-Do you feel like you had a particular inspiration for ‘Ark’ album?
Liam: “We just kind of, dismiss any ideas. Just whatever was flowing we’d go with it”
Alfie: “We were into the 70’s rock bands, The Band and Led Zeppelin. Obviously loads of others as well, but I remember that’s what we were talking about, and we liked how they recorded their albums back in the day. Back in the day everyone used to record stuff on tape, there’d be no editing, you’d have more a live sound and we kind of tried to capture that more on this album.”
-Ark is my favourite album cover, could you tell us more about the idea behind it/design?
Jack: “It was more to do with finding the right designer really. What we did with this album unlike previous ones is we found a designer we wanted, let him sit with the album and see what came to his mind. Rather than before, when we’ve had a specific idea for the cover.
I thought it was a really nice way to do things, obviously none of us are artists by trade so when we all overthink things it doesn’t sit well for the album. So this is a really natural way to do things, he’d just take in the lyrics, take in the songs and see what came to his mind.”
-With almost 3 years after ‘Maybe today, maybe tomorrow’ how did it feel releasing new content?
Liam: “It was nice to get back to playing shows again, and feeling like a touring band. The time of was needed, but it was literally a year without shows.
It was hard not playing shows but the amount of work we put into recording and demos was worth all of the waiting for the touring and festivals.”
-Can you share with the readers some of your best moments on tour?
Liam: “There’s funny times are like when we’ve been pulled over in Europe, on the side of a mountain.”
Alfie: “One time we got pulled over in Switzerland because we were overweight, and they charge you for being overweight and we were about a ton overweight. We didn’t even have the money so we had to take the all the stuff off and leave it on the side of the road and wait for this other band to come pick it up. We were there for around three hours, maybe more waiting”
-Is there anything fun you guys like to do to pass the time on tour?
Liam: “Werewolf! Werewolf is a card game, Jack is the narrator usually and you kind of take on a character. There’s werewolves, town people, seers, and wizards. It’s all very geeky stuff, you can go up to sixty players.”
Tom “There’s lots of backstabbing in the game, true friendships are revealed”
Liam: “People ask us, you know do you guys argue? And I say no we don’t, but when werewolf comes out..”
-Particular favourite WATO album?
Liam: “My favourite is Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow.”
Alfie: “I love Go Now [and live], Maybe Today, Maybe Tomorrow and Ark, I’d put them up there”
Liam: “Albums five’s going to be my favourite, watch this space..”
-How did you guys meet?
Alfie: “Just from going to local gigs and school, because we all lived in Essex”
Liam: “I knew Alfie for a long time, from when we were kids. Met [Jack and Tom] first, and they said oh, our friend Alfie’s coming down. It was all very coincidental”
Jack: “We used to practice in Tom’s garage!”
-You’re stuck on a desert island, what album do you take with you?
Alfie: “Beatles, the White Album”
Tom: “The entire Led Zeppelin discography”
Liam: “Well if you’ve got Zeppelin, I’ll go for Pink Floyd, it just never gets boring, there’s always something new with it”
Jack: “I’ll take an MJ album or something, keeps the spirits high”
-How was shooting the ‘Good for you’ video? Difficult to get all in one take?
Liam: “It was difficult, there was a lot of time put into it. The guys that did it, sort of planned it all before, then we just did it in one day over and over again. It ended up being the last take was the one we used. The sun was setting, it was really cool. It’s hard to do but it’s so effective”
-How has it been touring with ‘Tall Ships’ and ‘allusondrugs’?
Alfie: “We love watching them every night, really love watching them. We’d never seen either of them before at any festivals. So the first day seeing them was just like, woah. These are sick.”
-Your last gig is on London on Friday. Do you guys have any plans after the tour?
Liam: “Time to go back to the studio I think, back to writing!”
-So, can we expect a new album in 2016?
Liam: “I don’t know when the date would be, but there’s definitely going to be a new album.”
-‘Cutting Our Teeth’ was such a great album, did you find it tough to follow?
Liam: “Cutting our teeth, it kind of says it in the name really, we were still learning how to construct songs, play as a band and find our sound.”
Jack: “I think that’s why the next album was so soon, we’d got these ideas and then we wanted to apply them again, you know? We’d learnt a lot doing an album, so we took that and wanted to get cracking straight away.”
-What would your best advice be for someone trying to start a band?
Alfie: “Work hard. Do things your way”
Jack: “Be patient, make sure you’re ready, and you’re happy with the songs you’re playing. Be ready before you just jump into it.”
Liam: “Or the ways of a Jedi, just follow that and you’ll be fine. Feel it from inside!”
-Any messages for your fans?
Liam: “Thank you for supporting the band, and if you bought the album thank you again and we’ll be back again soon with a new one!”
Harry Warner
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