More about: The Wombats

“We met in LIPA in Liverpool back in 2003,” smiles The Wombats’ Daniel Haggis. Two decades on since the inception of the band, five albums and a string of hits have seen them accumulate a cult following and have cemented themselves as a pillar of the British indie scene.

“There was no sort of one eureka moment when suddenly it all just fell into place, it just took a little bit of time and then eventually it got up enough momentum that nothing could stop us”. 

On the early days, Daniel remembers, “The first album was all about trying to capture that live energy. I remember the A&R guys saying if we could just somehow get the energy from a live Wombats show and get it onto a CD, that’s what we want to achieve. So, when we went into the studio with Steve Harris to record the album, we pretty much just set up all three of us in a room and played. It’s pretty much live, apart from one song on the album, Little Miss Pipedream, all the other songs, there was no click track, it was just like right - play the song a bunch of times, pick your favourite take, and then do a couple of overdubs afterwards.”

Moving forward, the band saw their sound evolve. “We were ready to take the sound somewhere different because we’d been playing the same instruments and the same songs quite a lot, so it was like we wanted to try something different. And I think then with each subsequent album we’ve tried to challenge ourselves in slightly different ways and see where we can take this kind of power trio. You know, make it bigger or more synth-y or a slightly different genre almost. But I guess, because of Murph’s voice being so distinctive, and just the three of us to be honest it kind of ends up still sounding like The Wombats no matter how much we think we’re changing it.”

“Getting together for a practice has to be a little more organised nowadays,” explains Daniel. “Murph’s over in LA, Tord is in Oslo, and I moved back to Liverpool about 6 months ago so we’re all over the place”. Despite the distance however, the band continue to collaborate. “It’s kind of nice really because when we have a writing trip, we either go to Oslo or LA or London or wherever, and it’s like - we’ve got two weeks,off we go! And you kind of just dedicate 100% of your time while you’re together to making music, whereas before it would have been a bit like - shall we have a practice tomorrow? Yeah, yeah, cool, alright - and then you might not have another practice for a week. It was a bit more kind of as and when you felt like it you could have a practice, whereas now I feel like we get a lot done in a shorter space of time.”

"It’s just really nice to have those breaks in so that when we come back together and do The Wombats it’s like we’re all really hungry for it again..."

Alongside The Wombats, all three members work on various side projects. Daniel comments, “It’s really nice to kind of just dip your toes into the other projects that we have. It kind of gets a different side of you out. You get to experiment with different production techniques and using different instruments, and it’s just really nice to have those breaks in so that when we come back together and do The Wombats it’s like we’re all really hungry for it again and that energy has built up again.”

“I think to have a long career with a band it’s important to not just go hammer and tongs non-stop, especially when you’ve been doing it for as long as we have. I think we instinctively know when to have those little lulls and pauses, and then come back to it with that same energy that we know we kind of need and want to start tackling the new album and making new songs… It’s just good fun, and music - it should be as fun as it possibly can be.”

While the pandemic brought zoom writing sessions and a stop to their touring schedule, a resurgence on Tik Tok saw their track ‘Greek Tragedy’ get introduced to a new audience. “Any medium for people to discover your music is awesome. When we started out there was nothing like that, there was no way to fast track your song into someone’s life. It was like they had to come see you and buy a little EP at the show. Then myspace came along so that kind of started the ball rolling but obviously there’s so many platforms out there now for people to discover your music, but how a remix that we had never actually officially released ourselves managed to become a Tik Tok viral thing is a testament to how powerful all of that world is.”

Now 15 years on from the release of their debut album A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation, the band are releasing a special anniversary vinyl and digital pressing. “We always wanted a vinyl of the first album,” smiles Daniel, “Mike Walsh, who’s a friend of ours works for Serenade, and he’d mentioned the digital pressing thing a while ago. It’s a new way I guess of ingesting music, and it just sounded like an interesting, exciting thing where we could do voice notes on the digital pressing and it’s sort of got that kind of collectability that vinyls have, but obviously for a digital age.”

“We’ve always tried to embrace myspace or whatever. As things come along just try it and see where it goes and whether music fans like it… It’s kind of an interesting format I guess for the future, thinking about how we can make that experience for fans who want to dig a little deeper into songs maybe as a way to listen to the album in a slightly different way to the other options out there.”

On the year ahead, Daniel comments, “We’re gonna start working on our sixth album hopefully at the end of May, and then we’ve got a handful of festivals over the summer. We’ve got twenty something gigs this year and then apart from that it’s just working on the next album really, and putting out our side projects as well!”

You can catch The Wombats headlining Community and Neighbourhood festivals this summer. A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation 15^th Anniversary reissue is out now. 

Grab your copy of the Gigwise print magazine here.

More about: The Wombats