Interview In The Studio: The Murder Capital

Anyone concerned about encountering a blunt, anaesthetised version of The Murder Capital now that they’re closer to a happy place needn’t worry, however. From wrenching debut album highlight ‘Don’t Cling to Life’ to the self-therapy of second album closer ‘Exist’, James has proven himself as a songwriter fixated on kneading through the knottiest parts of his inner monologue. Thankfully, there’s no sign of that instinct fading now.

“I can still find a challenge anywhere, do you know what I mean?” the frontman half-jokes. “I don’t know, do people really want to explore the stuff that they’ve already figured out and that feels good? I’m not drawn to that, I want to figure out the stuff that needs figuring out.”

LP3 first started to come to life during a three-week writing binge in Hackney last summer, the first fruits of which were last September’s standalone single ‘Heart in the Hole’: a poised and textured slow-builder that found the band in their most mature form to date. A seven-week tour followed, but the band’s romantic dream of recording on the road Gonzo-style was quickly offset by the physically-taxing nature of their shows.

In the interim, they clocked up some “really fruitful” recording sessions in Dublin’s own Temple Lane Studios, and a brief writing period in Berlin. Then, The Murder Capital readied the big guns, decamping to Silver Lake, California and Animal Rites - the new home of prolific producer John Congleton, who also oversaw ‘Gigi’s Recovery’ - for a three-week recording blitz. “I’m honestly fucking buzzing about it,” says James. “The whole process feels like it’s about to crescendo in LA, which is what John Congleton wanted.”

The Murder Capital’s plan is to trust their instincts and to enter the studio without having formally demoed any of the new songs. “We want to go in and be as free and as open to whatever comes in the studio as possible. No demo-itis, as they say,” he confirms.

It’s a direct reaction against the process that led to ‘Gigi’s Recovery’, during which they now feel – due in large part to Covid-era necessity – they lingered for too long on the finer details before getting to the final recording stage. “I think the second one, we spent a long time working on every song, overworking some of them,” he continues. “This time we haven’t let ourselves have the opportunity to overwork anything.”

After a packed 2023 that included some 120 live shows, the band grew to realise that the bulk of their ‘bangers’ so far had come from their first album, and LP3 may just seek to redress that balance. “All of the tonal and textural experimentation we did on ‘Gigi’s…’ will always come forward with us; I think that’s part of the DNA of the band and we’re all excited by that,” James says. “It’s more how we approach songs structurally. It’s about cutting the fat off the sections where we just don’t need it.”

The band played a pair of intimate live shows at London’s Moth Club and Dublin’s Grand Social back in Spring, road testing seven new tracks for the first time to a lucky gathering of fans. Feeding off that spontaneity, The Murder Capital are now eager to get back to the raw basics of their early days, when tunes would often develop on the morning of a gig and be figured out on stage that night. “The main thing we’re trying to do is to make a more immediate record, to try and maybe be less indulgent when it comes to long, swathing intros and the cinematic thing,” he explains. “We’re trying to make the music more like a needle drop into the feeling of the track, you know?”

Newly reinvigorated, and with real life apparently no longer forcing McGovern down such necessary emotional paths, The Murder Capital’s next move may be a tonal shift. However, you can be sure that the final product will still find McGovern wrestling with his own psyche as only he knows how.

“I heard Nick Cave say one of the hardest parts of [writing music] is sitting down and facing your own mediocrity every day, because most of the stuff you write is crap,” he says. “What I naturally do is write in the form of poems, and they’re deeply reflective of my personal life. But there’s always that little part of you that feels like, ‘Am I doing the right thing sharing this much?’ And the answer is, if you hold back in any way, you’d be a fraud.”

‘Can’t Pretend To Know’ is out now. 

Tags: Features, Interviews, April 2024, From The Magazine, The Murder Capital