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The Wombats hit the U.S. again this summer to tour their third and latest album, \u201cGlitterbug.\u201d One of our DJs, Olivia Gehrke, spoke to Dan Haggis, the drummer of The Wombats, before their show at Port City Music Hall in Portland, Maine on August 10.<\/p>\n
For the writing of your most recent album, \u201cGlitterbug,\u201d there were times when you guys were on opposite sides of the world\u2014I think it was LA and the UK. Did that help or hinder the writing process for the album, or did it do a bit of both?<\/b><\/p>\n
Dan: I guess we had to find new ways and new solutions to finish up songs and whatnot. But I guess we were kind of used to it because Murph (Matthew Murphy, singer of The Wombats) lived in London for quite awhile, and we were in Liverpool so even though it\u2019s not the other side of the world, we were still used to not getting together to make music everyday. We\u2019d work on things on our own time and then come together and make stuff. [I guess for LA, at the worst of times,] where it was like \u201cOh, I can\u2019t just get the train quickly and come and do something. We did a few things where myself and Tord (bassist of The Wombats) would make something in Liverpool and send it over to Murph. Or Murph would record something on his phone and send it over to us. But in general, I think we always needed to end up in a practice room together\u2014playing the music or songs and figuring things out and arranging it\u2014because apart from a couple of anomalies, we always need that to get things feeling right.<\/p>\n
For the writing process of \u201cGlitterbug,\u201d I had read that you guys had written like 20-odd songs and narrowed it down the tracklisting of the album, plus the few B-sides released for HMV. Were there any songs on the final \u201cGlitterbug\u201d tracklist that almost didn\u2019t make the cut?<\/b><\/p>\n
D: There was \u201cCurveballs,\u201d which is the last song on the album. It was between that one and something else. Actually the label at first was like, \u201cMaybe just ten songs on the album,\u201d because we were running out of time, and the producer we were working with was like, \u201cWe\u2019re running out of time,\u201d and we were like, \u201cNo, no, no, we really want to finish this song.\u201d So, that one almost didn\u2019t make it. We were pretty much in agreement with the whole album. We just ended up doing two extra songs for the deluxe version because those two songs we really wanted to release as well, so the label said; \u201cOkay, we can do that as a deluxe thing.\u201d The B-sides were ones that were in contention for the album but just never quite made it. The tracklisting was done pretty early on which is quite rare for us.<\/p>\n
From \u201cA Guide to Love, Loss, and Desperation\u201d to \u201cThis Modern Glitch\u201d to \u201cGlitterbug,\u201d there\u2019s definitely been a noticeable evolution in sound. Was that change a conscious decision or something that happened naturally over the course of the past 10+ years you\u2019ve been in the band?<\/b><\/p>\n
D: I think a little bit of both of those reasons. I think it was kind of a necessity from just playing on the first album\u2014guitar, bass, drums, and a few little kids\u2019 keyboards. We wanted to challenge ourselves and try something a little bit different because when you\u2019ve been playing the same instruments every night for two or three years, which is how long we toured the first album, we just wanted to try something fresh and different. Obviously, you get naturally excited by the sounds that you haven\u2019t explored yet, whether it\u2019s a ukulele or an \u201880\u2019s synth. So it was partly just wanting to try something new. Also it keeps things more creative. Even though I think the songwriting is\u2014not similar\u2014but that thing is quite consistent throughout the three albums. Obviously, we just try to change around it. We\u2019re big fans of bands like Radiohead that just change their sound every album, but you can still always tell it\u2019s Radiohead. I\u2019m not comparing ourselves to Radiohead at all, but we\u2019re just big fans of bands that are not afraid to change up things. You end up with a few fans that say, \u201cOh, I don\u2019t like your new album because it doesn\u2019t have as many guitars on.\u201d There\u2019s always going to be people or fans that have comments like that, but just in general, it seems to be that our fans understand we want to change from album to album.<\/p>\n
Going back a little bit in time, on \u201cThis Modern Glitch,\u201d you guys released pretty much an entire album\u2019s worth of B-sides. What prompted that release originally, and is it something you have since considered doing again at any point?<\/b><\/p>\n
D: There are quite a few songs from writing that we\u2019ve got on our iPods that have never been released. We just want\u2014as every band probably\u2014every time you make a new song, for people to hear it straight away because it\u2019s so exciting. But obviously when it comes to making an album, you have to be a bit more selective and think about the album as a whole. We wanted to do some of the B-sides, because now singles don\u2019t really seem to get released in the same way. It seems to be like people buy 7\u201d singles. There\u2019s not as much need for all the B-sides in the way that the record labels release singles nowadays. So, I guess that was the main difference between this album and the last ones. Hopefully some of these songs will see the light of day one day because we put in all the time making them, and so it would be a shame not to put them out sometime.<\/p>\n
It sounds like, in your music, you guys draw from a bunch of different influences, eras, and genres, but has there been anyone\u2014musician or non-musician\u2014who has influenced the band in one way or another that people would be surprised by?<\/b><\/p>\n
D: Murph and I bond over Christopher Nolan films, like the \u201cBatman\u201d trilogy, \u201cInterstellar\u201d and \u201cInception\u201d\u2014some like mind-altering films. They\u2019re so awesome. And the perfection that he manages to achieve in them\u2014anyone like that in whatever art or field they work in\u2014I think it\u2019s really inspiring to see someone who\u2019s at the top of the game and who makes something that, from the start to the end, just blows you away. There\u2019s not one weak part of the story or one weak part of the filmmaking or the images or anything. It\u2019s just like, \u201cWow. If he can make a movie that good, then we need to step our game up!\u201d<\/p>\n
Some bands say they can\u2019t connect to their debut once they\u2019re further into their career, whether it\u2019s because of sound, or topics of songs, or any other reason. Has that been the case for you guys and \u201cA Guide to Love, Loss, and Desperation?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
D: Not so much. I mean obviously we play more songs in the sets from our later albums, especially from \u201cGlitterbug,\u201d because they\u2019re the newer songs and the ones that we really want to play and the ones we get more excited about. But we still like to change up which first album songs we put in. We actually just played \u201cLaura\u201d for the first time in awhile the other night. It\u2019s always really nice playing those songs. It\u2019s like seeing an old friend again after five years or something. It just feels the same as the last time you saw each other. I think that\u2019s the best way to describe it, really.<\/p>\n
You guys are somewhat notorious for doing some fun covers. There was Take That\u2019s \u201cPatience,\u201d \u201cPostman Pat,\u201d Jessie J\u2019s \u201cPricetag.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
D: Oh wow, you\u2019ve seen those?<\/p>\n
Yeah! Are there any new songs you guys have been itching to cover?<\/b><\/p>\n
D: We did some stuff on this album. We did a Taylor Swift cover\u2014\u201cBlank Space\u201d\u2014for a radio station. That was quite fun. We played together the night before after a gig in Amsterdam. We sat down with kids\u2019 keyboards in a room and just sorted that. Anything else we did? Oh! Carly Rae Jepsen! We did \u201cI Really Like You\u201d for a radio station in the U.K. because we needed to do a pop song. That\u2019s how most of these things come about. It\u2019s like radio stations say to you, \u201cwe want you to come and play one of your songs, and then we want you to play one of the top 10 hits at the moment, but in your own style,\u201d like acoustic. There are some great pop songs out there, so we always try and find those and do our own thing with them. The problem with doing songs you really, really love, is that you worry that you\u2019re going to kill them\u2014that you\u2019ll ruin them. So, I\u2019m not even going to suggest any because I think it\u2019s better that we stick to doing funny, little pop songs that, if we don\u2019t get them right, no one\u2019s going to get on our backs about it.<\/p>\n
If you switch it around, if anyone could cover one of your songs, which song would it be and who would cover it?<\/b><\/p>\n
D: As we\u2019re at different extremes, I\u2019d like to hear maybe some of our songs done by a really heavy band. So, let\u2019s imagine \u201cTechno Fan\u201d from the second album covered by Deftones. Or I was going to say Rammstein at first, but that might be a little bit difficult because then they\u2019d have to translate them all over into German. Actually, no, let\u2019s go with that. Let\u2019s go with \u201cTechno Fan\u201d by Rammstein in German.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d listen to that. Wrapping it up, is there a single moment that you\u2019ve had in The Wombats that you feel sums up your career with the band thus far?<\/b><\/p>\n
D: Yeah. From the last year\u2019s touring, we did a festival called Splendour in the Grass in Australia. I think we were headlining it or second from top. I can\u2019t remember. Oh yeah, we were second from top. Florence + the Machine was headlining. Oh! I\u2019ve just found out what \u201cI never knew I was a techno fan\u201d is in German. Are you ready? It\u2019s Ich wusste nie, ich war ein Techno-Fan.<\/p>\n
Oh, wow! Put that out as the next single!<\/b><\/p>\n
D: That\u2019s ridiculous. Our tour manager is showing me things now. Oh yeah, Splendour in the Grass. We were second to top from Florence and there was like 20,000 people in this natural amphitheater in a rainforest setting on the east coast of Australia. Island Bay sort of area. I don\u2019t know what it was. Just all of us walked onstage to goosebumps, feeling almost emotional. It was this insane hour of energy, and the crowd over there\u2014all of them were singing along. It was such a big, overwhelming moment. You have those moments where you feel we\u2019ve come quite far from a little practice room in Liverpool to playing for 20,000 people over in the rainforest in Australia. You know something\u2019s gone right along the way.<\/p>\n
O: Wow, that seems pretty cool. Were there any wombats present there?<\/b><\/p>\n
D: There probably were, actually, sniffling around in the bushes there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Wombats hit the U.S. again this summer to tour their third and latest album, \u201cGlitterbug.\u201d One of our DJs, Olivia Gehrke, spoke to Dan Haggis, the drummer of The Wombats, before their show at Port City Music Hall in Portland, Maine on August 10. For the writing of your most recent album, \u201cGlitterbug,\u201d there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13221,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[26,35,34,25],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/wtbu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}