Photo: Daniel Quesada
"Punk is an intent," nods Savages frontwoman Jehnny Beth, catching my gaze with a fixed stare and a smile as she turns away from the Hackney skyline. "LCD Soundsystem is punk. They started playing squats and creating their own DIY scene. Punk is a spirit. All good music needs is modernity and difference."
Crowbarring their way into our lives with a clear fixed aesthetic, fearless spirit, and songs that exposed the rawest of nerves, Savages always seemed to be the most 'punk' thing the world had been gifted with in quite some years - by theirs or anyone else's definition.
Now on the eve of the release of their second album, Adore Life, the band's sound is much less abrasive and austere - but that's not to say they've lost any edge. They've simply adopted a new, more human form. Silence Yourself was the sound of a band first rushing from the trenches, eager and ready for battle. Adore Life is a more-rounded reflection of what it is to be human - and celebrating it.
"The intention was to make a positive record," admits Jehnny Beth. "Something that makes you feel alive, feel the urgency of life, like each breath might be your last one – to feel like you can live forever."
From the barbed call to arms of 'The Answer' and 'T.I.W.Y.G' to the sheer defiance of 'Evil', the inverted and twisted optimism of 'Sad Person', the elegiac solidarity of 'Adore' and the gossammer, bittersweet lovesong of 'Mechanics', this is a record so universal - meandering now between the darkness and the light while celebrating love, life, lust and loss while being as loud as possible. Now there's grace to match every ounce of rage.
"It’s very instinctive, we became better musicians after two years of studio but we didn’t want to go straight back into the studio," guitarist Gemma Thompson tells us. "That’s why we did a three week residency in New York in January. We wanted to take sketches of the songs to a live audience then keep playing them and keep the performative energy within it. We felt more feel to trial more melodic songs alongside the heavier stuff.
"The first record was very much a document of who we were, this is more about pushing those ideas. We tried very much to keep working and not think of the outside pressures, just ourselves."
But speaking of the outside pressures, and as they call it their 'intent', there is a very clear and fixed 'idea' of what Savages are. Literate, defiant and culturally engaged, Savages' fans are as close to a cult as a band could hope to inspire - mirroring the same spirit that they conjure on record and at their feral live shows.
"We’ve met our fans all around the world and noticed some things happening," muses Jehnny Beth when we put this to her. "There’s a real connection that was starting to blow our minds and have an effect on us. It’s not so much about what they expect of us, I don’t think that matters. I don’t want to sound disrespectful, but I think the music is enough."
Gemma interjects: "You want to write music that you want to hear yourself, the plan is always to stick to that, without disrespect to our fans."
So, we ask, if you’re true to yourselves, then you’re true to Savages fans then?
"Yes, and the people might like the second record, they might not," admits Jehnny Beth. "You can’t have control. People choose who and what they love the most, and there’s a grace in that."
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Photo: Gigwise/Richard Gray
So with this in mind, if you weren't in Savages, would you be a fan of Savages?
"Why would you ask that?," blurts back a baffled Jenny Beth. "It’s a funny question… I never asked myself that!"
As I gather myself to explain the appeal of their manifesto and how they might see themselves externally, Gemma comes to my aid: "I guess everyone would dream of being a fly on the wall to their own thing, that would solve so many questions, but it’s about much more than just that I think. It’s about being on stage, performing and finding that thing where nothing else matters. "
Amen, and now Jehnny Beth concurs: "We don’t have that kind of relationship with our music. It’s not about ‘liking’ certain things, songs and records are an obsession. We do it because we have to. We find our joy in the process, not just in listening to what we do."
That joy is evident throughout Adore Life. It's human to adore life, it's instinctual to love and reject hate, it's natural to scream in defence of that, in the face of death and terror. Punk is a spirit, anger is an energy but love is the answer. Adore Life is the album that 2016 needs.
Savages' upcoming UK 2016 tour dates are below. For tickets and more information, visit here.
Savages will play:
Thu February 18 2016 - BEXHILL ON SEA De La Warr Pavilion
Fri February 19 2016 - CAMBRIDGE Junction
Sun February 21 2016 - GLASGOW Art School
Mon February 22 2016 - MANCHESTER Albert Hall
Tue February 23 2016 - LEEDS Irish Centre
Thu March 17 2016 - LONDON Roundhouse
