turning yourself into a brand, makes for a really paranoid society that doesn’t engage with the world as it is; every interaction becomes a point-scoring exercise. We take a different approach that doesn’t rely on hashtags to get noticed, we know our music demands attention when listening and our live show will certainly catch the attention of even the most casual music enjoyer. We do this because we mean what we say and say what we mean, then the audience plays their part by sticking along for the ride.

In an age of distraction and doom-scrolling, how do you keep it fresh?

Nat: t’s so easy to feel hopeless currently – social media has rotted the brains of entire generations, a Labour government full of MPs that have stoked the flames of hatred against migrants and refugees being housed in hotels, 45 years of neoliberal ideology infecting the national psyche etc. This leaves us in a state where people see very little hope for a future, whilst at the same time music has become a commodity of little value, just another piece of content to add to the pile of easily ignorable bagatelles.

Do you write your music to be purposely political or is it just a reflection of the landscape we’re eternally in?

Nat: I’m not one to shove opinions down people’s throats, but our views come through loud and clear. There are loads of bands who scream about what they’re against, but I’d rather stand for something and let people come to their conclusions. There’s a lot of grandstanding out there, but we stick to showing by doing—treating people right, booking diverse lineups, paying bands fairly. I always tell people to join a union if they’re serious about change. It’s not about performative allyship; it’s about putting your values into action.