9 o’clock Nasty return with This Is Crowland, an album packed with defiant energy, sharp satire, and raw intensity. We dive into their creative process, inspirations, and the rebellion behind their sound.
1. Last
time we spoke, you had just released "Kid Blast," a track that was
deeply personal and raw. How does This Is Crowland build upon or contrast with
that emotional intensity?
Each song
on the album was written as a single. When we’re working on something it’s
never “for the album” - you just have to do the absolute best you can for the
song that’s in front of you. Kid Blast is unusual in that it isn’t buried in
layers, the emotional heart of it is really raw and open.
So the
album very much contrasts with Kid Blast in that sense, although musically
there are several songs like Bad Monkey that draw from the same sonics.
2. You
describe This Is Crowland as an album without filler—each track earned its
place. Can you take us through that selection process? Were there any painful
cuts along the way?
We’re
incredibly lucky to have a huge array of snippets and ideas from years of
writing songs and playing music, and no shortage of new ideas popping up all
the time. We live in a time saturated in themes to write about.
Giving up
on a song is always really painful and it can feel very personal if it is your
idea, but that’s part of the deal with working in a band, and the result is
better quality work. If you come up with an idea and bring it to the others in
a rough state, you can feel a bit vulnerable. I don’t think we’ve ever
dismissed a rough demo, but many times the first idea gets totally transformed
as we work on it, or a key element of it like a vocal hook is lifted for
something else.
You cannot
be precious about it. We trust each other and don’t play games. If it’s good it
stays.
We have
limited time, so each session the question is “what do we all feel enthusiastic
about working on right now? What inspires us?” There is never a question of
working on something “because we have to.”
Between
sessions, if one of us wants to champion something they can develop an idea
further to share back.
Some songs
just never get past the rough demo. There is something there, but there are
other better things pushing for attention.
3. The
album seems to capture a sense of defiance against oppression and conformity.
What inspired this overarching theme? Was there a particular moment in the last
year that crystallized the message?
Ted and
Addermyre were on a summer day trip to Stratford on Avon. In theory the idea
was to walk about in the sunshine, have a beer by the river and then go on a
Ghost Walk around the town.
Somehow
they ended up tailing along with a coach party of tourists being shown “the
city of Shakespeare” by a tour guide that insisted on telling them at every
opportunity how liberal, woke nonsense was ruining the once great country of
Britain. The guide painted a picture of a country that never existed. A perfect
place that never was.
It was
funny, unsettling and tragic. On one level Ted got really annoyed about it, but
also sad for this poor fool living in a false narrative (and spreading poison).
That became
Crowland.
4. Crowland is depicted as a haunted place, both literally and metaphorically. What does Crowland mean to you, and why was it the perfect title for this record?
Culture
Wars (our 2023 LP) and Crowland both draw on a theme around people that, for
whatever reason, want to “reset the clock.” People that want to return the
world to a state where many of the changes for good of the last 50 years never
happened.
In
particular they want to remove the freedom to live in any way that they don’t
agree with. You can call them right wing. You can call them reactionaries. You
can call them theocratic cunts. The pendulum of culture suddenly is swinging
back.
We’re not
just talking about “woke” themes here, these are people that want to deny
science in the cause of either their religious belief or desire to make a ton
of money. Or both.
Crowland is
the place they want to go to. A stifling place where conformity and modesty and
obedience rule. The difference in this century is that the birthright of rule
is no longer daddy’s blood, it is daddy’s millions.
It’s
frightening.
5.
There’s a strong balance between darkness and humor in your music—tracks that
scream rebellion while strutting with absurdity. How important is satire and
humor in what you create?
Thank you,
that is precisely what we’re aiming for!
Satire is
central to what we do, although there are a good number of our songs that are
not at all political or social comment. Laughter is one of the best ways to
highlight stupidity and greed, and also more interesting than out-and-out
protest songs, although we’ve done a couple of those too.
The
darkness is just the world seeping in.
6. You
mention that every song on This Is Crowland has a music video. That’s an
ambitious feat. How did you approach the visual side of the album? Are there
any videos that particularly stand out to you?
Every song
a single, or at least that’s how we approach it. There’s absolutely no way to
reach people without using social media and online platforms, and that needs
visuals. On past experience, songs that didn’t have a video, didn’t have an
audience.
So this
time, we made the videos with each song as it was completed, and in some cases
the visuals were drawn together as part of the lyric writing process.
We love
making videos in person but it can be time consuming and hard to organise, so
many of them are collages. That means you’ll see trails running through them
where a theme pops up again and again.
Unkle Natur
is probably the video that’s the most memorable because it turned out entirely
differently from our plan for it and much, much better. One freezing cold night
we actually recorded three videos because each time we finished filming one we
got an idea for another. It’s the closest that video making has ever felt to
songwriting.
My own
favourite is the video for Coliseum, because I got to go back and watch a ton
of old gladiator movies!
7.
Tracks like "Unkle Natur" and "The Wrong Guy" are already
known to fans, while others like "Pusher Needs a Haircut" are brand
new. What can listeners expect from the newer material that they haven’t heard
before?
The new
tunes all fit with the ones people will know. They were all recorded very much
in the same process and same approach. In truth they are just the ones that
were finished last, or they would have been released as singles.
Coliseum
and Cheat the Devil are absolutely in line with a lot of the other tracks on
the LP. Both are songs we’re really happy with, they came together easily and
work well.
Pusher
Needs a Haircut, Shrinkwrap and Paint Me are all examples of songs that were in
the writing room a long time and went through a lot of changes. In terms of
genres, they’re probably more “out there.”
For the
Sugar is the song that would not die. It needs a few listens and once it is in
your brain it will never leave.
There are
certain things any 9 o’clock Nasty song needs. It must be short - tight and
effective. It must have a hook. It must excite us.
8. The
album's release comes at a time when you say people should be ‘truly terrified
of 2025.’ What do you think artists' roles are in confronting fear and
uncertainty in the world today?
Artists
themselves are under greater threats now than for a long time. Although there
is a huge opportunity in online presence, it is also dangerous.
The use of
social algorithms to decide what people should see rather than letting them see
what they choose to see is one thing. It means that unless you’re prepared to
pay to advertise, your new content may never get seen by the people who like
your work. That’s why we’re leaning more and more into Patreon as a way to
connect with people.
The
demonetisation of music is another. Enough has been said about this, and it has
always been a model where creatives get ripped off, but it is getting to the
point now where even at the indie end, corporate greed skims out any fair
reward for artists.
And of
course AI and the idea of taking original work without payment to build a
machine to replace that work.
But….
But....
There have
been times in the last 50-60 years when artists have been the rallying call for
change. Call it counter-culture if you will (we prefer to call it culture).
Music, Art, Writing provide touch points of truth for people. Gathering places.
So,
although it is harder than it should be, we’ve got to keep doing what we do.
9. You buried your B-sides ‘on a rainy night’—which is a fantastic visual. Can you give us a hint at what made those tracks unworthy of making the final cut? Or is that Leicester landfill sworn to secrecy?
There have
to be some songs that don’t get made to leave room for the ones that do. In
reality it’s less romantic, failed songs go in the parts bin. A guitar sound, a
beat, a line of lyric, pieces of them re-emerge.
It really
is just a case of a song having to interest and excite us to get made.
10.
You’ve boldly stated that This Is Crowland stands among the best indie and
alternative albums ever released. What albums do you hold in that high regard?
What records shaped you into the artists you are today?
That’s a
super-dangerous question because whatever we answer, we will come back a week
later and want to change it. What we meant by that is that we want to make, and
think we have made, music that can stand alongside the very best and hold its
own.
This isn’t
a plug, although it will look like it (!) but we have a band playlist we curate
with what at any given time we listen to in the studio or at the gym. We used
it to test a lot of our stuff, simply by dropping our tunes between tunes we
adore. It’s due a big change in the next few weeks, but in truth we’ve found a
mix of songs we really really like.
It’s called
Alt-Rock-Killers and right now it has tunes from De Staat, Viagra Boys, The
Pixies, Suicide, Idles, White Stripes and other indie acts whose work we really
enjoy and use as a yardstick to measure ourselves against.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/18AXixiyIEXEedzxxxhMSb
11. Your
next project, People Pleaser, is already in the works. How does it differ from
This Is Crowland? Are you diving deeper into rebellion, or is there another
direction in mind?
People
Pleaser could have been on the album. It was a song that just didn’t get
finished in time. It’s an absolute killer track, a really good rabble rousing,
disco metal scorcher. Although it’s bold and swaggers more than it probably
should it’s actually quite personal and very human.
Right now
we’re pulling together 4 or 5 new songs and they will be the direction for the
next LP. We don’t know quite what that is yet. It’s organic. It will only be in
a few months when we can look back and understand what’s new about them. We
need to let them grow a bit without preconceptions first.
People
Pleaser isn’t the first release after the album though, we’ve got another thing
to put out in April first. We’ve been working with a “proper rock producer” to
make something that is not “indie” but very much mainstream, because we wanted
to see how it would turn out. It’s very, very cool.
12.
Finally, your music has always been fearless, but what scares you? And what
gives you hope as you move forward into 2025 and beyond?
What scares us? Right now most things. But there is so much goodwill, so many good people that you’ve just got to keep hoping and not fall silent.
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