More about: Sleaford Mods

Nottingham's Sleaford Mods released their EP, TCR on Friday, which is a pretty historic moment for the band as it’s their first to be released on legendary indie label Rough Trade.

TCR is as riled up as you’d expect and the change in label hasn’t deterred their vision at all. It’s very much a Sleaford Mods record but “bolder” and even has live organic instrumentation thrown in for the first time. It’s well worth a listen.

They’ve also got a full UK tour starting this week that includes a sold out show at the Roundhouse. There aren’t many more relevant bands that define the struggle of 2016 more than Sleaford Mods. They’re reactionary, aggressive, foul-mouthed, and a hell of a lot of fun to listen to. Williamson is the wordsmith behind it all who has a dry-witted yet brutal realism with words and extremity of topics he traverses in his music.

I was fortunate to catch up with Jason Williamson, the lyrical half of the Sleaford Mods to see how it was all going. We got caught up in a mutual disdain for the state of the world and talked about the EP – a bit. Here's what went down:

Q - Nice work on the new EP. It sounds more live what did you do differently?

We recorded ‘TCR’, the main track live then just looped it like we normally do. We recorded it in Jeff Burrow from Portishead’s studio down in Bristol. He had a big live room and I had the idea to do that one live but obviously to loop it - not do it fully live. Andrew got on the drums and I played guitar we looped the main riff then Andrew added the little bits underneath. But apart from that all the other ones have been pretty much electronic.

Q - It sounds like the production has been taken to another level

It’s moved on. It always moves on whenever we approach new stuff, in various ways. I’m glad you noticed that. That’s chuffed me up because we thought it had a real, not a completely different sound, but a bolder sound perhaps.”

Q - Did you do any more at Jeff Barrow’s?

No. We did the album, which is coming out next year, in Steve Mackey from Pulp’s studio in London. Rough Trade gave us a couple of options and it really suited us.”

Q - Is it still self-produced?

Yeah everything was produced by myself and Andrew - we just used the studio…. I’m not against using producers but I think whilst it’s still working solely me and Andrew we will continue to do it like this."

Q - I know you’re on Rough Trade now but It’s quite incredible for Harbinger sound, essentially an unknown label, to have had the success it did with your last album, Key Markets. What do you think that says about the way in which bands should operate in the music industry now?

I think bands are snagged from an early age. A lot of current bands are snagged where they’re perhaps developed by management companies and then passed on or palmed off to a label and at an early age these things are quite attractive I suppose. But that’s where the trap is, I think.

Q - I suppose when you’re close to the industry you notice the predictability in the rise of certain bands.

It’s a bit strange, especially with the internet. I’ve noticed a trend where bands are playing 250 cap places getting hooked up with a label. Before you know it they’ve got 20k twitter followers and they’re doing 1000 cap then they’re moving up to pretty much stadiums, which I find... It’s modern marketing I guess. Yeah, there’s nothing unpredictable about it what so ever."

Q - When you took a dig at Blossoms on Twitter, was it not them in particular, it’s just you see them as a product of the modern marketing and it’s that that you have a problem with?

Yeah basically and you’ve been quite right in saying that and I thank you for that. It’s not them personally at all, obviously - they’re only kids. But there’s no difference between that band and say Katy Perry from where I’m stood. You can get criticised for that for being old and oh shut up but let’s face it at the end of the day there is literally no difference […] It’s just a couple of years playing smallish venues then bang everything’s rinsed with advertisements power of marketing steps in you know what I mean.

Q - What’s the difference with Sleaford Mods?

It’s just for want of a better word more homegrown. We’ve stuck to our principles and come up the old fashioned way in the sense of word of mouth how it used to be. Obviously we had a little bit of stuff put behind us because as we started earning a bit more money we could afford to pay for a few more things in the sense of PR etc. We’ve done it in a way it should be done really and it’s more respectful to the audience.

Q - Do you think that’s part of the reason Iggy Pop called you the greatest rock n roll band of this century you’ve built your own empire?

Yeah I think it’s partly that. Partly the style of music reminds him of stuff from back in the day it’s stuff he can relate to. A lot of his work with The Stooges and also his solo stuff with Bowie, the lyrics spoke of alienation, of not being settled. Quite aggressive give a fuckish. A lot of that is obviously inherent in our stuff.

Q - Lots of bands are adverse to speaking out politically, thinking it’s not their place to do so. You, on the other hand, don’t hold back. I imagine you haven’t changed your personality for your music - it’s almost like a conversation you might have down the pub.

I can see people’s objection to it if it’s rammed down your throat. If Owen Jones for instance decided to start a band then that wouldn’t be very agreeable because it would be jargon over music. So it’s important to keep it still how people sort of take it in on the street or in the pub or whatever. It’s never really that informed but there is a certain real reaction about how people think about politics.

Q - Talking of Owen Jones, you got kicked out of the Labour party because you were too controversial on Twitter…

Oh god yeah…I got suspended but I’m not feeling for one minute it will be a good outcome really.

Q - I can tell you’re aligned quite far left politically. And something I’ve noticed with the far left is that instead of leaning to more radical solutions they’ve turned to labour. Do you think that the goal of the far left groups is being diluted because they’re suddenly looking back to party politics for answers because Jeremy Corbyn has a history of going to anarchist protests when he was 23 or something.

Yeah. It’s a really good point. I do in a way. I think that might weaken it because people fall back into the fold of government politics perhaps. When you know normally they would be moving away from that and looking for something else whatever that may be. Yeah you’ve got a point, definitely. Also, at the same time there’s so much injustice going on. You can see it everywhere. If he’s going to come along and say we can support these people, I vote for that person. It’s not the ultimate answer. It’s semi mending a permanent wound so to speak.

Q - I was at my first year of university when the Coalition government got put into power. There was an eerie atmosphere on campus afterwards with many people fearing for the future. Just from taking a walk down the street, do you notice a big change since then?

Yeah, each place has gentrified the centre of town; it’s more of a business-centric place. But homelessness has risen, it reminds me of the mid-90s when you walked into the centre of town there would be a lot of people sleeping in shop doorways. There’s also a lot of tension, and people are reluctant to see what’s before them because it is quite horrific.

Q - Do you see docility toward damaging policies a problem?

Just the pressures of modern life, families have got no time to think about anything else but putting food on their own tables.

Q - Do you think policies are very tactical in order to keep people poor and less likely to respond?

Yeah I do in a way. The powerlessness of being able to do anything about that other than sign a petition on Facebook. Yeah definitely in that sense.

Q - What about richer people's reactions? On the whole the society is apathetic.

Apathy works its way through domestic responsibilities, employment responsibilities, consumerism et al. And also depression, all of the negative mental aspects that seem to have excelled since the coalition came into power. All of these things are putting massive barriers in the way of people even starting thinking to oppose all these horrific policies. It’s always been like that... Although, there’s rising suspicion towards government at the minute because one thing that social media has done, it has made people stop and think.

I know a lot of people who were quite right wing, patriotic a few years back who now completely rubbish it. So in that sense it’s good. But then you’ve got other people like Skepta turned around and said well it’s nothing to do with me. That’s what they’re doing. In a way he’s kind of right. If they (government) want to do that let them get on with it. That’s nothing to do with me. I don’t know there’s so many ins and outs about it. It could drive you insane if you think about it too much and I think that’s the reason people don’t.

Q - Going back to your new EP, On the single TRC, you talk about alcoholism… 

Yeah dietary habits of people who socialise at my age is something of great interest. It’s been discussed at great length on the new album, which is coming out next year. Also, my own dissatisfaction with myself personally and socially. There’s things in there about guilt. There’s things in there about Brexit. Stuff like that.

Q - I was going to ask about Brexit... do I need to even ask which way you voted? What did you make of it all? 

I was more swayed by Brexit by the absolutely infantile engineering behind it in the sense of Boris Johnson , Farage, they angered me more than the actually theme of leaving the EU. I’m being a bit selfish here. But after travelling around, gigging in Europe for a couple of years. I felt quite a kinship with my fellow European human beings. In a way I didn’t want to leave. I viewed the EU as something that although, obviously there is a lot of fault with the actual mechanism of it. I felt that it kept us closer to each other in some respects. Those two things together made me sway towards the in vote.

The out vote is dressed in the Union Jack or rather the St George’s flag and some bull shit that we’re going to be better without it and some people who hadn’t really left the country ever. But at the same time I’m well aware there was a strong working class presence within that vote and a lot of working class people can’t afford to go anywhere apart from the local fucking pub you know . In that sense I can understand that alienation.

But I kept seeing Johnson’s face. Fucking clueless man. The way he talks, he’s just modelled himself on fucking Churchill. It’s the same old bull shit. People like that shit, especially provincials.

Q - What do you think of Theresa May?

Not a lot. Fucking hell, let’s face it. She hasn’t said a lot has she she’s been very quiet. People had this calm attitude towards here. There’s not been a lot of outrage towards her like there was Cameron. But just the same you know what I mean. You’d be a fool to think it’s going to be any different. I’m very hateful toward whatever person is in power in the Conservative Party and in Labour as well apart from obviously Mr Corbyn, who is speaking some kind of reason and intelligence.

Q -You mentioned Farage earlier, and with Trump in the running, what do you think has given these far right people a shot at mainstream politics?

You wouldn’t have believed that back in 1928 do you know what I mean. People forget, alright it was 80, 90, 100 years ago back then western society was just as cultured as it supposedly is now. I’m not a real great believer in culture I think it goes hand in hand with keeping people down. Culture was just as much of a hot water bottle for people as it now. Not people were intelligent cultured artistic etc. And it happened then.

Q - Do you see Trump as a eugenicist?

Yeah completely. There’s going to be some pretty catastrophic happenings in our life time if Donald Trump ever took office.

Q - You’ve got quite quite liberal people forced to vote Hillary, who isn't a very radical alternative.

It's the lesser of two evils. Very true. I think the feeling you get when you’re facing fascism is it just boils your blood because it’s just so unintelligent and I suppose that’s what separates it from the current evils that are going on. Horrible shit that’s going on in Aleppo, Syria, and the other places that are getting fucked up you know..

Q - The violence of centre right is disguised a bit more?

Suposedly intelligent people have more to say toward an obvious personification of a villain than they would Obama or Hillary Clinton. But it’s a shit tip whatever way you fucking look at it, you know what I mean.

Sleaford Mods will play the following shows. Check here for more ticket information

19th October – Glasgow ABC 02
21st October - Belfast – Mandela Hall
24th October – Newcastle Academy
26th October – Leeds Beckett SU
27th October – Manchester Academy
28th October – Liverpool Mountford Hall
31st – October – Brighton Corn Exchange
3rd – November – Nottingham Rock City SOLD OUT
4th November – Nottingham Rock City
7th – November – Coventry Empire
8th – November – Bristol Academy
10 – November – Camden Roundhouse

More about: Sleaford Mods