Interview Black Country, New Road: Best Of Friends
So far, Black Country, New Road’s journey has been anything but predictable; now, as they ready their third act ‘Forever Howlong’, it’s time to prepare for another about-turn.
To call Black Country, New Road’s return ‘much-anticipated’ could be an early contender for understatement of the year. Arguably one of the most intriguing and beloved acts to emerge within UK indie in the last decade, 2022’s ‘Ants From Up There’ saw the now six-piece achieve widespread acclaim, with critics and fans alike fawning over the record’s grand arrangements and profound lyrics; a handful even dared to anoint it a masterpiece.
The band members themselves, however, were unsure of what reception it would receive. Three years on, as they prepare their next steps, drummer Charlie Wayne admits to thinking that “people were going to hate parts of it. The album before it [2021’s ‘For The First Time’] was so abrasive and weird and this wasn’t that at all,” he reflects today. “It felt like too much of a change.” Saxophonist Lewis Evans seemingly felt more confident. “I cockily said on Radio 6 Music, that this album would easily win the Mercury Prize. We didn’t even get nominated!” he laughs.
Esteemed prize judges aside, the record would go on to be widely embraced, but another curveball was thrown their way when – just four days ahead of its release – lead vocalist and lyricist Isaac Wood suddenly announced his departure from the band. Rather than calling it a day and “getting normal jobs”, as Lewis puts it, the band instead reacted by spending the following three months writing an entirely new set of songs, which they’d go on to play live that summer, and would later be released as ‘Live At Bush Hall’. “I think what we got from it was pretty good,” says Lewis, “but it’s not prepared in the way we like to prepare our albums.” “It has its own charm that I’m proud of,” Charlie adds. “The band simply wouldn’t exist without it.”
The live record now reads as an important stepping stone towards the band’s current incarnation. Rapidly pulled together from songs that Tyler Hyde (bass/vocals) had been performing solo at The Windmill, along with others by May Kershaw (piano/vocals), Georgia Ellery (violin/vocals) and one by Lewis, the process, they say, “was stressful”. Lewis continues: “I remember one rehearsal that was two weeks before our deadline; this big show at Primavera. It was really tense and at one point I just sat down and gave up, but we did it.”
It was these new tracks which set the template for third offering ‘Forever Howlong’. Not only do Tyler, May and Georgia take on all of the vocal duties this time around, but the bulk of the songwriting too. “Those first two albums were very much landed in a male perspective,” Charlie explains. “That’s not to Isaac’s discredit; he’s an incredible lyricist, but these tracks are fundamentally different. Having these three principal songwriters became the thing that ended up driving our creativity.”
“[The album is] exploring different perspectives and how these can come together to find meaning in shared experiences.”
— Charlie Wayne
These resulting songs intertwine to masterful effect, with the record’s thematic core built around – as Charlie puts it – “exploring different perspectives and how these can come together to find meaning in shared experiences”. It’s an album that feels both perfectly of a piece alongside the band’s long-established and widely-embraced vision, but also sees the members refining their individual sonic parameters. “We tried to be much more limiting with our arrangements,” Lewis explains. “That’s not to say it’s a subtle album, but we tried to allow for each song to be as effective as possible and ensure that lead vocals were the most important thing.” Nowhere is this better realised than on lead single ‘Besties’; three-and-a-half minutes of orchestral pop that’s as accessible and immediate as anything the band have ever written.
This new approach to more immediate and light-on-its-feet arrangement draws on a band that all six members cite as a key influence on this third record; Canadian-American country rockers The Band. “They’re the best band of all time,” Lewis enthuses. “They have a ridiculously good connection with each other. They’re so in the pocket. That’s something we aspired to, when we were trying to groove a bit more on this record.” This rears its head in fabulous fashion across a handful of tracks, notably ‘Two Horses’ which, midway through, turns into a windswept, galloping cowboy epic.
But for all this newfound push towards precision and clarity, some things never change. As anyone who has seen the band perform live will know, all six members are multi-instrumentalists. This time around, they’re trying their hand at including banjo, bass clarinet, timpani, harpsichord and recorder in the mix, the latter of which Lewis says the band all learned specifically for one song. “The studio played a big part in the process,” Charlie notes. “We felt as though these songs weren’t best reflected by just the six of us playing in a room. We really leaned into it, to the point where, by the end, we were taking stuff off because there was too much.”
For the role of producer, the band turned to James Ford (Blur, Arctic Monkeys), and both Charlie and Lewis speak with immense appreciation for “his down to earth and friendly” nature and impressive work ethic. “He’s a ridiculous professional,” Lewis explains, “I can’t get over how hard he works.” The band took on an intense-sounding three week process, with James working every day from 10am to 2am, taking just one day off; Lewis eloquently sums up Ford’s contribution as “he was able to make good decisions with tired ears.”
Thanks to a combination of James’ diligence and the band’s intelligent refinement of their own vision, ‘Forever Howlong’ feels like a pure, distilled form of Black Country, New Road. “This is the first album that we’ve taken the time to write and then tour,” says Charlie, nodding to the fact that the touring schedules of the band’s first two albums were halted first by the pandemic and then by Isaac’s departure. “I guess we made up for it by touring ‘…Bush Hall’ so extensively,” he continues. “It’s a massive testament to our fanbase and their willingness to embrace change and stuff they’ve never heard before.”
Luckily for them, ‘Forever Howlong’ should more than satisfy, with even the album’s title seeming to channel some of the magic of Black Country, New Road that has so enraptured fans; a moniker that’s similarly elegant, complex and downright beautiful.
‘Forever Howlong’ is out 4th April via Ninja Tune.
Records, etc at
As featured in the February 2025 issue of DIY, out now.
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