0:01

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode

0:03

of Inside the Studio on iHeart Radio.

0:06

My name is Jordan run Tug, But enough about

0:08

me, Let's talk about my guests, who are truly

0:10

one of my favorite bands in existence right

0:12

now. Since bursting onto the world stage

0:15

almost exactly a decade ago, this Scottish

0:17

trio have carved out a unique sound, bringing

0:20

d i y punk ethos to cynthy dance

0:22

pop bangers like The Mother We Share, Leave

0:25

a Trace and Clearest Blue. Their latest

0:27

album, Screen Violence, is told through

0:29

the refracted lens of a horror story. It's

0:32

not quite a concept album, but the affectionate

0:34

nod to eighties slasher classics doubles

0:36

as a biting commentary on our modern

0:39

screen centric existence. It also

0:41

spotlights the constant abuse and harassment

0:43

that women are regularly subjected to online

0:46

end in real life. Tracks like He Said,

0:48

She Said, Good Girls and Final

0:50

Girl all grapple with themes of misogyny,

0:53

abuse of power, and gender standards.

0:55

These issues are tackled from a place of strength,

0:57

with a lyrical intellect that's become part of the

1:00

group's trademark. I'm so happy to welcome

1:02

Lauren Maybury, Martin Doherty and in Cook

1:04

of churches. The

1:06

new record is incredible. I can't wait to

1:09

to go deep on that. But to begin with, I want to ask

1:11

you a simple question, which is one that's taken

1:13

on a new residence, i'd say, on the

1:15

last eighteen months, which is, how are you? How

1:17

are you guys doing today? I mean, it comes and it

1:19

goes, isn't it I suppose for everybody?

1:21

But yeah, we feel good. I feel good that the record

1:23

is finally out and that people have

1:26

been really responsive to it. And you know, it's

1:28

not always given, especially in these times.

1:30

So I think we feel I feel thankful for that.

1:32

Oh that is wonderful to hear. I mean the new album is called

1:35

Screen Violence, and much of it was made through

1:37

screens during during lockdown, when

1:39

you were all separated in some cases by an ocean.

1:42

Was it challenging making this record in such

1:44

a segmented way effectively, you know, in your own

1:46

individual vacuums. Yeah, I mean we definitely

1:48

had to adapt and think on our

1:50

feet and sort of really shake up the way that we were

1:52

used to working in order to get it

1:55

done. But eventually we we sort of

1:57

figured out ways that we could make the technology

1:59

work, and the time zones work, and

2:01

uh and and ultimately got to a

2:03

place where we were working really efficiently and

2:05

really creatively, just as we would sort

2:07

of normally. So I guess we're lucky in that regard to

2:09

have managed to figure that out. But yeah,

2:11

I definitely had its challenges. But you

2:13

know, I guess, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. And

2:15

I'm so proud of this album. And I think

2:18

whatever we did, we did something right. That's

2:21

amazing. I mean, none of those challenges come across

2:23

at all listening to. I mean, it's also cohesive. It's

2:25

amazing to think of how you did put this all

2:27

together. It's really incredible. I mean, we've

2:30

relied on our screens so much

2:32

more in the last eighteen months, I mean, for being

2:34

connected for entertainment, for information.

2:37

Has this weird period changed

2:39

your relationship with technology in anyway?

2:41

Um, I feel like I'm always learning about new

2:44

audio programs I never heard of before.

2:46

To be honest, like still to this day,

2:48

we didn't interview yesterday and they used to program

2:51

I've never heard of in my life, and I was that, well, it's

2:53

just a whole world that I don't understand.

2:55

But yeah, I feel like touring and

2:57

stuff. I definitely appreciate smart

2:59

full and video calling in those things

3:02

anyway, but especially in the last year, wheneveryone's

3:04

been so disconnected. Yeah, if we didn't

3:06

have any of those things, I think all of this would have been a lot

3:08

more isolating and lonely, and it would have

3:10

been basically impossible to make a record without

3:12

it, I think. So it's funny. I've been

3:14

talking to a number of musicians in the last

3:17

year and a half, and so many seem to have leaned in with

3:19

their music to sort of up tempo,

3:21

optimistic, sunny positive.

3:24

You seem to have embraced the darkness

3:26

in an awesome way and embraced the ambiguity

3:29

of life. I guess in a in a way the record

3:31

that opens with the line I don't want to say I'm afraid

3:33

to die on the opening track asking for a friend, would

3:35

you say that you're a band of optimists? I

3:38

mean in the date, like I

3:40

guess you know, we've made songs that are

3:42

sunny ear and songs that are not as sunny,

3:44

and I feel like it's just about trying to figure

3:46

out where you're at when you make things

3:48

like if you try and push yourself to do one thing or

3:50

the other, then it's not going to come out quite right. So

3:53

yeah, I think that we were just kind of ready

3:55

for a bit more of the gasthy darkness when

3:57

it came time for this, And you know, in

4:00

a way lucky to have had that template

4:02

going in, because I think it would be really difficult

4:04

to make super cheery, smiley music

4:07

last year when nobody feels like that. I don't think

4:09

it's already mining something

4:11

that was then you felt more of when

4:13

you're locked in your house. It's definitely

4:15

a point where our management we're kind

4:18

of urging us to write happier because

4:22

you know, it's like if everybody's going through the

4:24

same really dark time, and the

4:26

fear, I guess is that like there will be a flood

4:28

of sort of miserable, depressing music. But no,

4:31

I think I think you can only really write what's

4:33

true and authentic to yourself at the time.

4:35

And I think for us to write like sunny,

4:38

happy pop music and ignore the fact

4:40

that you know that we're grounded

4:42

and where we're at it is like it would have been a really

4:44

difficult thing, like a really difficult

4:46

thing for us to go off, and I'm glad

4:48

that we saw because I do think that even

4:51

though the music is quite melancholy

4:53

and the lyrics are are quite sad in places, I

4:55

do think that there's always with this band, like

4:57

a kind of optimistic like ray of

5:00

unshine in there as well, you know what I mean. Balance,

5:02

Yeah, absolutely, I mean again, it's it's much

5:04

more, I think, emotionally authentic to what

5:07

people were feeling in the last year and a half and to

5:09

pretend that, you know, did you have a p pure escapism?

5:11

Would ask you about the title because on the surface,

5:14

when I first heard, I thought, oh my gosh, what a

5:16

way to crystallize the last year and

5:18

a half screen violence, everybody on the screens.

5:20

I didn't realize that that was in the running to

5:22

be a band name. When you when you formed

5:25

a decade ago, Can you tell me more about how you landed

5:27

on that as the as a title. I

5:29

guess it was kind of a happy unhappy

5:31

accident. They ended up being more poignant

5:34

than we intended. But yeah, it was

5:36

a band name that we've talked about in like

5:38

two eleven twelve, Like

5:41

we all really loved the imagery of it and

5:43

what it's referring to like that year of cinema

5:45

and horror movies, but it felt

5:47

maybe it just wasn't right for a band name.

5:50

But we were touring in twenty nine and re

5:52

found this list of names and it just seems

5:55

like a very vivid, not

5:57

concept but writing starting point

5:59

to go off of. And it's been really fun, especially

6:02

with the visuals and like the little tonic

6:04

tongue and cheap references on the record. It's been

6:06

fun to play with those kind of things and

6:08

have those elements be more escapist, even

6:10

though the songs are still I feel

6:12

personal to all of usn't a grounded in that space?

6:15

Yeah, how did the horror motif

6:17

come through? How did that idea take route?

6:19

Yeah? I guess it was the screen violence

6:21

concept, and now that it's a concept

6:23

album per se, it gave us a kind of like lens

6:26

to focus the music through and the and the

6:28

lyrics through, you know what I mean. It was it's like we've all

6:30

been such big fans of of horror movies

6:32

and sort of sci fi movies growing up, and and

6:35

musically a lot of those things were formative,

6:38

you know, like watching videos of like The Terminator

6:40

and Ghostbusters and Nightmare on the Street as kids,

6:43

and of course that they're not just the film

6:45

stick with you, but the music sticks with you in the atmosphere

6:47

that music creates. And that's something

6:49

that we were definitely quite keen to sort

6:51

of experiment with, leaning into a little bit

6:53

more because you know, it's fun more than

6:56

anything else. How much it's true,

6:58

I mean, just how indelible it is to the

7:00

to the story of your band. Didn't you meet at a

7:02

screening of The Exorcist? But yeah,

7:04

learning I um, that's I think the first thing

7:07

that we met. Yeah, she was working

7:09

at the cinema. Yeah, And it's funny, I guess like

7:11

each of us individually and together

7:13

have memories of those things too. And then

7:15

remember on the first record, I was looking for a

7:17

bunch of photos the day and I found a picture

7:20

of us all watching Buffy the band first there on the

7:22

bus, like on the first first buster that

7:24

we did. And I feel like it's always been part

7:26

of what we love as people on as

7:29

a band, and it's nice, nice in a way, it's

7:31

quite poetic that came right background to

7:33

that. You know, a lot of making music we

7:35

take seriously, but it's fun in a way. To not

7:37

have to be so serious about certain things, and

7:40

like there's always been that element to the band when you

7:42

guys have been putting in certain references

7:44

or certain bits are left in the music

7:46

which are supposed to you know, which are not.

7:48

Which your references is something or fun in jokes

7:51

to things, and it was nice to be able to do

7:53

that in a way on this record, which on the

7:55

face of it can be quite serious, but in another

7:57

way it's quite knowing and tongue in cheek I

7:59

suppose, I mean taking it back to the very beginning.

8:01

I've read that you actually used visual cues

8:03

and mood boards before, like when you

8:06

at the very beginning of these sessions. Can you tell me

8:08

more about how that factored in into the music.

8:10

Well, I don't. I think that's definitely something that

8:12

I've started doing in the last few years,

8:15

probably the first the third album was the first

8:17

time we started sending those kinds of things

8:19

around. But some of the visuals on that record are

8:21

really cool, but some of them didn't really end

8:23

up how we intended them too. And I think going into

8:25

this, because we knew there was more thematic

8:28

stuff going on around it, it felt

8:30

like, oh, maybe this will be fun to plan in

8:33

terms of just giving the ideas. I didn't really think

8:35

this will end up being a brief for what happens,

8:38

but you know, happy accident, I suppose. But

8:40

I feel like for lyrics especially, that's always

8:42

how it's helpful for me to start

8:44

like taking in lots of other art,

8:47

whether it's films or books or actual

8:49

physical art. And I love I love a

8:51

good interest board. These kids that

8:53

like look at my twelve interest boards about

8:56

definitely different things to do this albums,

8:58

but some gets

9:00

sometimes I feel like like they don't

9:02

want to see my multiple bost if nobody

9:04

wants to see the Pinchess board about March should, I

9:06

feel like I enjoy it,

9:09

like it's nice. That's funny you mention

9:11

that I was a screenwriting major in college,

9:13

and whenever I was stuck on a plot point or a

9:15

scene, I would go for a walk and listen to music,

9:18

and either the mood of the music or a lyric

9:20

line would inspire a part of the dialogue or

9:22

something. It would always kind of re prime the pump and

9:24

kind of fix whatever was blocked

9:27

in my head. So it's funny that kind of goes both ways

9:29

by using visuals for for audio cues.

9:32

Yeah, and I feel like it's never I'm

9:34

always often a fred almost to listen to

9:36

other music when I'm trying to

9:38

write music, just in case something

9:40

seeps into your brain literally that

9:42

you shouldn't so well. If anything,

9:44

I feel like it has to be other art forms

9:47

that do that. And I listened to our podcast

9:49

with Sophia Coplow where she was talking

9:51

about that, and she was talking about all the soundtracks

9:53

in her films and why they're so important

9:56

to the stories, where she says that when

9:58

she writes, she always going to sets of a

10:00

mood with like a playlist in the background

10:03

of what she thinks she wants to channel.

10:05

And I was like, oh, she doesn't too, so capital

10:08

well, like she's obviously mining

10:10

really interesting things of that. So interesting

10:12

how the different art forms feed into another. And

10:14

your last album you worked with producer Greg

10:16

Kurston, who's worked with everybody at the

10:18

All Food Fighters. Was it always the plan

10:21

to to get back to producing this album completely

10:23

on your own or did the pandemic kind

10:25

of make it so that that just sort of made more sense from

10:27

a practical standpoint to just keep it among

10:29

yourselves. Yeah, it was something that we that

10:31

we had decided on before before

10:34

we were sort of taken down by the

10:36

pandemic, you know, the last album was

10:38

we decided to experiment with you know,

10:40

honestly, we had a sort

10:43

of six to eight month period in New York

10:45

where we were writing on our own and the things weren't

10:47

like really there wasn't like any real

10:49

momentum, and the songs weren't amazing, and

10:52

we kind of decided to kind of cast the net

10:54

wide and see what working with other people

10:57

would bring in terms of inspiration and sort of

10:59

you know, fresh ideas. But I think when

11:01

you when we particularly work with other people,

11:03

were always kind of like trying to steal there the

11:06

techniques, not their ideas, but their techniques,

11:08

and and I think that was really eye opening

11:10

ou a lot of ways. And we took a lot of stuff from

11:12

that back to home base and sort of processed

11:15

it in a way that suited us. And that's

11:17

a lot of the reason why I think we feel so happy

11:19

with the way this album came out, because it's like the

11:21

product of all the stuff that we've learned since over

11:24

the last ten years working with us, working

11:26

with other people, and being able to sort of channel

11:28

that back into the original open home

11:30

based set up. You know, Martin,

11:40

I know, well the rest of us in Lockdown,

11:42

we're making sour to bread and banana

11:44

bread. I'd read that you were making guitar pedals.

11:47

Did any of that experimentation

11:49

come to to bear on on

11:51

this new album? I made some sort o

11:53

bread to, Yeah,

11:56

but I had to start making surtle

11:58

bread because I was eating it, and

12:01

uh, Lockdown, I'm not

12:04

as you know, as active as you might be

12:06

in regular life. So first I started building

12:08

a pedal board because I thought

12:10

it would be fun to have a few guitar pedals to

12:12

mess around with. And then in

12:15

that process also

12:17

I thought, oh, it would be nice and cool if I finally

12:20

learned how to solder cables. So I cut

12:22

all the cables and solder to all the cables and

12:24

put together this gargantuan guitar

12:27

pedal board. The beast this So

12:30

I thought it was really fun and a really great

12:32

tool in the studio. But once I

12:34

guess, like any ambitious person

12:37

or any kind of natural scholar,

12:39

once you get to the end of that

12:42

process, you go, oh, well, what does the next level

12:44

look like? So I started opening up the

12:46

pedals that I bought and looking

12:48

at them and going, oh, that's interesting. This distortion

12:50

pedal has only like this a very simple

12:52

circuit instead of here. And then next thing

12:55

you know, you're looking at schematics online

12:57

and one thing leads to another. Now I have a

12:59

like a bunch of pedals that I made

13:01

myself that are based

13:04

off of old and rare guitar

13:06

pedals that it's hard to come by now. So

13:09

I sort of turned it into a money

13:11

saving experiment because

13:14

I don't have to pay thousands of dollars for these

13:16

weird, rare, rare pedals and be

13:18

like a learning experience, but they and

13:21

and also a creative tool because

13:23

those the product of that learning. If

13:25

you're a musician or a creative then

13:28

the product of that learning ends up on in

13:30

the music that you make. You know. Then

13:32

I got a dog, which is like what everyone

13:35

does in the pandemic, and I had to stop building

13:37

pedals because she was always trying to run around

13:39

near there

13:42

are tuning the wires and like and then

13:44

I'll be like, oh great, my

13:47

dog has a tiny transistor

13:49

in her mouth and I'm chasing her around the house

13:53

stab herself. So yeah,

13:55

that unfortunately, but it's probably

13:57

maybe it's for the best, because by now this this

14:00

would be cool of things that I've

14:02

made. In fact, I built this microphone

14:04

that we're using as well, which is wow.

14:06

But I had to stop. Can you walk me

14:09

through what is the process for you of actually beginning

14:11

a song? What what are the bare bones you begin with?

14:13

I mean, I guess it depends. I don't

14:16

know. It's kind of different for certain albums

14:18

and for certain songs. And this instance,

14:21

I think about half the songs of the

14:23

album came from maybe just over

14:25

half came from demos that had done before

14:27

we got together, and then we wrote

14:30

some in the room together and we finished

14:32

most of it over lockdown. Sometimes

14:35

the start can be a very solitary process,

14:37

and that's a good thing, but I think I prefer

14:39

to write when there's other people there. In this

14:41

instance, the way that things worked out,

14:43

the way that we were not together as

14:46

much, it was like, oh, well, we've written four

14:48

songs together. That's awesome, but now

14:51

Ian's in Scotland and we have to find an album,

14:53

so we either like right and Lauren

14:55

I can hang out. So it was basically just

14:57

like, here's everything that I have do you want to make

15:00

an album out of it, and we basically the

15:02

produced out from there. Do you find that the

15:05

best songs come the fastest or

15:07

is it more fulfilling to have the ones that you really build

15:09

up piece by piece. I've experienced

15:11

both sides of the coin. I mean, I can say

15:14

the biggest songs come the fastest

15:16

usually, but the ones that

15:18

I like the most don't necessarily come

15:20

the fastest. So I don't know. Maybe

15:23

that's a that's a that's a tricky question

15:25

to answer. You can write, let its write

15:28

melody and and and a beat

15:30

and like music. You could write four

15:32

of those a day very easily, but

15:34

let its take a lot longer if you want them

15:36

to be good. I wanted to ask you about the lyrics

15:39

on on this album, and there's been a lot of reviews

15:41

that have noted that the lyrics on this album addressed

15:43

themes of misogyny and abuse of

15:45

power and gender standards in a way that hasn't

15:48

cropped up so much in your music, although

15:50

it's addressed in your interviews and in

15:52

in op ed pieces. It right, Lauren, Uh,

15:54

what do you make of that? First of all, I wanted to ask you if you agree

15:57

with that assessment, and then secondly, if

15:59

so, what led you to address these these

16:01

topics in your music on this album, Like

16:03

it's just a natural by product

16:06

of where we're at in life.

16:08

Probably, Like, you're definitely right that

16:11

gender and feminism have always been part

16:13

of the conversation around around the band

16:15

and in every single interview all the time. That's what people

16:18

ask is about. But it's not really anything

16:20

we were writing about, necessarily, say, other

16:22

than the fact that a lot of my lyrics

16:24

are from my point of view, which is a female

16:27

point of view. But yeah, I

16:29

feel like you write about things that you

16:31

know and what your experience have been. So it's

16:33

like chicken and egg kind of thing, like a

16:35

self fulfillient prophecy that that would make its

16:37

way into the music somewhere. But I don't

16:39

think when I was sitting down to

16:41

write songs that I was consciously thinking we

16:44

should make more reference to those themes on

16:46

this album. It just kind of happened

16:48

over the course of it. And yeah, you never

16:50

want something to feel preachy or didactic

16:53

or any of those things. I feel

16:55

like it has to be just a personal perspective

16:57

on something. And then with enough in

17:00

dree and fiction around it to make it feel

17:02

not fun for people. But you know what I mean. I feel

17:04

like, when you're writing, it should be personal to you, but

17:06

it can't be so completely about

17:08

that situation that people can't find themselves

17:11

in it. And I guess that was what was fun, especially

17:13

with the horror imagery, because there's so

17:15

many things you can dig into and horror films

17:17

in terms of how women are written and what stories

17:20

they get, how the how female viewers

17:22

of horror feel. And I feel like that was definitely

17:25

Maybe that's very academic, but that's

17:27

something I was thinking about when I was writing it, especially

17:29

something like Final Girl and my Okay. That's

17:32

definitely leaning into that world. But it's

17:34

not literally a song about a Final Girl.

17:36

It's just having fun with that can imagery.

17:39

Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned that. I mean, I was speaking

17:41

to two women friends of mine who are

17:43

extremely into horror fans.

17:45

They collect old eight s, VHS types

17:47

of it, and I was asking about it and they said that

17:50

it resonates with them, and I imagine

17:52

many women because the women in those movies

17:54

are the objectification and

17:56

the way that that sort

17:58

of putting these impossible positions

18:01

where they can't win in the violence.

18:04

That's not an abstract notion that

18:06

to them, that's something that you know, it is

18:08

part of their you know, daily lives unfortunately

18:11

in some ways. And it really was a way that they

18:13

could feel uh seen,

18:15

I think was sort of how they put it, which I thought was

18:17

not a way that I had looked at those movies

18:19

and embarrassed to say, but it was definitely educational

18:21

to to speak to them about that. Well. Yeah,

18:24

And I think that it's just I hate that

18:26

really basic argument of horror

18:28

as a genre as misogynists, because only

18:30

will any film in any genre could be misogynists

18:33

or come from that lens depending on who made made

18:35

it and what you're trying to see. But I do

18:37

feel like, especially over the course the last

18:39

couple of years, like underwriting this record,

18:41

I've watched a lot of we all watched a lot of horror

18:44

films to kind of reunite that part

18:46

of her brains. And like, yeah, for me, when I'm

18:48

watching it and I feel like there is something that you're

18:50

unpacking in your subconscious And I've

18:52

said this quote many times, but I think it's true. I'm

18:54

like all women can relate to the

18:56

feeling of bargaining for their own

18:59

space, their own existence, to their own life

19:01

in some way. You you know what it is to feel

19:04

watched, to feel under observation,

19:06

under attack. So I don't of course people are

19:09

gonna want to process those things through fiction,

19:11

because that's how we process everything. Basically.

19:13

I think you mentioned wanting to do it in a way

19:16

that was fun. It was not the right

19:18

word, but the way that that you sort of you're able to process

19:20

other people are able to to to put their

19:22

heads there. And I think that he said, she said

19:25

is just an incredible song. I

19:27

don't think I've heard gas lighting portrayed

19:29

so effectively in music. I think that it

19:32

is absolutely amazing song, really

19:34

illustrating that the expectations placed on women

19:36

in society are you know, maddening. I'm in line

19:38

in the song, I feel in saying I want to ask you more

19:40

about about that track where you're effectively

19:42

duetting with yourself as a sort of the

19:45

male perspective and the female perspective.

19:47

It's I think my favorite track on the album.

19:49

An incredible song. Thanks dude. Well,

19:51

yeah, that was actually the first song that

19:53

got written in the

19:55

room, so Obviously we had all these pre existing

19:58

demos that the guys have done, but that was the first fresh

20:00

both writing that was done and the hooks's

20:03

and the chorus they feel like I'm lives in my mind. Thing

20:05

was in from the first day, I think, and

20:09

the call in response auto

20:11

tune and stuff. When we were talking about the

20:13

production and the guys were working on that. It was meant

20:15

to be like a kind of call and response

20:17

between yourself and the voice that

20:19

you're talking about in your head, if that makes sense. I think.

20:21

I mean they'll be able to speak more on that, but

20:24

yeah, I feel like it's fun to have those

20:26

kinds of it's like it's musical

20:28

imagery as well as that links

20:30

with the lyrics, and I think that's really clever. Now it was

20:32

love it to my years. I thought that Good Girls was

20:35

almost a companion piece in so many ways,

20:37

rejecting the rules that are laid

20:39

out. And he said, she said, I think that's an amazing

20:41

song too. I wanted to ask you more about Good Girls

20:43

as well. Next man, Like, I feel like when I think

20:45

about those songs and like it's almost like

20:48

I rate from two different perspectives.

20:50

But I think that a lot of people can relate

20:52

to that. Like, I feel like those songs are written as

20:54

I wish that this is what I did every

20:56

day, and this is actually the standard I held

20:59

myself do and this is how I went through the world.

21:01

But it's not necessarily all the time,

21:03

but it's what I can hope for. Yeah, I

21:05

feel like those songs are cathartic to write, but there's

21:08

coming from a more kind of formative

21:10

character space, if that makes

21:12

sense. But it's really amazing when

21:14

people said that they found something in those songs,

21:16

because I think everybody we never set out

21:19

to write a song that will do that, and I hope,

21:21

like what everyone ever have. I think it's all

21:23

like we've always gone back and change the lyrics

21:25

because it's felt too preachy or not

21:27

quite right. Yeah. I guess it goes to show you

21:29

can't over plan something in advanced It

21:31

just has to happen when it's going to happen. That's

21:33

what's cool about music and making things

21:36

for me anyways, that like, we spend so much

21:38

of our time being like facts not feelings,

21:40

and then creation is mostly

21:42

feelings not facts, And I think that that's

21:45

it's nice to have that blood tide. You

21:56

spend time as a music journalist earlier

21:59

in your career. I mean it's rare that I've read

22:01

interviews with the band or spoken new band that I think

22:03

is so sort of aware

22:06

of where they sit musically

22:08

and their narrative. Is that

22:10

sort of hard to kind of silence

22:13

that static of sort of like, you

22:16

know, thinking about how something might be reviewed

22:18

or or things would would play online.

22:20

Is it hard to just sort of silence all that and just focus

22:22

on what you hear inside? I mean,

22:24

I feel like the media stuff for me

22:27

is more just like I wouldn't think we bring that into

22:29

the creative space. I don't think.

22:31

I guess it's more of being like when we're out

22:33

doing interviews or when we're on the road and there needs

22:35

stuff to be done in that kind of administrative

22:38

promo sense. I don't think that being

22:40

a journalist taught me anything about making

22:43

art really. If anything, it taught me more

22:45

that it's all completely subjective and nobody,

22:48

you know, everyone has a different opinion than Yeah,

22:50

I don't. I feel like it should be music

22:52

first, marketing second. Yes, my my

22:55

feeling. I gotta ask you got John Carpenter

22:57

to do the remix on Good Girls,

22:59

How horror fans give us the Giet and Gun in the

23:01

Heaven? How was that? It was pretty cool.

23:03

Yeah, he's um. You know, he's responsible

23:06

for some of my favorite films. You know, some

23:08

of those movies that were actually influential

23:10

to me as a creator and musician

23:13

as I was growing up, something that he

23:15

hat touched on earlier. You know, those movies

23:17

that like a hold a special place

23:19

in your heart. John Kupert has made some of those

23:21

films for me, So it was

23:24

it was pretty awesome to have him put

23:26

a spin on some of our work. Even more

23:28

fun was to trade the remix with

23:30

him, you know, like he was

23:32

he said, well, you can pay me or

23:35

you can remix me, And well

23:38

we chose remix. I mean,

23:40

it's out now so you can hear the results.

23:42

But like, we didn't want to go up against

23:44

him as like a synth neer,

23:47

because I mean, he has a

23:49

lot more experienced than us, and he's

23:52

more celebrated, and we're not idiots.

23:55

So we decided to take his song

23:58

in a more organic direction,

24:00

you know, like what is the John Carpet

24:02

or like electronic piece unlike,

24:05

but it's more of a orderline

24:07

like post rock thing, and it was I

24:09

thought that was kind of a lot of fun because

24:12

he he really breathed new life and good

24:14

girls as well, and really respect

24:16

what he did and have tremendous respect

24:18

for what he has accomplished over the years. And

24:20

of course I can't mention special guests

24:23

on this album without mentioning the great

24:25

Robert Smith. What was that like for you? Having him

24:27

with you on How Not to Drown? My God?

24:29

I mean, I know you're massive Cure fans. How

24:31

did that come about? We're all massive Cure

24:34

fans again, Like that

24:36

band really formed such a part of our

24:38

musical language growing up, you know. Yeah,

24:40

it sort of came about in a really sort of I

24:43

don't don't want to say boring, but like not

24:45

not not from a place of inspiration per

24:47

se. But our manager

24:49

had heard that The Cure would be playing some

24:51

shows next year with some new music out,

24:53

and had got in touch with their management

24:56

to say, you know, throw that throwing

24:58

our hat in the ring for potential support spots

25:00

as as you did as a good manager, you know. But

25:03

but apparently Robert doesn't work with a manager

25:05

anymore. So he got back to Campbell and said, Hi, Campbell,

25:08

what do you want? The

25:10

message doesn't was like guys, guys, what

25:12

do we want from Robert Smith? And we were just like, I

25:14

don't know. Like so we had we

25:16

had most of the album sort of in the bag or

25:19

thereabouts by that point, and

25:21

and so we just took the chance and sent him like maybe

25:23

six songs and and said, if you fancy

25:25

this is what we're doing, this is where we're at. If

25:28

you fancy doing anything anything,

25:31

then you know, feel free to to just give

25:33

it a go. And he wrote back

25:35

he was like, yeah, I really love I love all

25:37

of this stuff, but this one time not to drown. I

25:39

feel like I could maybe do something with And

25:41

so a couple of months went by and me thought,

25:44

you know, it's we've we've missed the chance. He's

25:46

maybe like going on something else. Are he's too busy

25:48

or just doesn't feel in it. But then on

25:50

Halloween night last year and we were

25:54

all night, no no joke, we were

25:56

we were about to go and watch a horror film

25:58

here and drink some wine, and we

26:00

got the email through with his demo and we're

26:02

just like, it's just a dream come

26:04

true. So it still doesn't even feel real

26:06

to us. You know, it's just it's just an incredible

26:10

things have happened in our world. Was he

26:12

very hands on? Like I imagine he probably has

26:14

like a lot of thoughts on how he wants things

26:16

to to sound. Indeed, what was he like just as

26:18

a collaborator, his hands on? Yeah, yeah,

26:20

very hands on, which is kind of an amazing

26:24

co sign in a lot of ways, you know, Like

26:26

it's not just he turned up, delivered

26:28

the vocal and then left. He he stayed

26:30

in the process all the way to the end. Right down

26:33

in the mix, he was asking for really

26:36

esoteric changes, which

26:39

I can hear. I can hear that's like

26:41

awesome. When you're going,

26:43

well, Robert wants like and

26:45

to notch out some high

26:48

frequency at like four K on

26:50

the symbols, I'm like, okay,

26:52

well, well if that's how Robert, here's

26:54

it, then I'm gonna notch you out

26:56

and exactly the way that he asked for. Right

26:59

until the end, he was still sending

27:01

over parts and going, oh, do you think

27:03

this could use some extra guitar here, or

27:05

do you think this could use some bits and bobs,

27:08

And he was really involved in the process

27:10

in a way that you know, none of us expected

27:13

or beyond anything we could have hoped for, to

27:15

be honest, Now we have this thing that has

27:17

his creativity on it, and

27:19

that is like lives forever, and whatever

27:22

happens from now the band's going forward

27:24

will always that. That's so cool. I mean that did

27:26

he care that much to like get all them the

27:28

sounds of the symbols and everything. That's that's so

27:30

wonderful. I hope that makes you you feel wonderful.

27:33

I mean, he I've got like notes

27:35

from Robert and I'm sure he wouldn't

27:37

mind me saying this where he's like one point

27:39

five dB off

27:42

the base at like this

27:44

time frame and the song things like

27:46

that, You just don't you just read those thoughts

27:49

and you action them right away. Just don't even

27:51

talk about it. There's no I think

27:53

it could be maybe no, not

27:55

when it's Robert Smith. Just chat up

27:57

and then send it back to him and he's like, that's

28:00

great. Nothing, Yeah, that's great. I

28:02

mean, that's that's better than gold right there.

28:04

Yeah, that's great from Robert Smith. I'm

28:07

struggling to think of a band who's

28:09

done a song with Robert Smith and also

28:11

Marshmallow. I mean you exist in such a

28:13

fascinating place musically of having this

28:15

like d I y punk background

28:17

but also these incredible dance

28:20

sith bangers that you hear at a club. I

28:22

mean, is it ever a struggle straddling that line

28:24

between those two seemingly very diverse

28:27

sonic worlds or is it just, you know,

28:29

not something that you consciously do, it's just what you want

28:31

to hear. That's a struggle. Yeah, Yeah,

28:33

totally is a struggle. We don't always agree

28:35

on things, but that duality

28:38

has been in the band from day one. Like

28:40

the whole thing was we

28:42

want to be creative, we want to be expansive,

28:45

we want to be forward thinking, but

28:47

there's also nothing wrong with being honest

28:49

and being like delivering like direct

28:52

music that can be on the radio as well. It's

28:54

just two sides of the band. It was always there.

28:56

But I'll be lying if we said if I said we agreed

28:59

on all of them because we There was

29:01

a line on on California that

29:03

that really stuck with me because it's so

29:05

not a California sentiment. I feel like

29:07

no one ever tells you there's a freedom and failure,

29:10

which I think is so much to impact

29:12

there's such a fast standing line. But again, especially

29:15

in a song called California, it was just such a results

29:17

oriented place. I guess it's probably a kind

29:19

way to say it, how did you learn that hard

29:21

fought lesson? I found it a very inspiring

29:24

line as as as I want to be creative

29:26

and somebody that you know sometimes struggles

29:28

with that. I thought that was something that was very inspiring. I

29:30

just wanted to ask you more about about that line. Well,

29:32

I don't know. I guess we all had a lot of time to reflect

29:35

last year, for better or worse, whether we wanted

29:37

to or not. And I don't know. I think like

29:39

when I look back on things in my life, especially

29:42

personal life, which I'm like, oh, I feel that

29:44

that that was a failure, that situation

29:47

didn't go I did badly, that went

29:49

badly. Like I look at those things a lot. That was

29:52

kind of about how you define it, and

29:54

like if everything was amazing all

29:56

the time, and all you ever did was successful

29:58

in any space in your life, you do don't learn anything

30:01

from that. I don't think you know. And often times

30:03

I think I have a bad habit of holding onto things

30:06

that I shouldn't and like being

30:09

I don't. I hate this idea of being a dead horse,

30:11

but the metaphor of being a dead horse, because I don't

30:13

want to have failed at something like I hate

30:15

failing. It's just a really bad personality

30:18

trait. But when I look at those things

30:20

and like, I think that for me, that lines like those

30:23

freedom and letting go of those things

30:25

and letting life take you where it's going to take

30:27

you. I say that, but I don't know if I do I

30:29

don't know what I do that, but I were tempting

30:32

to at least. It's hard to take your own

30:34

advice, but take the freedom and

30:36

move forward with it and hope

30:38

for the best. I mean. And speaking of moving forward,

30:40

what is next for you? I've heard that that you've got some

30:43

some new songs in the can too already. I

30:45

mean, yeah, we've started. We've started because I

30:47

guess we finished the Masters

30:49

were done in December, Violence

30:51

and the English, so yeah, we've had

30:53

a bunch of time to kind of try and think about

30:55

what we might want to do next and just make use of the time. Really,

30:57

because normally we'd be touring all the time,

30:59

and I say, that's not happening. So I'm just trying

31:01

to think her and and see what I see

31:03

where it takes us. I can't wait to hear it and can't wait

31:05

to see out there sooner rather than later, I hope.

31:08

Martin Lauren, thank you so much for your

31:10

time to end your music. So grateful for your time,

31:12

I really appreciate it.

31:24

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the

31:26

Studio, a production of I Heart Radio. For

31:29

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