More about: Warmduscher

Somewhere between Coventry and Cambridge, the spirited Clams Baker Jr (AKA Craig Louis Higgins Jr) is stripped from his normal tinted aviators and cowboy sleaze-bag get-up. Instead, Gigwise finds him on a mustard sofa, presenting as a calm, thoughtful idealist, one just as outspoken as his stage alter-ego, but far more reserved in temperament.

Having been an imperative cog in the Warmduscher machine since its inception, Baker Jr is a veritable tour guide of their ups and downs, their provocative wild live shows, and acts as the Ring Master to London’s most bizarre circus.

“At the end of the day, I like talking about sleazy sex, drugs and rock and roll. I like being a spokesperson for that as much as I like being a spokesperson for the band,” Baker Jr announces with not a fleck of sarcasm in his voice. The forward frontman is the perfect physical manifestation of Warmduscher, offering his gravelly, sometimes sultry voice to the leftfield garage-rock backdrop of his band, made up of drummer Bleu Ottis, Quicksand (Adam J Harmer), Mr Salt Fingers Lovecraft (Ben Romans-Hopcraft) and The Witherer aka Little Whiskers (Quinn Whalley). Cornball pseudonyms aplenty, Warmduscher are exactly what you’d expect from such a name: a swelling buffet plate of garage-rock, scuzzy post-punk, spacey electro bliss and profane poetry. Not for the faint-hearted.

Bake Jr continues, “I embrace the weirdos and the underbelly of culture that I grew up with, idolising nightlife and the danger of rock and roll and the danger of sex and drugs. I embellish and I embrace that, you know what I mean?” Baker Jr is an impassioned speaker, flitting between champing at the bit and calculating a calm and thought-provoking response. It paints the picture of a character that cares incredibly deeply about their music and is trying to help the world understand it too.

Their latest album At The Hotspot is a lesson in the above. Teeming with the vibrant dance cadence of a Hot Chip record (more on that later) and the furrowed punk sensibilities of contemporaries Do Nothing and Sleaford Mods, Warmduscher offers a unique pairing. It may have been said a million times, but there really is no one that sounds quite like them. Flitting between the soused conversation cadence reminiscent of post-clubbing ‘perched on the curb’ chats, and an unhinged yet surprising musicality, this London outfit occupies the cracks in the pavement, where weeds and wildflowers prosper in the harsh conditions of the brutal cityscape.

However, before the recording process for At The Hotspot had the chance to begin, Warmduscher was struck with devastating, and derailing news. “Dan has Covid,” was the message relayed to the band. Although this is a typical situation in 2022, and normally means someone can’t attend your birthday party, this was far more impactful news. The Dan in question was the lauded Dan Carey of Speedy Wunderground, with whom Warmduscher recorded their last three records, spanning back to 2015. It was an unexpected shake-up, but in an effort to not lose momentum, Baker Jr sourced a producer from a different world of music, one that would spark a daringly electronic-tinged sound. Warmduscher realised they were no longer rocking the boat, they were capsizing it entirely.

“It definitely would have been a different album with Dan. When you're working with him it’s more oriented towards guitar and drums. In a nutshell, he’s more geared for recording traditional guitar bands,” Baker Jr reveals. Serendipitously, however, Warmduscher happened to run into Al Doyle and Joe Goddard of electro-pop earworms Hot Chip, and the job was shifted to Goddard and Doyle to take on this eclectic fourth album, adding their own refined touch to the band’s usual garage DNA.

“With Joe now, it was more synth-heavy and obviously, there’s more electronic and dance pace. Their style of production is quick. It captures an important aspect of our live energy feel with it, which is why he recorded us in the first place. He saw us playing at a party — it was actually Mica Levi's party — and we were doing this really shoddy live set, with house speakers or something. It was really ropey, but it was really awesome. And so Joe always wanted to capture that.”

Although recorded during the tapering days of the ongoing pandemic, the record was written with the shackles of lockdown placed firmly around the British public, which needless to say, had an impact on Warmdsucher’s creative output, although not in the way you would imagine. “We never said ‘let's make a lockdown album’ or anything like that. We had just had nothing else to do. We had all this time where we can't tour and we can't do anything else. It's our way to hang out and party or whatever. So it just kind of happened that way.”

The cynical absurdity of lead single 'Wildflowers' captivated BBC 6 Music listeners, with the track riding its way to the sought-after A list and remaining there for far longer than any Warmduscher track before. The track is one of deep despise, throwing glib slander and spite towards smartphones, junk mail, gym weirdos and Covid-19 itself. Its most standout feature is perhaps that it is riddled with profanities, more reminiscent of a Charlie Sheen interview than a post-punk track. Swearing and radio rarely go hand in hand, so Baker Jr shares his gleeful approach to putting forward a clean version to his record label. “We signed to Bella Union and Simon [Raymonde] (Bella Union Founder) came to one of the recording sessions. We met afterwards and sat outside. It was his idea. He was like ‘I want to go with that track first.’ I think a lot of labels would have said they don't want to touch it, because of the swearing and the nature of it. But we were all sitting down talking, and it was decided. It’s a statement, and we never expected it on the radio!”

“I can't remember if I sent it, or they sent it to Mark Riley, but Mark Riley (6 Music presenter) was like, ‘Man, you need to do a radio edit of that. I really want to play this on the radio.’ And I was like 'I don't know how you do a radio edit of that.’ So, I went in with Joe and we tried changing the words slightly to ‘Oh, I love these brown envelopes.’ But it was so stupid. So we just cut every swear out of it. Then it was immediately A-listed in the playlist. It's the weirdest thing.”

After the unexpected success of 'Wild Flowers', Baker Jr had realised that his eccentric garage rock was beginning to resonate more than ever before with an audience of generation-spanning, disenfranchised listeners. But Baker Jr puts it down to his musical past, and surprising James Brown influence. “We all come from different musical backgrounds, but we all like pop music. I guess what we do is write really catchy music from all different genres, but we all come from a very underground scene, and these themes blend.”

With an eclectic array of instrumentalists and Baker Jr at the helm, At The Hotspot promises a deep dive into the modern human condition, cut with spiralling anecdotes from Baker Jr’s personal life and an overarching sentiment of being pissed off. “'Wildflowers' is just a guy pissed off from a day in the office, but something like 'Eight Minute Machines' actually came from when the George Floyd thing came out. I had read the information as he had been on his neck for eight minutes when it was actually nine minutes. So I’m writing about police brutality, but in the same breath, there was obviously the COVID stuff. The contrast between these humans that are supposed to protect you and are instead fucking choking somebody out for no reason, and killing them, but then in the same breath, you have these respirators that are making people breathe and are trying to save them. But you have the people that are acting like machines and you have machines that are saving lives — I like to mould and push all these things together, and make a surreal story for people to kind of make up for themselves.”

Baker Jr’s life seems to be an endless repeat of stops and starts, books that are tantalising close to closure before finding out the last few pages are ripped out. Peppered with false starts and absent finish lines leads him to conjure these liminal scenarios in his lyrics, toeing the line between reality and fantasy, bridging a gap between the evidential and manifested. Baker Jr continues, “'Baby Toe Joe' is literally just about a big, toxic male with a small penis, you know? 'Greasin’ Up Jesus' is just a silly story where you have a person begging to God because they've had this insane night.” These heady, elaborate poems divulge plenty about Baker Jr, and his minds twisted ability to craft his experience into song.

Craft underlies Warmduscher, with each member a tenured musician, offering a helping hand to keep a positively chaotic yet affable band afloat. It’s easy to overlook their sonic capability in favour of a more surface-level view, seeing them as a quasi-comedy band instead of a heavily oiled orchestra, but Baker Jr reaffirms that the music is why they are in it.

“Do we see ourselves as good musicians and serious musicians? Yeah man, with 100% confidence. No modesty — if anyone ever asked me if this is a joke, we are 150% Serious. Those guys can play anything. We could sit and play crazy jazz chords, whatever, they're like, born and bred. That’s all they do, that's all they've ever done. Bleu, the new addition, went to the BRIT School for drums and he is just insane. Whalley is a multi-instrument player; he can play anything.”

Proud of how far he has come, and even more so proud of his band, Baker Jr is a far cry from his stage persona, but they do share one trait in common: empathy. When performing, Baker Jr ensures each and every attendee can let go of their daily troubles, set free from whatever is being turned over and over in their brain that day. He is an advocate for a good time, and an inclusive time. This is particularly evident in our conversation, as he reveals his love for his fellow band members and spews thanks to his fans and radio listeners for supporting Warmduscher this far. Baker Jr shifts on his sofa and confidently declares “We're very fucking lucky with what we have now.”

Warmduscher is a band with no resolution, no easy conclusion that marks the end of their fable. They continually reinvent and revitalise their sound with whatever resources are available to them at the time and do some with alarming dexterity. At The Hotspot holds up a magnifying glass to not only Baker Jr’s life, but his whole band’s too, revealing a far more pensive and thoughtful gang of brothers than the one that delivered the scathing Tainted Lunch in 2019. At The Hotspot is evidence of a band that will adapt willingly to their surroundings, and prove Warmduscher are capable of far more than we ever anticipated.

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More about: Warmduscher