The Wombats’ lead singer Matthew Murphy is a guest on the latest episode of ‘Red Stripe presents: This Feeling TV’ which premiers this week, featuring guest appearances from The Wombats, Stereophonics, The Vaccines, Shed 7, Cabbage, OTHERKIN, Ten Tonnes and more.
To support the launch of new singles ‘Cheetah Tongue’ and ‘Lemon To A Knife Fight’ taken from their latest album ‘Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life’, Liverpudlians The Wombats spent an afternoon chatting about the state of the UK indie scene, not requiring an expensive guitar to write a hit record, moving away from a major label, the sound of the latest album and staying together for 15 years.
Almost a decade since the release of their infamous Indie dance anthem ‘Moving To New York’ the synth-pop three piece discussed the healthy state of the Indie music scene. Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy said: “It seems pretty thriving to me, everyone keeps banging on about how alternate and rock music is not at the forefront of people’s minds, but I don’t see that. It seems to be really healthy and really strong with lots of great bands coming through.”
Ahead of the band’s North American tour dates, including an eight-night support of alternative heavyweights Weezer and The Pixies, Murph discussed the expense of music instruments and how to keep people playing in bands. He said: “I feel like it’s important to remember, you know, John Lennon’s quote, “I'm an artist, and if you give me a tuba, I'll bring you something out of it.”. You don’t really need to have a £2k Martin [guitar] in your lap to write a song. There are so many other ways of making a couple of notes.”
The new album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life has been reviewed as a slightly heavier sound from the band’s indie-pop roots. When questioned on whether or not this was related to moving away from a major label and being given greater freedom. Murph said: “Yeah, maybe. I wonder if our old A&I guy would have kicked back against making really heavy, kind of guitar tracks. We’re still a really pop-y band at the end the day. It doesn’t sound like Norwegian death metal just yet, but maybe, maybe we’ll get there.”
The band, which have been together 15 years and have five albums to their name, were asked how the managed to stay together whilst their other noughties acts have faltered over time. Murph said: “A lot of passive aggression really helps. I think our drive has always kind of overshadowed any kind of inter-band problems and we’re just very focused on making new music. “
The new episode – which is available to view below - is the latest instalment of Red Stripe presents: This Feeling TV – a new music TV show for the digital age that still maintains all the unique charm and quirkiness that typified music TV shows back in their heyday. The show launched to much fanfare last year, with the first four episodes being viewed over half a million times online in 2017.
To find out more about the activity or to apply for tickets to attend one of the shows, visit the Red Stripe Twitter or Facebook page.
