Interview: Wild Beasts

An album that will "kick you up the arse, steal your girlfriend and leave you crying out for more", Wild Beasts new album Two Dancers, released in August, is among the year's best. While getting ready for their biggest headline tour to date which started earlier this month, singer Hayden Thorpe spoke to Ragged Words.

The first thing that struck me about the new album was that it was a step up, albeit from a very impressive debut. I wouldn’t expect any band to not think that of a new album, but do you agree that Two Dancers is a more cohesive effort?

“Yeah definitely, it’s the product of a lot of learning and a lot of hard work. When we made the first record we were 20, 21 and there was a lot of learning done in the eighteen months between then and now. It can’t be understated, with the first the record that we recorded in Sweden with Tore Johannson in a world class studio with a world class producer. You can’t help but stand back and watch and see how his magic unravels. That had a big influence on the record because we then had the confidence and composure to then go and better realize the initial ideas. We were able to take that fragment and build into something bigger.”

With Limbo Panto, I guess there were a group of songs that had been around for a while before a record was contemplated. Was the more of a definite plan this time?

“Yeah, for a start we had far less time so it was sort of a case of building up momentum and one songs would bounce of another song and then another and we were reflecting constantly. I think it was a good way of working because it keeps a single thread running through.”

Where a lot of bands take two years between albums, you had a very quick turnaround of just over a year. Were you itching to get back into the studio?

“Very much so. I think we just felt that we’d learned so much so quickly that we felt immediately capable of more. And when you feel you’re capable of more, you’re very eager to prove it. It’s almost as if you say something and then realize there’s a better way of saying it and you can’t wait to get it off your tongue.”

What type of things did you learn first time out that you were able to put into practice on album number two?

“I think just to relax and let the character of the band just be. It wasn’t about trying to be perfect, trying to iron out all the creases and take away all the human glitches. It was about embracing them and letting the happy accidents happen and allow the character of the playing and the character of the songs just to be. I think in that way, it’s a very human record because we’ve allowed space for it and not tried to correct things. We’ve taken our chance occurrences and ran with them.”

Was it a case of looking back at Limbo Panto and thinking we can do it better next time around.

“I think it had a different purpose. It had a different purpose. It was a statement of intent, a rally cry in a way. A way of shouting from the roof tops ‘look at me, look at us.’ It was an ice breaker and had to be quite weighty and have a lot of punch behind it to break that ice and we’ve been able to relax a bit. That initial young exuberance has sort of died away a bit. We’re not angry any more. We don’t have a point to prove. It’s not us against the world.”

The new album sounds less playful, less bouncy - a darker record…

“I think it’s more sensual, it’s more composed. It’s less teenage and more adult in a way. Whereas we deliberately wanted to capture that youthful energy that we were at the time, now we want to step back a bit. It comes from confidence as well, know we can play like that and have patience and nerve to ask people to listen, rather than throwing stuff at them.”

When releasing the first single Hooting & Howling, you mentioned the b-side Through The Iron Gate was too imposing for the album. Did you find yourselves being more restraint in places and were there other songs like that that just didn’t fit it?

“There were a lot of songs that were just as good as the songs on the album that didn’t play the right role and the album had to come first. The complete piece had to be the priority and that way a lot of things went by the wayside. Some of them can be put on the backburner and things we can come back to but they all played their part in what the album was. It was as if one song would ask a question and another would answer and the album was just made up of questions and answers that matched.”

How many songs did you have going into the studio?

“There wasn’t a huge amount, probably about 15 and we knew we didn’t have the time or resources to record them all so it was definitely a case of let’s just go with our good instinct here and play what feels right to play. There were some songs that we didn’t bother to record because they didn’t feel right on the day or the week and we wanted that moment in time to come across, that this is the path the became clear.”

You said that came with confidence, was that the reason you decided to co-produce the record?

“It was a sort of belief that we could do the job properly and better than someone else. We did it with Richard Formley who we had complete trust in, in a way our sort of guru and someone we had grown up working with. We did our first two Bad Sneakers singles with him years back. He just instantly stripped the myth and fear away from the studio. We were really uptight and tense about going into the studio and he said just go in the room and play, if you’ve got the good then you don’t have to worry.”

It sounds like you really cut yourself off for the recording – wherever you were in Norfolk, it sounded pretty remote.

“It was very remote. We didn’t move for weeks on end. At the same time there was enough space to find a bit of private space if you needed to…”

No cabin fever then?

There was a slight bit but you have to get obsessed, you have to get into that quite dangerous mind state to make it happen. You have to push yourself further than you think it’s safe to go because otherwise the job doesn’t get done and you have to do yourself justice.

How long did you give yourself? Was it a tight deadline?

“It was about a month. I think whatever time you’re given, you fill it. If we had three months, we probably would have been pushing to finish but if we had a week, we would have done the job. You work within the restrictions you’ve got and I think that a lot of music is the product of its restrictions, as much as it is of capabilities. It’s about making the most of those restrictions.”

The album’s press release calls the album ‘erotic downbeat music’, a genre of music I’d like to know more about, but it does seem to make strange sense, as lyrically, a lot of it seems to be set at night.

“We’ve always been in that borderline area of what’s adult and what’s acceptable and what’s not. I think we like to hear erotic songs and it’s a human fascination, it draws people in. For us, it’s just worked. The classic pop scene gives us a lot of scope to approach it. The important thing is to be honest and just say what you’re not supposed to say and there’s something exciting about that.”

People always have trouble classifying Wild Beasts under any genre so maybe ‘erotic downbeat’ is the answer?

“If it is, I’ll go with that.”

Staying with the lyrics have the towns of Roedean, Shipley, Hounslow and Whitby (All The Kings Men) ever been namechecked in a song before!?

“No, I don’t think so! That line just works so much even if you have never been to those places, it already gives a pre-conceived idea and I think it definitely sets a times and a place. Those towns just reek of that claustrophobic atmosphere that small towns create and how insular they are and how everyone knows each others business.”

You guys are from a small town but I wanted to talk more about making and playing music in Leeds which to my ears, with the likes of Napoleon III, Paul Marshall and a few others, seems a pretty exciting place to be doing it.

“I think everyone’s very open in Leeds and there are a lot of ears willing to listen and a lot of good natured energy. People will do you a favour without reason or cause or self-intent. They will speak about you and there is a lot of mutual admiration and I think atmospheres like that bread quite open music. People can be gratified for what they do in Leeds which is important because I think musicians need to feel gratified and appreciated. There’s always a bedrock of people willing to listen to you and take you seriously and compared to London, it’s not just a drop in the ocean.”

You’re on your biggest national tour this month, and just reading previous tour diaries, will you still be sharing double beds in various travel lodges?

“Oh yeah of course, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Given the choice of the Travel Lodge or The Hilton, we’d choose the Travel Lodge.”

So it’ll be the same in five years time when you’re selling millions of records?

“We’ll probably pitch up a tent then.”