BLACK COUNTRY, NEW ROAD ARE BACK: „You just gotta let it happen“

Black Country, New Road (Photo: Eddie Whelan)

Black Country, New Road ist womöglich die beste Band, die aus der Musikzene rund um die Live-Venue The Windmill (London) hervorgegangen ist. Ihr Debütalbum „For the First Time“ brachte ihnen große Aufmerksamkeit, während der hochemotionale Nachfolger „Ants from Up There“ sofort zum Klassiker wurde – ich kenne viele Leute, die für dieses Album sterben würden (mich eingeschlossen).

Die Karriere von Black Country, New Road nahm eine unerwartete Wendung, als Frontmann Isaac Wood unerwartet die Band verließ. Der Rest der Gruppe musste daraufhin die Gesangsparts unter sich aufteilen. 2023 erschien dann das Live-Album „Live at Bush Hall“.

Jetzt ist die sechsköpfige Band mit ihrem dritten richtigen Studioalbum „Forever Howlong“ zurück. Es ist dicht, progressiv und voller mitreißendem Barock-Pop.

Lennart Brauwers sprach mit der Geigerin und Sängerin Georgia Ellery und dem Saxophonisten Lewis Evans über die diplomatische Dynamik innerhalb der Band – und vieles mehr!

I wanted to start by asking you about the album title, „Forever Howlong“. At what point did you decide on it?

Lewis Evans: We chose it towards the latter end of the writing process. I think we came into the studio knowing that it was going to be called that. It was a lyric in one of Georgia’s songs, “Besties”. We went through a list of potential album names and thought it’d be funny. Not much thought went into it, it’s easier to do it that way. Because then you don’t think about things like that too much. You don’t end up taking ages to make those decisions.

What was your general mindset going into this album? Was there a lot of pressure or did you feel a sense of endless possibility?

Georgia Ellery: There wasn’t a lot of pressure. We had the right amount of time to work on it. I feel like we could go down different avenues if we wanted to, just to discover things. It was a really enjoyable process.

Were all of the songs written after “Live at Bush Hall”?

Lewis: It’s a bit all over the place and kind of confusing: There’s the last song on the album, “Goodbye (Don’t Tell Me)”, which was written by Georgia at the very start of the whole writing process. But because Georgia was really busy with [her other band] Jockstrap, she wasn’t around much. So we kind of parked the song for a bit until we could spend more time developing it. And then we started playing “Nancy Tries to Take the Night”, “For the Cold Country” and “Salem Sisters” in early 2023 and just put them in the live set, so we had a few extra songs to keep it fresh. And then in 2024, we had almost a whole six or seven months of writing and being in the rehearsal room five days a week. That’s where the other six tunes came from.

Black Country, New Road (INTERNATIONAL EXCLUSIVE) (Photo: Eddie Whelan)

It seems like you’re considering this album as the true follow up to “Ants From Up There”. Do you consider “Live a Bush Hall“ as more of a excursion? And if so: Is that just because of the the fact that you recorded these new songs in a studio?

Georgia: Yeah, we didn’t consider “Live at Bush Hall” as a proper album and didn’t even want to put it out on streaming services. We wanted to do the shows that we booked before Isaac left, but we wouldn’t be able to play Isaac’s songs, so we had to write new material. We just wrote as quickly as we could. It wasn’t with the same amount of detail applied that we would have liked to if we were putting out an album as a statement of intent.

Could you speak a little bit about the other differences/similarities between „Live at Bush Hall“ and „Forever Howlong“?

Lewis: They both have similar sensibilities in terms of the writing process. There’s a lot of time spent making sure that each person that wrote the song was happy with the decisions that were being made. Our writing process is heavily diplomatic. But I think there were definitely differences: We wanted to make this record a bit less theatrical. Whether we achieve that or not, I don’t know – I still don’t think it’s the most subtle record of all time – but we wanted to make it a bit more held back and a bit less brazen, unless it really needed to be.

I remember seeing your public writing session at the Haldern Pop Festival in 2022 and being really struck by your ability to be collaborative without having an obvious leader in the band. How are you able to keep such a healthy dynamic within the band?

Lewis: Our priority is our friendship. And just because you’re in a rehearsal room with someone, doesn’t mean you get to be rude to people. Secondly, we’ve been playing together for a long time and built up a lot of trust between ourselves. So if Georgia disagrees with me, I trust that she probably knows better than I do in that situation. So that trust means that you don’t need a leader, because anyone can be the decider.

Georgia: And we do votes sometimes. You don’t need a leader for that, you just cast your vote.

Lewis: We also have varying levels of loudness within the band, in terms of how loud our different personalities are. So with the people that aren’t as loud, you need to check that they’re happy and that things are going the way that they want as well.

It’s impressive how the songs on „Forever Howlong“ feel very open, almost like anything could happen while you’re listening to them. But simultaneously, they are very catchy and have a strong pop appeal. How intensely do you think about that balance?

Lewis: That’s the one ambition that we share in common: We love making music that is accessible and catchy, but we like to layer our music with different levels. That’s the music that most of us really like the most, it’s always been really important to us. We all love pop music.

You recorded this new album with legendary producer James Ford. What did he bring to the table?

Georgia: He also has these pop sensibilities and suggested using a metronome for some bits – just things that we probably wouldn’t have thought of. James is amazing at everything, he just knows which is the best take and can make it sound amazing. You can just totally trust that he will make it sound like the best version of yourself. Also, he brought lots of instruments into the studio. He picked up this random synth and knew exactly how to use it. And he’s a great mediator and voice of reason. Just great vibes.

Black Country, New Road (Photo: Eddie Whelan) 

I feel like „Besties“ is such a perfect introduction to the album. Why did you choose that one as the opener and lead single?

Georgia: We chose „Besties“ because it has this fun harpsichord intro that feels quite grand. There are a couple of tracks on the album that have this really carefree, easygoing vibe. “Besties” just encapsulated that.

Lewis: Also, the reason why we decided to choose it as the first single was because Georgia wasn’t singing on any of the “Live at Bush Hall” stuff. It’s really cool that the lead single has Georgia singing for the first time on a BCNR record.

Would you say there’s any competition between the three songwriters in the band? Did you impact each other’s songs?

Georgia: I think that was a big thing and a way to make things cohesive, just to bounce off the last song that was written. We kind of figured that out towards the end of the writing process.

So you always thought about the album as a whole while you were working on the individual songs?

Georgia: Yeah, we were worried that we weren’t making something cohesive. Because “Ants from Up There” was such a cohesive concept album, it had like a melody running through every song. It was quite a high standard of cohesion. But the more we relaxed about it, the more it just happened naturally. You just gotta let it happen.

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