Interview Class of 2020: Working Men’s Club

“People are fucking shy of saying what needs to be said,” declares Working Men’s Club frontman Sydney Minsky-Sargeant in a Yorkshire drawl, stooped over the pub table we’re sat at. “People aren’t saying what they think; people are just chatting shit. Especially in the music industry, people are saying stuff for a reaction - I’m not, I’m saying EXACTLY what I think.”

The frontman is an ardent force to be reckoned with, one loaded with opinions that snowball once you get him started. “I feel there’s been a lack of decent music in general for a long time,” he continues. “I don’t think I could name 10 bands in the past decade that have made me really go, ‘Fucking hell’. I think it’s all really safe.”

When we meet, it’s mid-tour for Working Men’s Club: a time where bags underscore eyelids and routines fall out of sync with the rest of the working world. It seems a spell Syd is currently beholden to. Unlike most bands on the road though, the rings around his eyes aren’t solely indicative of a booze-infused evening; instead, Syd was up late engaged in a heated debate with a cleaner at the Hare & Hounds in Birmingham about Brexit.

One exchange particularly infuriated him. After explaining the origins of the EU’s formation to bring unity and peace over Europe to said cleaner, she retorted with, “Some people need to persecuted”. He raises his arms in bafflement, sloshing his pint of Guinness in the process. “Where is that hate coming from?! It’s coming from everywhere man!” he exclaims, armed with a piercing stare which rarely strays throughout our conversation.

“These days / This time / Gets stuck / Between the line” goes the refrain of the band’s most recent single ‘Teeth’, embodying and exuding the feeling of disillusionment that continues to sweep the nation. “Everything‘s a myth / don’t know what to believe,” the lyrics continue as they clamber for answers but ultimately end up falling short; a mutual sensation we’ve all felt over the past 12 months.

When you look at the timelines, Working Men’s Club are still a band in their infancy, with their first official single only released in February 2019. Yet the 11 months since has seen them endure changes that take most bands a few years to experience; not only have they generated enormous buzz off their early releases, marking them as a serious prospect for 2020, they’ve also lost two original members in the process. “No disrespect to anybody who’s been involved,” Syd says, brushing his palms together. “It’s a new beginning really.”