The Watch - Ep. 130: Interview With Gareth David of Los Campesinos!

Episode Date: March 9, 2017

The Ringer's Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald sit down with Gareth David of Los Campesinos! to discuss the band's new album, 'Sick Scenes,' (1:50) and what it's like working in the music industry while holding down a day job (16:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Stand up and walk now. Now. Hello, and welcome to the watch. My name is Chris Ryan. I am an editor at the ringer.com, and today's a special episode because Andy and I interviewed Gareth David, the lead singer from the English band Los Campesinos. Now, Los Campesinos just put out their most recent album, Six Seens. It's their sixth album in total. They have another EP called Sticking Fingers Into Sockets that you should also check out. They've been around for a decade.

They are an English band. They formed at University in Wales, actually, but they are an English band. And Gareth is probably one of me and Andy's favorite lyricists. He's got this really like razor-sharp way of looking at things that's very self-deprecating and very literate, very specific in its details. he likes to make references to beer and soccer and emotional devastation. The band kind of sounds like, gosh, I guess it would be, you know, when Andy and I first met each other, this is the easiest way to talk about this.

When Andy I first met each other, there was a time when there was a lot of transatlantic communication musically between American indie rock and some of the underground British music and also just basically Brit Pop at that time. You saw blur get influenced by pavement. You saw bands like Ursula, you had Sora, who were kind of a little, know, a band from the UK who were taking what they were hearing from like Arches of Lof and pavement and indie bands from America and shooting it through their own specific lens. Los Campesinos kind of is a further down the line wave of that, right?

So if Andy and I sort of started hanging out in the late 90s and that was starting to happen with some of the Britpop bands, as indie and British music spoke back and forth to each other across the ocean, you get a band like Los Campesinos that comes along in 2007, which I don't think that you could have, they would sound anywhere what they sound like without American indie rock, but by that same token, they have a very distinctively British sensibility to me. That really comes down to where Gareth's lyrics come in. And some of it, my favorite songs by them are just so razor sharp like you would almost compare them to a Smith song in the way that they're so specific in their perspective,

so empathetic with the characters, but also so cutting about the emotional stakes of what's going on in the songs. This new album, Sixth Scenes is amazing. I also recommend, we were beautiful, we are doomed, hell of sadness. These are great albums by this band. So we talked to Gareth for a while about just being an indie band for the last 10 years and what that means now versus what that meant when they first got together. It's a much different industry now. Los Campesinos hasn't really been around for a couple of years. I mean, they didn't break up or anything, but such is the way of the world that if you're not a festival touring every 18 months album band,

you just deal with life's realities. And that's something that Gareth talked about in a really interesting way and just sort of going home and having a job and doing that for a while. And then when the mood strikes and when things all fall into place, you come back and you put out an album.

So six scenes is the album. You can find that on any streaming music service. You should go buy a copy if you get a chance. And I know that Los Camposinos were touring America. They might be wrapping up by now. but I think they're going to be on the East Coast. So if you're hearing this on the East Coast on a Thursday and check the Internet, they might be around.

Just a couple of housekeeping notes for the Watch podcast. I'm going to be in Texas at South by Southwest over the weekend. I'll be down there with Sean Fennacy from the Ringer, and Sean's been on the Watch a bunch of times, and you should check out Sean's podcast on Channel 33, obviously, where he interviews directors. Sean and I are both attending the Film Festival there, so we're going to do a live watch podcast for people in Austin.

If you have a badge or if you have a pass, you can get in. I don't think that they're selling tickets, unfortunately. But, you know, we will be around, so hit us up on Twitter if you're there. Also, we'll be back on Monday with a regular watch pod. Andy and I will be doing the Double Down Book Club, long promised. That's Zoo Station by David Downing is the book we discussed. So if you are a speed reader and you haven't gotten a chance to read it yet, now is the time to get into it. And then business as usual, Andy's back Thursday, and we should be trucking along.

We have lots of great television to talk about. So thanks for listening. Check out this interview with Gareth David, Luis Campesinos. The album is called Six Scenes. So when the music comes in, you'll just sing. You have a request. Okay.

I think we're just going to jump right into it if that's all right. I mean, obviously, we're thrilled to have you. Chris and I are big fans of the band. Thank you very much. I think, Chris and I have not discussed this ahead of time, I think that Six Scenes, the new record, might be your very best. I think it's a fucking great album.

Thank you. I think it's your very best. Oh, look at you with them. Chris has a handheld, and he looks very filled on to do. I think my opinion on whether it's our best is the least important opinion. And I really struggle to, like, have any opinion on it until a year later. Yeah. It's weird because...

When the shame sets in. In some cases, yes. The last couple of records, that hasn't happened. Like, generally speaking, there's been a little bit down the line and I won't listen to the album for a long time, and I'll go back to it. And I'll be like, ah, you know.

But with no blues, I still like that record. Okay. Six scenes. Right now I like it. We're just playing songs from it for the first time now. So that's really exciting. And people,

a lot of people have been saying that they think it's our best, which is like a great relief. That was a very Trumpian answer. Like, so many people were telling you. So many people. You can't do things like,

I mean, when you listen to a record and you hear like the song that you wish you hadn't put on or the chord that was a little misplayed and you you wins but you can't tell people right you can't you can't go out there and be like oh I'd like I'd like that one back no I think I do I'm at a point now where I was going to say stopped caring which isn't the case

I think it sort of cares so much that I just have got this complete like baseline honesty about everything and I think because that's always been important in our songs. They've always been honest and open. But I feel like I can extend that to dismissing our whole back that long. But you know, you skipped Hello Sadness when you were talking about them there. And, you know, I actually listened to the band religiously but hadn't read about the band

in a couple years. And a lot of the 16th review, which had been almost uniformly positive, were like, I returned to four, you know, like, you know, hello like a, hello sadness was like a little bit of a dip and I'm like, well, wait a second, I fucking love hello sadness. It's funny if you take a step out of like the discourse about a band that do you find out that there's like this conventional

wisdom about like, oh well this was the dip and then they came back and I mean, do you even do you pay attention to stuff like that or do you find yourself having a parallel discourse about like the highs and lows of your catalog? I wish I could say no. But I think

well one of the things is that when people Now that we've got six records, people do tend to rank them in preference order. And there doesn't seem to be a consensus. Like some people love hell of sadness and others are like, oh, it's dour and dreary is my least favorite. And I think I like that. It means that I needn't listen to anybody's opinion because everybody is equally wrong.

But one of the reasons why I think we love the band and one of the reasons we're excited to talk to you is that we know from reading interviews and also from listening to the records that you are a fan of pop music and indie music and a fan of everything that goes with it, the pageantry, the stories, nonsense. Absolutely. The ranking.

The ranking. Like, you must love that too. I feel like you probably have rankings of your favorite bands. And so now all of a sudden, to be at a point in your career where you can put your own stuff up there, how does that feel? It's weird.

Everything related to being in a band, and in this band, maybe in particular because people who like our band really really like our band and it's just so stupid and odd like that people care enough to to talk about those things and especially because we're on tour in the States first time in five years properly in North America for the first time in Vancouver really messed up and and so we're meeting people for the first, like people who are seeing us for the first time, which is really reassuring. It's not just the same people that it was five years ago.

And sort of, it's because people listen to, listen to the music and I guess I struggle with the fact that people love our band in the same way that I have loved bands in the past and do. And I put those people whose music I love on, not on a pedestal, but you know, I, I, I admire them in some way and we experience that at gigs like we sell our own merch so we're at the merch desk all evening and just it's a stream of people coming up

and talking sharing their experiences and things like that and that people do really open up and and just want to talk about the band or talk about the way that the bands helped them in the past through different situations and stuff is I just don't

it's I do not know how to sort of believe it or just understand that it's happening. It's so, so odd. I think, I think, I don't know if most people in bands feel like that, but the fact that people like our band, still after a decade, is just the weirdest thing. And I don't know how I'm meant to sort of reconcile that. And your band has gone through, you've sort of persevered through these volcanic changes in the music industry, which I think is actually, you know, is,

it's as relevant as you want to make it, but I do think I was even looking at the Spotify page and you guys have these incredible playlists. And it's like it's weird. Like I knew you would have really good playlists. You know, I knew the people in the band and it's awesome. Like the bass player has like this like Grime Techno playlist

and Gareth has his favorite songs and then they have the songs that they were listening to throughout six scenes. And I was like, yes. Like this is the perfect Spotify band because they have like all this stuff at their fingertips. But then you guys were also a great sevenage band. You guys were, you know what I mean?

Like you've gone. through these like incredibly different ages of music in a weird way. Yeah, I guess so I think this being, what you just had to remember what year we're in for a second. I have to do that all the time. We formed in 2006. So with like the 10 year anniversary of everything coming around, there's plenty of reason to be sort of looking back and...

He says with dollar signs in his eyes. Sorry, Canadian dollar signs. Yes. but um the uh so we have really sort of bridged the the period of we were signed right at the end of the sort of indie music industry boom when i don't know what it's like in the in the states but in the UK labels were paying out obscene amounts of money to guitar bands because there was that wave it's like arctic monkeys wave kind of yeah and um we were right at the end of that Just in time, thankfully.

Scoot to the door? Yeah. To like slamming it behind you. Yeah, exactly. Like a zombie movie like, well, the door's closed now. So we had like a big recording contract that we signed, a big publishing deal. And very quickly the bottom dropped out of the music industry. And I think we have adapted to it quite well.

We were always very sensible from the start in terms of like we did the advert for Budweiser. and rather than just taking all that money and spending it personally, we were like, right, we'll save that for when the band becomes less popular so that we can still tour. That's really, and no wonder you sneered when Chris offered you on Miller Light. Yeah, I've got to be very brand loyal. Come on, just some respect. So we have made that transition quite well, I think,

and there aren't many bands who released their first record in 2008 who are still going at it now and on some. six records. And I think we've made a lot of sensible decisions and being willing to adapt to the changes of the music industry along the way. I remember I think I first heard you guys, you, you guys are really big on MP3 blogs. You know, like just, and that was like, and what is that night? Yeah. I mean, it's just, why you, you need them. I mean, you need them to like curate. But I mean, it was, it was, that was a huge time of kind of just like going through four or five different sites. And I had like a little app that on my browser and it would be like

download all, you know, and I would just then listen to them, like on a walk around the hop. You're saying app and browser, like you're saying fax machine. It's a very romantic. That was MySpace as well. That was when, like, that made it so easy for any band to just immediately have

somewhere to host their music. And things like that exist now, but I didn't think anywhere has done it as well as MySpace. Who was in the Los Campesinos MySpace top eight? Tom. Obviously. Obviously, Tom.

No, we ditch that guy as quick as we could. Well, that was always that was always about flirtation and power plays really. And then it was like Bernaldeño on there too

just like in case. It was just in case he's browsing. Yeah, he was like, it would be most Campesinos. Like maybe a band that we were trying to impress or maybe somebody

that we fancied or something like that. Augustus Boll. Bush, founder of the brewery. Yeah, exactly. And hopes that he would. It's interesting because Chris was talking about the changes in the music industry that went around the band.

But I've also always been drawn to the fact, the changes within the band itself. Because you formed a university. You were quite young, I imagine, if you were university students. Yeah, not as long as I wish we were. We were like 21. And I feel 20, 21, but I wish we were teenagers. I feel, because then I could say, we formed the band when we were teenagers. And that's a lot more romantic.

Right. And then also you could credibly still be playing after 50 years and, you know, not in your 70s yet. Yeah, good point. But forming a band when you're in college is one thing. You know, and everything's fun and everything's a laugh. And then to be still be doing it more as a career 10 years later, obviously members have left to pursue other things. Did you get into it thinking that this is the only thing you wanted to do? And at what point did that – at what point did those conversations start to come into the band when

reality hit and then sort of phase two or phase three the band had to be accepted. That's a good question. I think I never wanted to be in a band. I never had, I mean, I like music. That's good. We had that on the record now. I was always far more interested in soccer, though. Always have been, always will be.

We formed a band, not because we wanted to be in a band, but we had a couple of friends who had a band and they were rubbish. And we went to see them play shows. and they looked like they were having fun and me and Neil were like, well, we could do that a bit better. So then we did. And then it all happened so quickly.

In terms of putting our four demos on MySpace and we'd been offered, we'd had like recording contracts faxed over to us. Like within the next two or three days, it was ludicrous. Wow. And so we didn't rush into it. We took a few...

How did they have your fax number? Was it like... I know. It was just into the university library. We had to go in to pick it up. But so then very quickly, we... It was... It was...

We still had one year left at university. So we were recording on weekends. There were a couple of great weekends where we'd fly to Spain for a gig and then be back in lectures for Monday morning. So that was really fun. I mean, it did kind of kill my last year of uni because I'd just... stopped, really. Sure.

And there are a couple of good friends who basically wrote my essays for me going through that, which I remain very grateful for. But you write their lyrics now. That's right, yeah. It's perfect. Yeah. And so just let's say hello and thanks to my friend Drake for that. Well, he succeeded enormously since then.

I didn't realize it. My lyrics, exactly. And then I think the thing that you mentioned about it being a career is the, I mean, it isn't really because we're at a point now where we all work jobs, we work day jobs, and it's more, it's a hobby, but it's one that we get to do to a reasonably high level. Obviously, we get to come to the United States. But it is a hobby, and I think that's healthy. I mean, the idea of music being a career, I think is one that forces you to make decisions.

that you're not actually that true to. And because we know that it isn't the be all and end all for us because it can't be now, I think that's beneficial. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that particular because the one constant in the band, well, there are a couple, you being among them, but you were seven members at the start. Yeah, how many, are you still seven?

That's a large number of people. That's a large number of people to be a band, to be a gang, to travel, to organize with. it does seem like because I know that you guys also had jobs and you have jobs between the records that when it's time to come together again, there has to be purpose behind that, right? There has to be, this is what we, this is what this is what we're going to be doing, this is what we're going to be sounding like. So in the downtime, what's that like for you?

I mean, are you, you're living your life, obviously, you're going to soccer tournaments in Portugal, perhaps. I'm just spitballing. When do you realize it's time to pick up the bat phone? and how do you sell it to the rest of them? Well, with this record, having been the longest that we've gone between records, no blues in 2013,

and so we didn't start recording six scenes until summer 2016. It was like a real, it was a, I'll say it's a difficult couple of years, and the word difficult is dramatic. It was just in the context of being Los Campinos, it was frustrating. And it was sort of us thinking, you know, should we bother? Is it? We felt that no blues was kind of slept on a little bit.

It got good reviews and people liked it a lot, but we thought it was really strong. And that wasn't really reflected in what came from it. So, but then I think we just got to a point. Tom, who I write with and he's been in the band from the very start. he tours with perfume genius and he plays guitar in his life band so he's off playing gigs and I think he kind of started to feel like

he loves playing those shows but he wanted to be playing his songs and like seeing people react to his music and we just got together at the start of 2016 and just had a conversation like why don't why are we waiting why we know we can do this

it was we didn't have a record label that's when we started to self-manage and it was like we need to it's just like the story isn't finished and and it is that again sounds very dramatic but but it could have been right I mean yeah but there's no momentum it could have just yeah and I think that's why the reaction to that six scenes has got has been so fulfilling for us it's only been out for a few days but that's really like buoyed us and then so we we that's when we came up with the idea of making the soccer shirts to commemorate our 10-year anniversary as a band, and we sold over a thousand

of them in a week, and suddenly we had the funds to do a record, and then it was like, right, let's do this. And Tom started compiling the ideas that he had. I never write until I'm in the studio anyway, so I just sort of put my feet up for another three or four months. Wow, the Jay-Z of the Indy Circuit. I didn't realize that. It's time to make an album.

Call me in three months. Yeah, but kind of. I wish it wasn't like that. I don't, so I guess as an extension of what I said about never wanting to be in a band, I don't, I would never be comfortable with the idea of me being a musician or a writer or an artist or whatever very flattering words people use. You prefer flannure? Like what do you? Boulevardiers?

I just write, I don't know. It's just not what I am. And I, so when I, my only motivation to write is, oh, shit. it. We've booked studio time. Yeah, yeah, it's that. It's deadlines. That means you're a writer. Let me slap a label on that. Not a musician, not artist, writer.

Professional writer. I'll go with writer from that. Okay. But yeah, so, yeah, that's my only motivation because I have to. So in the interim period, is, because your lyrics are so incredibly detailed that they feel like they're something that you've had a record on. I mean, it seems like something you've been working on for years in between the records and that they have these specific references to specific times, to specific events, people.

Specific stadiums. Specific deep-lying midfielders. Do you have that all up in your head and it's just sort of like a notorious BIG in the studio situation? Or is it journals and text messages that you've sent to yourself that then just get dumped into a notebook and into a lyric sheet? I promise it is genuinely just what it comes into my head in that month period in the studio. That's great. I have like a notes file on my phone, which maybe will have four or five,

usually just words or puns or stuff that I want to use. I went to, previous to recording six scenes, I did go to the pub one afternoon and with like a notepad and a pen, and I wrote the opening two lines to five-th-clock's ceiling from the record, but that was literally it. and I just got drunk too quickly and then stop writing. That definitely makes you a writer.

It's just what happens there and then. One thing I do that really annoys me is if an idea for a good lyric comes into my head, and this is just testament to how lazy I am, rather than writing it down, I always say to myself, if it's actually a good lyric, you'll remember it. And it does. Here's the testament to how highly I think of you as a lyricist

and what I've come to expect from the cleverness of these songs is that on I broke up in Amerente from the new record I have spent I spent I don't know because that was released fairly early I spent about two or three months assuming the chorus was referring to an overflow Ferranti as in Elena Ferranti the Neapolitan novel's author who was a global sensation and I was like wow that's that's a deep cut it's like an over like so a mysterious Italian woman who's taken the world by storm but I'm overflowing with these love stories

when I was a girl in Naples. Misheard of Louis-Campasino's lyrics is like a good... We could just do a whole show on that, but it's inaccurate, but I was crediting you for it. Often the misheard ones are better, and it's one of the hardest things is when people attribute meaning to a lyric that is better than the actual meaning,

and I have to stop myself from appropriating that. But what you say about the mishearing, that's not the best mishear from this record, even the, well, when we were recording for whom the belly tolls from the new record. That's a pun. It is.

And I was doing the vocals for it and our producer, John Goodmanson, he stopped me and he's like, Garif you're going to have to try enunciating a bit better. It sounds like you're singing for whom the belly tolls. I was like, yeah, I am.

Oh, okay. Great here. Exactly, just playing Angry Birds. Yeah, moving on. The other thing that I was thinking about and listening to this record as a constant in the discography, can I say that? Yeah, please too.

That I've always really admired is that many people put on rock and roll or whatever this is at this point as a suit of armor. Like you write yourself into a cooler character, you write yourself as the hero in the story or that terrible breakup or whatever. There's always been an abject quality to your lyrics, which I really admire. You don't hesitate hanging yourself out to dry in these situations.

Yeah. Up until this record, too. And I like what that says about your relationship to music, to being on the stage. You're not putting on the suit of armor in front of people. No. Or the leather jacket, for that matter. No. And thank you, because that is important to me.

I think part of it is because a lot of the stuff, particularly early on, was about relationships and love. And I never wanted to be a songwriter who was pinning it all on the person I was in a relationship with. I didn't want it to be some always like horrible misogynist diatribes about I hate you, you're a bitch. And so I think that in most cases, I'm when I am singing about relationships,

and stuff, it's, I would agree, I'm sort of putting myself out there and sort of the blame is always on me and rather than, it's sort of me analyzing myself and how I am a terrible person rather than, rather than the opposite, which is kind of always been important. I think also probably easier for people to empathize with as well, which is, which is, which people seem to like. Is that part of, like, and that, that's almost partly related to the careerism part of it, though. I mean, I'm sure that if you have to be overly concerned with this persona that you're presenting and this like brand of a band that you're trying to like market to people that then you have to be more, there has to be consideration. I'm sure that there has got to be a radio head song

that's like just a fun little violent femme song that they just were like, well, this doesn't really fit into our dystopian kind of like, you know, 20th century modern composers meets the Pixie's vision of the world. And it's like, it's tough. I mean, I wonder what I always wonder what bands like the song that they just mess around within the studio sounds like and that's what those boxes because at a certain point it becomes not an official

it can't be a song of this band because this isn't one of our songs yeah yeah it's and that's kind of I guess that relates to one of the criticisms that is often laid our band and it's fair is that we a lot of I've noticed people saying

I wish they'd try something completely different it's like what why like I mean Other bands do different things. We like the thing you do. This is an American sports analogy that I don't fully know, but I think you can fill in the gaps for me.

You're in a safe space for that. Who's the basketball player, Barry, who shot free throws underarm? Oh, Rick Berry. Yeah, right. So I was... That's a deep, that's a deep rap. Well, I was listening to a podcast recently that was talking about who was the, Who's the all-time highest average point score at Will?

Will Chamberlain. Yeah, right. So he was, he started, he threw underarm for a bit, right? A little bit, yeah. And his conversion ratio was great, but then he stopped, whereas Barry always threw underarm. And he said how he wasn't the best basketball player ever, but he was the best basketball player he could be, whereas these other guys who refused to throw underarm were not because

they could have been scoring more points. They want to look cool. Yeah. And I think that's what Los Campesinos is. Hey, before we can do you with this conversation, let's just take a quick break for our sponsors. Hey, everybody, just want to tell you a little bit about Sonos. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is turn on some music.

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but I'd rather leave it to people's imagination. but it was essentially about how good it is to hear your band singing in unison in group choruses. Yeah, that's what I like that. You clearly like that. It is an extremely exciting moment when it comes in. I think I also started saying this dude is seriously singing about the Bologna Stadium in the first song of an album after like four years out of the mix. Well, I want to know if there's a connection. I wonder if there's a football chant mentality to this that has infected your own head and your songwriting or just where you, where did you gain this appreciation for something that is so primal and so basic and so many bands. ignore, maybe they just don't have the personnel. It's like you guys have like, that's your version of handclaps where it's like you've got to apply them judiciously, but when you let them out, it's amazing.

Yeah, and then when you say, in the moment in Amaranti when you say I'm going to need your help with this, I mean, any song that does that, I'm a sucker for. That's a thing that I love. The thing with doing that though is you will not believe the amount of takes I did of me like trying to do something that is meant to sound like an out- Super casual. Oh, yeah, sure. Super cash.

obviously isn't. Yeah. Because they were real ready to help you out. Yeah. You did not surprise them. They were ready. Yeah, exactly. I think that's the sort of thing where you always end up going with the first take

because by the end I'm like, oh, hey. Oh, yeah, guys. Hey, oh, hey, you're going to come. You guys here too? But the gang vocals is an easy trope, but it's really satisfying. And especially live, there's a few moments in the set where it is like, Like, I don't need to sing. And that's great.

As long as they do it in the right place. Yeah. Then, yeah, that's amazing. I think it helped, yeah, because we've got numbers in the band and we've got co-ed voices as well. So that makes it sound more interesting. But definitely football chants. There's a song on No Blues, The End of Gloomy,

where it ends with a chant of ex-boyfriend, give us a song. And that is just an edit. it to a football chant. And I like that. I like that a lot. You talked about how great this has been so far in North America. Yes.

To connect with fans and to see how much the band is meant to people over the years and is connecting with people still. That's an area I'm very curious about. Because Chris and I talk about this a lot and we were talking about it before you came. We became friends 20 years ago because we were both wearing indie rock t-shirts. Right. This matters to us. That's how a band formed as well.

This is how you made. Just for another person, where you're like, oh, you like that band? Yeah, Tom and, I think Tom and Neil met, and that caused the formation of the band, and that was in like an indie rock club.

I think one of them was wearing a Sufian Stevens t-shirt. And the first day, Neil and I met, we, like, very serendipitously were, we lived in the same halls at university. So complete potluck. And the day that he arrived, we both arrived on the same day, his parents had left.

I was like, right, I'm going to go out and meet the people I'm going to be living with for the next year. I knocked on his door. He opened the door. I'm wearing a Sonic Youth T-shirt, and he's literally, it sounds made up. He's unraveling a signed Sonic Youth poster as it happens. And it was just like, great. Yeah. Like, this is going to be okay.

And I met my best mate then. So now we're like 12, 13 years later, we're still doing this band. And so I don't want to make it. sound like this is the old foggy question, although it might be. But, you know, a lot of our friendship and people that we knew came about that way, T-shirts, posters on the wall. Chris and I used to upset. We used to buy Melody Maker and NME, like, at ridiculous import prices and just be like, that's single of the week? Okay, I will spend $20 on it. Why not? I'll try it. The mystery to it was so exciting and sort of made us who we are today. What's your take on that?

Because we're assuming that you had a similar experience with music as music fan. Clearly, are out there still loving music, young people. But I often wonder if it feels less central to young people's lives because I am not leading a young person's life anymore, or because technology and everything has sort of disrupted all of it to the point of almost abstraction, where there are people who love bands and fall in love with them. But it doesn't feel as collective anymore. Yeah, I think I would, yeah, I hate to say things like that because it does seem like... Somebody had this conversation 10 years ago about us.

For sure, and then they'll have it again. All the caveats. I'm being absurd, but I'm also curious. I think that sort of being a teenager and developing your music taste and your interest now, must be great because you have access to everything, and you need and waste your time with, you need and waste 20 bucks on an employed record that you're not going to like because you... Damn, you Donna the Replicants.

So everybody's got every, you know, you can listen to what you want, you can watch what you want, and that's great. But, yeah, I guess, My sort of formative music years were played out on AOL chat rooms, like not even message boards, but chat rooms where there was like a group of about 20 of us who talked in a music. MCUK. It was called Music Chat United Kingdom. What was your handle?

It was a ludicrous. That's why I asked. I think it was Johnny Pringle, which was. some weird alias that me and a friend used for like writing prank letters to people. It sounds very teeny. And to be clear, because you guys met at the University of Cardiff. Yeah. But you were not from Cardiff.

No. Where did you grow up? I grew up. 20 minutes outside bath. Jane Austen, Roman territory. I was getting that vibe. Yeah, exactly. But that's where I live now as well.

I lived in Cardiff for like eight years or so with Neil and with others in the band. But yeah, that's kind of a sticking point because we're always called Welsh. Yeah. Which I totally understand because we say we're from Cardiff, but none of us are Welsh. But every so often you just get a disapproving look from the super furry animals. They're like, this is our corner. We're good friends with them, and they are lovely people. And as long as we don't score and are being mistaken as Welsh in front of them, then it's absolutely fine.

As long as you don't try to speak Welsh in front of them or spell right. No, if any sort of attempt at Welsh is just, incredibly offensive because there's so many continents that's weird places, man. Yeah, it just sounds like clearing your throat. Sorry, but I took you off. But I took you off the path.

It seemed like your answer was a positive one. You think that people... I think I will look back nostalgically at my time finding that about music and not too dissimilarly like buying the enemy every week

and talking on message boards and like this was back at the day of like you have more record shops to go into and just like look at the I know that like it seems that records of stores are still much more of a thing in the States but in the UK you've only got like 20 30 decent independent record stores left they're all closing down but people taking music in a different way now and that's it's no better or no worse it's um I'm glad I'm glad that I experienced it the way I did but equally I'm sure that

people who were like 16, 17 years old now are glad that they're getting it the way they are rather than how we have to. You know, Andy alluded to this with the Melody Maker and Enemy stuff and that kind of like even I started working at a record store in Boston called Newberry Comics and, you know, buy, I think I bought that Maguire compilation of the singles that was like, it was $19. The one that had the Kid Loco remix of Tracy. Yeah. But our fascination was like, you know, there was a degree of mystery of mystery.

about music coming out of the UK. And I was always kind of curious for you whether the transatlanticism or whatever went both ways. Like what the music of America, and specifically the indie music that you must have grown up with, and whether that was like a mysterious thing before you got a chance to come over here and wondering about labels like Drag City and Matador

and touch and go and kill rock stars, like the same way that we would be like wondering about, who was Bell and Sebastian or who was Maguire and even earlier when who was blurring. and stuff and you get to have this kind of like window into it but not really experience it. I think I was probably quite late in being interested in, like properly interested in music, probably long until it was like 17 or something. And as seems to be a habit in much of my sort of late teens, early 20s, my main motivation

for getting into music was annoyance to other people because there were like dudes in my sixth form which is like age 1718 before you go away school yeah right who were into music and they'd like bring acoustic guitars

into the into the social room and it'd always be playing like Radiohead and Jeff Buckley and which is which is fine which is great incubus a lot of incubus they were huge

interesting yeah did they have a guy with dreads who brought in it like a portable turntable as well and just did some gentle acoustic scratching behind them. That's what that I tried to make that my uvra. Didn't work out. No.

That was when I started really getting into stuff like pavement was a huge one for me. First time I got into them was the Slatter and Enchanted reissue which I just read a review of in Q magazine and got that and fell in love with that. And bands like Modest Mouse

and Neutral Milk Hotel they were sort of the main ones back there and then for a bit it was exciting to find American bands rather than stuff that I guess I made that part of my identity that I was into basically into bands

that people around me weren't into which everybody of a particular inclination goes through Yeah then you get to college and find out everybody was into those bands You feel a little less original Yeah and then you have to re then you have to feign and interest in a particularly niche area. You have to go harder.

Yeah. To get into ironic black metal. Yeah, exactly. Use eye statements when you say things like that. Royal you, yeah. But, yeah, so I guess at that stage, I'm glad that I found all those bands, but again, sort of my motivation to do so was a little skeptical. Well, I think it's a hello sadness, if I'm remembering right, but that had a lot of

of, though you seem to have a quasi-romantic relationship to America, you know what I mean, that it is, especially as a touring band, you get to see a lot of it in a very particular way. I'd love to know if you feel like it's changed at all. Well, welcome to our nightmare. Can we do some therapy? So, as I say, it's been five years since we properly got to come to the States. We were touring the States like at the time of Obama's inauguration. and stuff. So that was like so surreal, not realizing necessarily what a big deal that was at the time.

I think we were in Florida. And so announcing this tour, five years after we last done a big US tour, we were obviously incredibly excited. Like this means, I think this more than anything, getting to come back to the States and play these sold-out shows is the most affirming thing. Like, it really does mean the world. but then also feeling this real sense of guilt like not feeling like I was like we should be excited to be entering this hellscape

and like how inconsequential us getting to do this tour is compared to the whole shit storm that's going down so now that I'm here I feel if I'm perfectly honest I've not we we drive to a venue we're surrounded by people who I can only assume share the same sort of politics as us

we're not really encountering You haven't seen any Mayclose Campesino's great again hats? No Those are the people who really like no blues though So I think it would be sort of a mixed bag So I've not noticed any difference I think

I don't know When I've had this conversation With a couple of people they have said that but it's great that people are excited to see you and to sort of have that escape from the worries that they've got about the situation

which I struggle it's great that people feel like that but I still because our band is so inconsequential it doesn't I can't really buy into that but now that we're here it feels fantastic and we've not encountered anything particularly

unnerving, thankfully. But then again, we're not the sort of people who are going to be put into those positions or ever really struggle with that sort of thing. We're very privileged in that respect. So, yeah, I... It's kind of... It's not been anything we've noticed.

Well, I tend to agree with what you're saying in the broadest strokes, but at the same time, like, in this hellscape, your record was very helpful. It made me very happy. Because it's the group singing. Honestly, like your record, the Young Pope, and they now sell all-dressed potato chips in our part of North America.

Okay. Which, I don't know if you know about those. The Canadian chips. I don't. Crisps. But they have all the flavors on them. Well, these is the... At once?

Yeah. Have you had these? No, I've had fruit chips, which are like that. No, no. This is the Canadian thing. It's all dressed. They're literally every flavor they have in the factory on one chip. It takes a decision-making process out of it.

It's divine. Well, these are the positive news stories. being hidden by the... This is the real news. By the liberal agenda. Who don't want people to know? 16 is on shelves now. Yeah.

All dressed chips are on shelves now. And then just move on with your life. Why is CNN reporting that? I want to say, Chris has been incredibly kind to not just talk to you about football this entire conversation. I think he's been twitching to do so.

I really just want to ask, because I have not done this with a song in such a long time that I was like, what happened at Renato Delara? And I was trying to figure out whether it was just something you saw. There was a famous England goal there? Yeah. So the first song of the album is named after the Bologna Stadium, right?

Yeah. Okay. And yeah, it's very deliberate. I thought we've been away for a while. We're going to come back with something incredibly Los Campesinos that will immediately isolate a large portion of our fanbaker. Success. Still got it.

Still got it. Renata de Lara is the stadium that in Italian 90, one of England's better World Cup campaigns, David Platt scored a extra time winner, a really great goal that put England through to the next round. So that's like a massive high in England footballing history. And then two years later, played in the same stadium against San Marino

real minnows like one of the worst football in nations never win a game like six people yeah like totally like no professional players that sort of thing England played them in a game

that they needed to win by like seven goals and to qualify and they conceded after like a record breaking time 19 seconds or something so going from that that high to the low in the same place

in a reasonably quick amount of time. And the hook on that song is the once-up, then-back-down-again thing, which is, I know that in like any music or comedy circuit or whatever, they say that you play every venue once on the way up and once on the way back down. And that's, I guess, it's taking the piss out of ourselves, like our career trajectory and decline. I figured that's what Livingoff 2008 meant, but I was just, I did actually go to. 2008

matches played at that stadium just to see if there was was there like a friendly that was played there and it was like no they drew with Fiorentina

sadly I couldn't work the analogy quite that intelligently Luca Tony maybe yeah we got to let you go because you're playing one of these sold out shows

tonight who's your team? I like Liverpool Liverpool yeah okay that's just like what's your team I support team

called Welton Rovers who are my local team that my family is always supported and I'm on the board of directors which is not as glamorous as it sounds don't tell us that doesn't the guys from one direction put themselves in the teams that they invest in

like don't they like one of them has like Lothorum or something like that yeah yeah he did and they get to play in like the celebrity when they do like United King, no England versus rest of the world matches Yeah, they get to play against the Don. Like Mike Myers and play and stuff like that.

Yeah, exactly. And he gets to play and I've never been famous enough. And I do like the match day program. So they got a couple of, so I write edit and design the program for every match. And there's a couple of games, home games, whilst I'm away over here touring. So I still have to do that. And I'm almost certainly going to forget and wake up. Or I've come off stage and be really wasted.

and then have an email like, where's the program, Gareth? It starts in three hours, yeah. Exactly. And then, oh, my God. But, yeah. But it's very much, well, on Rovers are the love of my life. So what can you do? Is it a sort of a whiplash scenario, though, because you will,

tonight you're going to play a show here in Los Angeles. You are touring in a what has to be a plush bus. Absolutely. Same company as Taylor Swift uses. Well, same company. Yeah, same. Not the same bus. It's the same vehicle with four wheels that she has.

been on once. Totally get it. And then in a couple weeks or months, you know, you're back designing programs until you do this again. Is there a whiplash to it or do you appreciate that? It's not up and down because you're not down when you're done, but it's just in terms of your day-to-day. I'm very content with my life.

I love the band. I love doing the band so much and spending time with my mates touring. But I'm aware of what a privilege that is, so I don't expect it all the time. And then when we're off, it's just, I just concentrate really hard on paying bills, but also like just thinking of ways

that we can do something else again. And that's really, I like it like that. I think that a lot of bands have it, have it too easy, and it's not healthy to just be the person you are in a band. And it's nice that we all go back and apply ourselves to, real life and

I look forward to it I don't want tour to end but I'll be sad when it does but that's just life tour ends for Taylor Swift too it's true exactly it ends for us all just like this podcast yeah boom that's journalism thank you so much for joining us

thank my pleasure thank you ever so much forever just want to say thanks again to Sonos for sponsoring today's show sonus is a wireless home sound system that fills your home with pulse pounding sound from stream services to downloads including audio books and podcasts, Sonos lets you play it all. And with the Sonos app, you can play a different song in every room, adjust the volume, and manage other settings straight from your phone.

So you can enjoy all the sounds you love anywhere in your home. Just go to Sonos, S-O-N-O-S dot com, to learn more. This episode of The Watch is also brought to you by a couple of the Ringers other podcasts. The Ringers Gaming Podcasts, Achievement-oriented, and our wrestling podcast, their Mask Man Show, are breaking off of Channel 33. So now you can subscribe to each of them on iTunes, Stitcher SoundCloud, or wherever you get podcasts. Go listen to Ben and Jason on Achievement Oriented. Go listen to the Shoemaker on Mask Man.

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