Interview White Lung: “We all want that power”

Ask any sod for their views on social media and they’ll declare we are, at once, both more connected and lonelier than ever before. And this is exactly the issue that Canadian punks White Lung tackle - with an exciting twist - in their latest shock to the system, with the piercing and furious lead single ‘Hungry’, taken from forthcoming album ‘Paradise’.

Sharp-tongued frontwoman Mish Barber-Way explains the song is “about hunger for fame, delusional self-obsession. Social media has turned us all into narcissistic morons living out our pathetic wants in tiny spurts of dopamine called ‘likes’. It’s gross.”

The accompanying video develops this obsession with narcissism, following a self-obsessed stranger who tries everything in her power to become famous and ‘liked’. She models for a can of condensed milk, obsessively buys her own products and even pours the milk all over herself, but eventually ends up being sucked into her own reflection – only to be replaced by someone else. “Social media has given everyone this platform to pretend they are a star to their tiny niche of followers. No one is lining up to be a teacher or a garbage man. We all want that power.”

White Lung are back and as fierce as ever, with a fourth studio album that packs a punch and explores an all-thrills storyline of infamous characters and tales. From the way opening track ‘Dead Weight’ ploughs in with Kenneth William’s spiralling cut-throat guitar riffs that sit alongside Barber-Way’s sharp delivery, to the driving power of ‘Below’, ‘Paradise’ is an album that comes tightly-packed and tailor made to grab attention.

Producer Lars Stalfors (The Mars Volta, Alice Glass, Cold War Kids) has a lot to answer for - guitarist Kenneth claims fans will be able to hear a difference in how his guitar sounds. “We worked really hard to make sure there were new sounds in every song that set them apart from each other, so we worked with a lot of pedals and software to mangle some of the guitar tracks into something that sounds more like synths.” his guitar plays a crucial part in the way the record came together. It was one of the reasons the band picked Annie Clark to interview them when ‘Hungry’ was first released, as Barber-Way explains: “Annie introduced herself to us at Fuji Rock Festival in Japan and then, we all went out after playing a festival in Chicago. I asked her to do the bio because I knew she could talk guitars with Kenny. This is truly Kenny’s record and I wanted someone who played their guitar like it was not one to talk with Kenny about his process. They both treat their instruments in similarly inventive ways.”