Music, Style & Culture

Band Of Skulls: ‘Everyone Needs A Bit Of Isolation Now And Again’

We talk to Britain’s heroes-of-guitar-rock-in-waiting about non-stop touring, going straight from the van to the studio and bridging the gap between their first two albums.

DIY catches up with Southampton’s Band Of Skulls, the British rock outfit who are about to blow up with their second album ‘Sweet Sour’ coming out in February. Bassist and vocalist Emma Richardson tells us how touring tirelessly on the back of their debut has made the band even stronger.

Your follow-up to 2009’s ‘Baby Darling Doll Face Honey’ is due for release in a couple of months, how was writing and recording it different from the first?
We actually went straight into the recording studio right from our tour so it was a straight and quick transition. We’ve never had such little time to write as we did with this one. Some time was spent in a house up in Norfolk, coming up with a few ideas. We could only stick it out in that place for about a month as it got a bit dark. Then we finished it off at Rockfield in Wales

These are quite rural areas that you recorded the album in, did this help you focus as a band or did you go a bit crazy and miss all the modern comforts?
Well, I think everyone needs a bit of isolation now and again to get down to things and that’s no different for a band to write things either. Yeah, I think it was really important to get our heads down. And I guess we never get that much time to just dwell in the countryside, so that was nice as well.
But in Wales we were working with Ian Davenport [producer of their debut album] again so we had a bit of freedom and he pushed us to take it even further from the last record. We wanted to make it a bit more impressive and expansive, especially for when we play it live. We played the last album out quite a lot to places and people all around the world, but now we want to play even bigger places and be able to fill them not just with people but with the sound!

Did going straight from touring endlessly have an effect on recording the album?
Oh definitely. It helped us improve technically as a band and even halfway through the sessions we went out to play a single festival, the only gig we’d done in a while, and it was just a great and reassuring experience because everything that happened at the show and all the bits from the new songs that worked live we transferred onto the new record.

Do you think your sound has changed between the two records?
I think it has grown or expanded. We’ve had time to reflect on the earlier material and we’ve carved off all the unnecessary parts that we felt didn’t work or weren’t needed and therefore everything sounds that little bit tighter.

Your new single ‘The Devil Takes Care Of His Own’ has been getting widespread radio play and high praise, could you tell us a little bit about the background to this song?
Lyrically, obviously the name derives from the old idiom and proverb. That if you do something bad that it will come round and haunt you. So the whole song is based around that kind of thought process.
But musically, the song is a really prime example of how we write as a band, actually. It has a lot of different parts from everybody that seems to gel together and I think it bridges the gap between the first album and this one brilliantly. There were a couple of options of standout tracks to pick for the first, lead single but this one seemed to link the two releases well so we went for this one. It shouldn’t be too much of a shock for fans but they’ll definitely hear a clear progression.

And the accompanying video is a pretty interesting one too, how did the concept of that come about?
We have a few treatments offered to us but thought that this one in particular seemed to fit the song really well. We normally go for ideas that we think will people laugh or would be enjoyable for us to do, and the kung-fu idea seemed to have a good connection.
And it was filmed in the old BBC building too! There’s a lot of history in that place, so it was great to be able to shoot a video there.

After the album comes out in February, you’ll embark on a massive UK tour - after a little rest, are you excited to get back on the road?
Yeah, we’re really looking forward to it! The band as a whole are really excited to play these new songs to the fans. It’ll be interesting to see what the reaction is like. Hopefully it’ll all be positive.
We’re also playing a few dates in support of The Black Keys, which should be good fun.

Oh yes, I’ve heard that they’re quite hilarious in person. Have you met them before?
Well we’ve met them once before, very briefly. They were in the same dressing room with them once at a festival, so it was a very fleeting sort of thing. But it’ll be great to tour with them and see them play each night. They’re a great live band so we’re looking forward to it.

As we’ve already touched upon, your music does seem to lend itself well and benefit from being played live - are there any individual shows in particular that you’re looking forward to?
We’ve just announced a show at the Roundhouse in London and that’s going to be our biggest solo show to date. So we’re slightly worried and nervous about that a bit but obviously that’s something that we’ll relish when it actually comes around.
But all of them too, really. Playing these songs every night is going to be great. We can’t wait!

Band Of Skulls' new single 'The Devil Takes Care of His Own' will be released on 4th December via Electric Blues Recordings. Their album 'Sweet Sour' will follow on 20th February.