Black Country, New Road talk new album 'Forever Howlong' • Interview • DIY Magazine

To say Black Country, New Road have had a tumultuous journey would be underselling it. Emerging from the remains of another band in 2018, their ascent to become a furiously applauded, Mercury-shortlisted group has felt both dizzyingly quick and frustratingly stymied. It took them inside a year to release a debut single that induced the sort of serious, hushed-tone reviews that signal a band destined for great things. An album followed, but was curtailed by lockdown and socially-distanced gigs. 2021 saw their second album recorded and an extensive tour announced, but on the eve of its release, lead vocalist Isaac Wood announced he was leaving. One step forwards, one step back.

Now, they’ve released third album ‘Forever Howlong’, a shimmering, winding record which somehow manages to be simultaneously an extension of their existing sound while also a marked departure. The band’s three female members – Georgia Ellery, Tyler Hyde and May Kershaw – now share vocal duties, lending the album an anthology feel, with ballads that feel at turns expansive and intimate.

In 2023 they released the stop-gap ‘Live at Bush Hall’, which featured only material written following Isaac’s exit. A marker of the band’s progress at the time it was recorded, the record feels as good a place to start as any. Sat in a pub in central London, half of the band’s number – Tyler, Luke Mark and Charlie Wayne – think back to where they were as a group at that time.

“There was a lot of joy at the beginning,” explains Tyler, “when there was the least amount of pressure to put something out. It was exciting to hear people’s voices for the first time that we hadn’t heard in such a light.” She speaks carefully, brow furrowed as she recalls how the process of reinvention felt. “It became very stressful when [the gig] really happened. Musically, because we had to get something finished that we knew we would never be satisfied with. Still to this day, I’m not satisfied with it – it’s not music that we would ever make again. Which is a shame, I feel sorry for the songs.”

Charlie grins from across the table. “I think of it slightly more favourably, I think that actually as a whole thing it remains quite a good document of what the band was during that period of time. Everything that we’ve done has varying degrees of that, and I think definitely an album feels much more complete – but it’s not an album, and that’s sort of the point of it.”

“This band has never existed in a static formation.”

— Tyler Hyde

It may have felt like an inflection point – Black Country, New Road taking stock, figuring out where to head next – but it was also a raw expression of the band’s unity. Interestingly though (and unlike their previous work-in-progress recordings) none of the music written for ‘…Bush Hall’ surfaces again on ‘Forever Howlong’.

“The first part was very natural,” Tyler smiles, of the time spent sequestered away to work on what would become ‘Forever Howlong’. “It was just a breath of fresh air to make anything in an unpressured environment. It was so vague in the beginning, but it was so nice to be vague. That was really precious; throughout the whole of this band’s existence, there’s been time pressure. So that was one of the best moments of being in the band, carefree.”

For a band so often portrayed as being serious, chin-stroking musos, it’s notable how audible it is throughout ‘Forever Howlong’ that the band are just having fun.

“You can’t really plan to capture fun on record!” laughs Luke. “But we were excited about adapting these songs, adding things in the studio, getting to flesh them out a bit more, so I’m glad that does come across.”

At time of writing, the band have not continued to perform anything written with Isaac live. As such, it seems as if the band are acutely aware of how they picture the future Black Country, New Road discography. “We wanted to make songs, not thinking about the record, but thinking about playing live a hundred times,” says Tyler. “Just having fun, and there being longevity with the performance of the songs. Where the song can carry us through, without us having to put on a show. Where there’s an energy within the style of the music that we’re playing that can carry us through.”

“Whatever we did would be different, but it is a relief in some ways that that change has to come from something external.”

— Charlie Wayne

By the time a band reaches a third album, there can be a tendency to lean into tropes; to give the audience what they already expect of you. Here, though, there’s none of the route-one tactics that the band could employ at this point (clattering guitar breakdowns, sandpaper-abrasive saxophone solos). Instead, here they opt for gently grooving chord progressions, and thoughtful, mature instrumentation. “Maturing as a band is one of those phrases that I hear as ‘making music that’s boring’,” Charlie laughs. “Maybe this record is not as angular, but it explores a huge amount of ground in quite interesting musical ways – just maybe it’s not as fraught, or as frenetic.”

Another concept that comes to the fore is that of writing parts to serve the song, rather than individual players. “There would have definitely been a time where we would never have allowed ourselves the space to do that, because it didn’t feel like good musicianship, or it didn’t feel progressive,” Charlie says. “I think maybe that’s because some of the earlier BC,NR stuff is so complicated, it was purposefully quite oblique. We’re on our third album, and it feels as though we’re able to musically have that breathing space, or at least that feels just as progressive as going really, really loud and then really, really quiet.”

Tyler interjects: “Can you hear what’s playing now?” Faintly, in another room of the pub, the twang of The Band is unmistakable. All three laugh at the serendipity – they’ve cited the Americana outfit as a major influence on the new album, alongside the work of Joanna Newsom and Fiona Apple. There’s a concept they reference with these artists, a sense of ‘groove’ – moving neither too fast nor too slow, and meeting the songs on their own terms. “Playing songs that you can groove on is not something that we’ve done all that often really, it just occurred,” explains Charlie. Tyler nods in agreement: “It helps us move away from the feeling of angst, which was something that we definitely leant into before.”

A lack of angst might feel like an odd thing to say about songs which, lyrically, take in subjects including unrequited love, depression and high school malaise, but they’re worn lightly. Their narratives are both intimate and quietly expansive; the soaring melodrama of everyday trials. It’s here perhaps that the contrast with Black Country, New Road 1.0 is felt most keenly, but it’s also exciting to see a trio of vocalists stepping into the spotlight together with complete assurance.

When Tyler contemplates her own shift to the forefront, she smiles: “I don’t know how to say it without sounding arrogant, but it feels great – because I’m not the only one. There’s no sense that you’re leading anything, there’s no sense that you’re in the spotlight, I just have a lot of fun with it.” She pauses. “I really feel like I’m sharing something with Georgia and May, and I really feel like I’m sharing something with everyone else at the same time.”

There’s a palpable sense of joy around the group, Charlie and Luke watching their friends take a step that’s both daunting and fulfilling – and of their pride at it. “In the studio, I was amazed by how quickly they were able to nail a performance, and also how un-precious they all were.”

Tyler nods. “I love singing with the two girls, it feels like we’re sisters … we are sisters! It feels like I’m in [American vocal trio] The Roches, like I’m living some kind of dream.”

Sisterhood is something they’ve mentioned a lot, as if the record’s feminine perspective is the main differentiator from their previous work – the band were quoted as describing the lyrics as ‘an encyclopaedia of womanhood’, but Tyler feels that’s a lazy description. “In all honesty, we talk about it like that to make it seem like it’s got a concept,” she says, “but it doesn’t, it’s just lots of different stories from me, May and Georgia about our experiences. So that’s why it’s an ‘encyclopaedia of womanhood’, because it’s just stories from three women, but that’s not what the album is about… Who knows what the album is about.”

Six years on from their debut single, it finally feels as if Black Country, New Road can relax. How does it feel to finally be in a more standard cycle of tours and albums? “I want it to feel different,” says Luke. “It’s kind of daunting in its own way, though,” Charlie explains, “because there’s nothing external to stop it. We’re actually doing it now, and it is what it is.”

“Maybe this record is not as angular, but it explores a huge amount of ground in quite interesting musical ways.”

— Charlie Wayne

From where we are now, Isaac’s departure seems more and more like a kind of blessing in disguise: forced to adapt, their work became all the more interesting for it. “Before Isaac left, we’d talked about other people singing,” Tyler explains, “so that wasn’t totally new, but it helped force that change.” Charlie agrees. “I think the record would have been extremely different anyway; the differences between the first record and the second record are pretty significant. It was always going to be the case that whatever we did would be different, but it is a relief in some ways that that change has to come from something external… in some ways!”

It is curious to wonder if their ex-bandmate has heard the new album. “Don’t know,” replies Tyler, firmly. “He hasn’t heard the record, none of us have sent it to him,” adds Luke. “But he will hear it, I’m sure – I don’t know what he’ll think of it.”

So, they find themselves venturing on, finally in the realms of being, as Tyler puts it, somewhere “a bit more solid”. Have they thought about what comes after the release of ‘Forever Howlong’, and its extensive tour? Will this trio continue to front the band moving forwards? “No idea!” quips Tyler. “And that’s really nice, I literally have no idea. This band has never existed in a static formation, so probably not, is my best guess – who knows. It could be you!” Black Country, New Road have always been in a state of flux, and as thrilling a place to find them as their current incarnation is, it’s anyone’s guess where they’ll end up next.

‘Forever Howlong’ is out now via Ninja Tune.

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