Interview Doe talk growing up and losing fear on new album ‘Grow Into It’

Nicola: We just booked in the studio time with MJ and thought 'that'll be fine, that's loads of time!' and then we kept getting together and writing, but with working full time, we could only do the occasional weeknight and weekends, and you've got a limited amount of time, so we were getting together as much as we could. Then we found ourselves running closer and closer to the recording booking, and we had to push it back a little bit, but we got to a point where that was the only time we had before the new year, so we had to do some intensive sessions. The last song we wrote, we were panicking a bit.

Dean: But that one pops now - it's one of the best cuts!

Dean: More than the last one [debut album 'Some Things Last Longer Than You']. It feels more live, and more real.

Nicola: We had a spreadsheet. The way we write is more with a natural feeling, and we all wanted it to be a certain way, in comparison to the previous album.

Jake: Not so much. We never really went back and sat down and thought 'here's what we're gonna do differently' - we were all on the same wavelength. We all gel together quite well musically, and we just knew the directions that we wanted to go in, and this new [album] feels more natural, rather than super deliberate. There's a natural continuation and growth, rather than sitting down and saying 'ok guys, we're really gonna spice things up! Let's throw a sax in there!'.

Nicola: Jake does this thing where he'll just shout 'I just love keeping things movin', man! Let's just book the time in!', which is good because it means you don't fanny around. But it meant we wrote in a more inspired way, and not just sitting there overthinking it all.

Nicola: I don't think we even ever considered anyone else.

Dean: It was quite nice working with him again and building on that relationship. I feel like we ended up somewhere different, and it's nice to be able to be in that space with someone again, and push what you're making together. There were some cool moments, and it's nice to be able to do that. For some bands, they might work with someone and then never get to work with them again for whatever reason, and you'll never know what it might've sounded like.

Jake: We had tonnes more time to play with whilst recording this album. We had such limited budget and time [with the debut], so that was done in five days, and we started really early and finished really late. I think it comes through on that record that there's this intensity and urgency, and I think with this one we had more space to experiment and try new things. We had an opportunity to make multiple trips, and that gave us more time to have space and become more comfortable with the process.

Dean: I sometimes leave things slightly, and let it just come out at the time. There was this really cool moment, which we wouldn't have been able to do if we didn't have all the time that we ended up having. In 'But It All Looks The Same', there's a massive instrumental section, and it's 90% improvised, and Nicola pushed me to improvise, and I didn't think I could, or didn't think I had the confidence, and I was pushed in the right direction, and it really worked. We both improvised for a good amount of time.

Nicola: I think that even pushed MJ too. I've always loved Built To Spill, and I love the fact that they always feel a bit chaotic and improvised but in a way that's orderly. I knew that for this part in this song, I wanted it to be that way, but couldn't quite communicate it. As a band, I feel like we're quite tight - we never say 'hey, let's just jam!'. I was trying to explain to MJ and Dean that it didn't matter that we didn't know what it was going to be, and to just let it out.

Nicola: It's funny, I've never really been a lyrics person. For me, the music has always come first, and as a band we always write the music first, and it's only very occasionally that we already have a lyric in mind when we come with the melody. For this one, I definitely spent a lot more time sitting after the fact and spending time on lyrics and making sure they were more interesting and fleshed out and not just bunged together at the last minute, which often happens.

A lot of the time, when people talk about 'the themes of the album', it's focused only on lyrics, but I feel like it's carried through in the music too. When I was writing the songs, I realised that there were a lot of feelings about thinking 'shit, I'm reaching the age of 30' - which isn't even that old - but for someone in a band I'm feeling quite old. I was suddenly aware that I was getting older, and we were writing an album, and there are feelings that go alongside that in a lot of the stuff, about getting older and knowing yourself a bit more, knowing your experiences a bit more, and seeing things for what they are, rather than just base level ideas about concepts or politics.

Nicola: I think so. When I was in my early twenties, all I ever wanted to do was be in a band. I thought 'shit, I'm getting too old to be in a band!', and it's so stupid but I always thought that if I didn't find a band to be in by the time I'm 24, that's it for me. It's silly in hindsight, but it's how you're made to feel, especially if you're a woman. I panicked about it, and then I found a band, and everything started going as I wanted it to, and I was still only 25!

I think I used to be more afraid of growing up because I didn't have the fulfilment that I wanted out of my life, even though I had a nice life in other ways. Now we're in this band and doing this thing, and I know so many awesome people that are 30+, who cares really...

'Grow Into It' is out 28th September via Big Scary Monsters/Topshelf Records.

Tags: Doe, Listen, Features