In the past two years Nothing But Thieves has been everywhere. Literally. Leading up on the release of their self-titled debut, the UK five-piece—made up of frontman Conor Mason, guitarist Joe Langridge-Brown, keyboardist Dominic Craik, drummer James Price, and bassist Philip Blake—had already clocked time opening for both AWOLNATION and Gerard Way. Shortly after the album dropped in October 2015, the band found itself hitched to Muse's massive Drones Tour as the supporting act. Not too shabby for a bunch of kids from Southend, right?
While Mason's ability to reach the highest high notes continues to earn him comparisons to Matt Bellamy, Nothing But Thieves' sound is hardly gunning for area rock. Yes, there are moments of pure, power-chord-driven rock strewn throughout Nothing But Thieves, but in its quieter moments the album also toys with classic blues, early Stones and, at one point, even some ecstatic '80s Pet Shop Boys-style grooves.
Now, nearly 12 months since their non-stop schedule began, Nothing But Thieves are making their way towards album number two with, not surprisingly, a collection of songs written mostly on the road. Leading up to the band's North American headlining tour, which kicks off this week, we spoke to Joe Langridge-Brown about leaving the band's Southend garage behind, swimming the Great Lakes, and where exactly Nothing But Thieves are headed next.
Can you tell me a bit about growing up in Southend?
Me and Conor were in school together. He was a couple of years below me in school, so I was the bad influence—I took him to his first pub, I got him drunk. I got him stoned for the first time. That was just as we started forming a band—a different band from Nothing But Thieves. Conor would have 14 or 15 by that point, so it was a long time ago, nearly ten years now.
At 14, did you already know he was good?
Yeah, he could definitely sing at 14; his balls hadn't dropped. [Laughs] That was kind of the start of everything, really. We did a few different projects together, and the rest of the band we met along the way. We knew Dom through the local music scene, and our bass player Phil is Dom's cousin. Then Price, our drummer, used to open for our band, so when our original drummer left it just kind of made sense to steal him up.
What was music scene in Southend like growing up?
There was quite a prominent music scene there. There's a place called Chinnerys, which is like the local venue, and then these rehearsal studios called Maple Studios. Any band around the area would rehearse at Maple and then play at Chinnerys—it was just the thing you did. You'd meet a lot of different people, and there were a lot of different styles of music. When we were growing up that horrible Fall Out Boy/My Chemical Romance scene was happening, so a lot of bands sounded like that. Now that I'm doing music professionally—or semi-professionally—I see a bit of a rock revival going on, especially in the UK. Bands like Royal Blood kind of paved the way for groups like Wolf Alice, there's a band called Slave, Catfish & The Bottlemen, and we've kind of been swept in. It's a nice scene to be part of. I think rock music kind of fell into this dark indie hole for a long time, and now it's making a comeback, which is cool.
When Nothing But Thieves started, were there albums that you guys rallied around?
Definitely. At the very heart of it, it's always been guitar music; that's the core of the band. We're all big fans of Radiohead and the classic stuff, like Led Zeppelin. Conor is a massive AC/DC fan. But then Price loves pop music—he's a massive Sia fan, he loves Beyoncé. Dom produces a lot of music and he's into EDM and that sort of thing, too. It's eclectic in that way, but we all definitely come together over rock bands.
Do you have a favorite Radiohead record?
The Bends was always the favorite. I'm a massive fan, so I like pretty much them all. The only one I can't get on with is King Of Limbs, but it's the only one.
Tell me about touring with Muse. What did you take away from the experience?
The thing is, you tour with Muse and there's no way you can compete on any level. It all sounds amazing. The lighting, the production—it's all incredible—and then you roll in with your one amp. They put so much thought into every aspect of their show and every aspect of the sound—it was just of a level of touring that most bands never get to see. It was amazing. Even though they have all this production, at the heart of it is the three of them on stage, playing. They didn't have too many weird tracks going along,which is nice to see. Even at that level, you could still sort of the core sound of the band.
You guys are coming back to the US this fall. What has your experience been like touring over here? mm
The country is so fucking big! We're there for seven weeks and we're not even going everywhere! But the US is cool in that it's so diverse. This tour especially, we're going to a load of different places. I'm a massive fan of Seattle and Portland—I love it up there—so I'm really looking forward to going back. But then I also love how you go there and then you come down to Austin and it's totally different atmosphere and totally different vibe. Even on a seven-week tour, that keeps it interesting. We try our best to see what we can, which is not always easy, but it helps that it's all so different.
Have you had any especially memorable days of exploring?
Yes, in Cleveland. We were on jet skis in Lake Erie and we went out for a swim. It was a great day off, and then the next day we heard stories that apparently at one point that lake was glowing because there's so much pollution in it. So that was... something.
Did anybody get sick?
A few of us did. [laughs] It was interesting at least.
You mentioned that you guys are working on a new record. How is it going?
We're in really good shape. We didn't stop writing after album one, so as soon as we wrapped up the album, we took a month off and then just ventured back into writing. We've been working on the next record for quite a long period of time, just on tour buses and that sort of thing, but it's come along quite organically. We thought we might have to try and change the sound of album two more directly, but it's not really been that way. It just kind of happened, which is nice.
The first album was written primarily in your garage, and you've all spoken about the concentrated, kind of nine-to-five schedule that went into it. How does writing on the road compare?
I think we've progressed as writers. When we were working away in the garage we were just trying to get to the point where we could write a semi-acceptable song. Before that they were fucking awful. Now we've got to that point where we at least the do's and don'ts, so it comes a lot more quickly. Dom and I especially love writing on the bus because it gives us something to do on travel days. I think Conor struggles a bit more because he's got to rest his voice on off days really, so he can't sing too much if we're demoing a song, which is a bit annoying. The way it's been working at the moment is that Dom will start off a loop or a track, or a guitar riff, or whatever. And then, on just journeys, so bus journeys or van journeys, or where we've been in the world, I've been writing notes and notes and notes of lyrics, just different things, different sign points, and different sets of lyrics. And then we've just been mixing them and seeing what works together, and that's kind of been the basis of album two. The problem at the moment is that I've nearly run out of lyrics, so whenever we write a song now, I'm trying to scramble around to see what I've got left.
Do you feel like the overall vibe is happy, sad, somewhere in between?
I wouldn't say it's sad, but it's not... I can't give away the title yet, so it's hard to articulate. It's slightly angry, angsty—a lot of it is more introverted than the first album. It's definitely not a concept album, but it's probably as close as we could get to a concept album.
What's inspiring you to write currently?
There have been a few different things. Without giving away too much, there's been trouble within our camp—not with each other, just from being away from family, functioning. Living your life on the road just poses some problems. And then everything that happened with Brexit, which was a terrible, terrible thing; it's given me so much material. Sound-wise, I think there are a lot of different influences on the first album. We kinda didn't pick a direction on that record, but because we were touring the album so much, the rock feel became the part we really enjoyed playing. I think that has really come out in album two. It's probably more of a rock album than the first one.
Tell me about Nothing But Thieves on the road tour playlist. What are you currently listening to?
I try to find new bands as much as I can, really. There's a band called Black Foxes—I think they're playing Riot Fest in Chicago. They're friends of ours and they've just released their album I'm Not Well, which I'm really liking. Pixies just released a new song and have an album coming out soon, and the song's incredible, I love it. It's called "Um Chagga Lagga," andI think it's basically about road rage, where the character in the song kidnaps someone else on the road. What else? There's a punk band from the UK called Slave and they've got a new song called "Spit It Out," which I love. I'm constantly trying to find new music that I like, but the problem is there's so much old music that's amazing that I've not listened to yet. I'll try to get through that first, and then I've gotta find new music that measures up to the old music.
That's no easy task.
Yeah. Once you find a band that you truly love, like Led Zeppelin, and you work through the whole Led Zeppelin catalogue... I'd much rather do that than listen to a lot of the drivel that's out now. But I'm coming around to it; I'm doing my best.
