More about: Crows
'We played a lot of hide and seek in the making of this album'
Having long made their mark on the live circuit, London four-piece Crows finally released their wildly-anticipated debut Silver Tongues in 2019. Since then, the band have accumulated somewhat of a cult following, and, now three years on, are back and raring to go. We caught up with James, Steve, and Sam before their SXSW showcase and release of their upcoming sophomore album Beware Believers.
“I don’t think at any point we’ve ever been like ‘alright we should be like this’, or ‘we should make a song that sounds like this’, it’s just all been quite natural how it comes out,” admits Steve. Having often been pigeon-holed under the post-punk umbrella James comments, “So many bands like Yard Act get put in that category quite a lot, and we sound nothing like Yard Act. There have always been people who’ve been like 'Oh, they’re post-punk', but I think post-punk now means like a broad spectrum of music.”
From their striking wall of sound to their anthemic hooks, Crows are masters at curating atmosphere. On their writing process, Sam explains: “I actually hate it compared to other bands I’ve been in because we all get in a room and just make stuff up, whereas before I’ve been in bands where there have been songwriters who bring things in. This is very much more of a democratic vibe. It mainly just starts with one idea from one of us and kind of builds from there.”
“I literally just write lyrics all the time,” adds James. “I just keep a bank of lyrics and then when one of these said ideas becomes a more structured version of itself we put it all together and I hone those lyrics to what fits best over the top of everything.”
“I don’t think at any point we’ve ever been like ‘alright we should be like this’, or ‘we should make a song that sounds like this’, it’s just all been quite natural how it comes out,” admits Steve. Having often been pigeon-holed under the post-punk umbrella James comments, “So many bands like Yard Act get put in that category quite a lot, and we sound nothing like Yard Act. There have always been people who’ve been like 'Oh, they’re post-punk', but I think post-punk now means like a broad spectrum of music.”
From their striking wall of sound to their anthemic hooks, Crows are masters at curating atmosphere. On their writing process, Sam explains: “I actually hate it compared to other bands I’ve been in because we all get in a room and just make stuff up, whereas before I’ve been in bands where there have been songwriters who bring things in. This is very much more of a democratic vibe. It mainly just starts with one idea from one of us and kind of builds from there.”
“I literally just write lyrics all the time,” adds James. “I just keep a bank of lyrics and then when one of these said ideas becomes a more structured version of itself we put it all together and I hone those lyrics to what fits best over the top of everything.”
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Taking their new tracks into the studio, Sam laughs: “We had a base level of songs, but obviously the more songs you go in with the better. One day me and Steve were playing an Interpol song, and we were just playing around with it and I’ve never seen our manager so excited. He just ran downstairs and was like “Lads! That sounds brilliant, what is it?!”, and we were like 'Ah shit—best thing we’ve done in here and it’s not even our song'."
With reports that the band recorded much of their debut album in the dark, we asked if Beware Believers was recorded in a similar environment. “We turned the lights down a few times,” states Steve. "My guitar track was done pretty much just in the dark—to the point that the first couple of times I think I missed pedals and stuff, so we turned them up a little bit”. “Dimly lit, some mood lighting for sure,” reflects James, “But not pitch black again”.
Using the studio space to their advantage, Sam reveals: “We actually played a lot of hide and seek in the making of this album. We were in this massive studio and it had loads of good crevices basically, so I think Steve suggested it one day and then it became a bit of a ritual at the end of the day.” “The hide and seek got ramped up because we found that knife,” jests Steve, “And so the seeker had to carry the knife just for a little element of danger.”
Having recorded their new album at the start of 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic put the release of Beware Believers on the backburner. “We recorded it ages ago and then we all got a bit sick of it to be honest,” says Sam. “Now everything’s ramping up, everyone’s kind of got their enthusiasm around it back. I’m really excited to play it because it’s sort of two years after it was originally meant to come out. I’m really proud of it, I think it’s a cool record.”
“We definitely capture our live sound a lot more on this album,” comments James, “I think it’s a really good second album moving on from the first because the first album we sort of wrote over a five-year period. We didn’t set out to write that album - it was just a collection of songs we had written over our time as a band. Whereas this album we actually wrote with the intention to write an album from start to finish in quite a short space of time.”
“It’s definitely a lot more cohesive and together than the first album,” adds Steve. “Sound-wise for me I think there are quite a few tracks where I’m doing quite minimal kind of stuff, which is something that I didn’t necessarily intend to do but it’s kind of what fit the songs better and it made more sense to keep it that way.”
On their influences, Steve states: “We don’t set out to be any one style or influenced by any one band or whatever. But I think the thing that is quite nice is when, say even the first two singles that have come out, it’s nice to hear what people hear in it themselves. And then they say I can hear like Interpol or Gang of Four or something like that. And it’s like ok yeah, those are things that we do listen to and it’s interesting to see that side of it. Also, there are times when people say really left-field stuff and I’m like ok how did you get that? But it’s still interesting to hear that they can hear stuff like that in it.”
Having long frequented the London scene, James comments: “I don’t think London will ever change really. There’s still gonna be punk bands, there’s still gonna be heavy bands, there’s still gonna be little niches and areas of London that has it’s own thing. I guess like South London has The Windmill, and all those venues have their own little thing and East has its own little thing with like Shacklewell and MOTH club.
"I guess it comes in little pockets of bands and artists and people who go to those types of gigs. I feel they are blown together a bit more and they are crossing over a lot more now, but I feel that’s a more recent thing. When I was a bit younger and we were playing Shacklewell we would never go south, but I feel like we do go south a lot more for gigs now.”
With years of experience in the industry, Sam advises: “It is a bit brutal, and you can easily get stuck looking around at what everyone else is doing. And I think everyone does that and it's normal, but if you can just avoid that and just enjoy what you’re actually doing then it’s going to be a lot more fun because comparing yourself to bands that end up doing much better than you, or growing quicker, or booking this festival whenever you didn’t and stuff will just really bring you down after a while. I try not to do that so much anymore and just enjoy what we are doing and feel grateful that we get any opportunities at all and people give a shit.”
“That’s something that’s been really instilled with coming out of Covid and everything,” adds Steve. “Being able to play, the first few things we got offered was like yes obviously we’ll do everything, but it got to a point where we were double booked and we were like maybe we should go back to picking and choosing what we do rather than throwing ourselves into everything. It’s just so exciting to be able to play.”
With Coronavirus putting a halt to the live music industry, James reminisces, “The first gig back we did on fucking ‘freedom day’ or whatever we’re calling it, two minutes in it felt just like nothing had happened, it was straight back into it and it felt fucking great.” “We didn’t play for ages,” adds Sam, “but it felt as if we had just played yesterday. It’s kind of like riding a bike or skiing or something, you just do it!”
From anxiety-fuelled trips to the supermarket to mosh pits in a crowd of hundreds of people, for many live shows brought back a sudden feeling of normality. “I was thinking I’d be wearing a mask on stage and that kind of thing but it all just went out the window,” says Sam. “It’s been horrible for everyone, but I don’t think that kind of Covid anxiety has translated into those environments that much. If you’re gonna go you’ve probably made that decision that you’re gonna take a bit of a risk and it’s a personal decision you’ve made.”
Now that plans are somewhat back on track, Sam comments: “I think SXSW will be really good, it’s like a proper bucket list thing… And then after that, we have our headline tour in April, and the album comes out April 1st. We have our biggest ever London show on April 13th at Scala, and then we have a summer of a few festivals here and there—hopefully more once the album comes out and everyone thinks it’s great!”
Beware Believers arrives 1 April via Bad Vibrations.
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More about: Crows
Photo: Jamie Noise
