Embodying An Aesthetic With Sound: Idles' Joe Talbot Talks 'Brutalism'
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
Written by Laura Johnson
“In the rank of unflattering monikers for an artistic style, Brutalism has got to score near the top. Like the much kinder-sounding Fauvism or Impressionism, it was a term of abuse for the work of architects whose buildings confronted their users - brutalized them - with hulking, piled-up slabs of raw, unfinished concrete.” - Nikil Saval, the New York Times
Idles’ decision to call their debut LP ‘Brutalism’ is no empty gesture. The record, which has been five years in the making, sprang from what vocalist Joe Talbot terms a love for “embodying an aesthetic with sound”.
Idles are brutal, but that’s no secret. Like the grey monoliths that sprang up in post-war Britain, their sound is clunky, clumsy, big and brash. Throughout the album Talbot ricochets between atonal vocals and spoken word, both delivered with an abrasive confidence, while guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan, bassist Adam Devonshire and drummer Jon Beavis create a chaotic backdrop of manic melodies and propellant beats.
The foundations for ‘Brutalism’ were laid around the death of Talbot’s mother and the writing process was an exercise in cathartic construction, with the band using the record as a means to alleviate the emotional weight they’d been carrying.
On record, Talbot’s grief manifests itself fleetingly alongside sharp political observations. On Divide & Conquer he criticises the dismantling of the NHS - “A loved one perished at the hands of the barren-hearted right.” - while Mother is “an exploration of who she was and is: mighty, dedicated, loving and flawed” that also includes the line “the best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich”.
The remaining 11 tracks are unrelenting assaults that traverse art, on Stendahl Syndrome, numbing agents on Benzocaine, and white privilege on the Beatles-referencing song of the same name. On the latter Talbot repeats the line: “Always poor, never bored.”
The record also represents the cleansing of some creative demons. Back in 2012 Idles released their debut EP, ‘Welcome’, a four-track affair where slick music belied defiant, blunt lyrics. On its arrival the hype machine geared up, but the band soon found themselves lacking gusto. “We were struggling to get into new stuff so quickly,” Talbot says. “We noticed that we were bickering more and not looking forward to practice. The gigs we always loved, but there was something missing.”
A logistical change then proved serendipitous. Bowen upped sticks and moved to London, while the rest of the band fell into more demanding jobs. That meant that when they did come together to write, there was a greater sense of urgency surrounding the sessions. No moments were wasted and they would strive to be more present and self-aware.
“I think we were over-thinking and trying to find a voice from other bands or music that we loved rather than just cracking on and writing,” Talbot says. “So that lack of hindsight and over-thinking just made us change the tone of our writing. It became more urgent and more visceral and blunter. We all started enjoying it more, not having time to think. Just play music and get on with playing live.”
Released in the autumn of 2015, ‘Meat’, the band’s second EP, was instrumental in helping Idles to pick up steam again. Soon after its arrival the songs that would comprise ‘Brutalism’ began spewing out of them, with the band then taking time to make sure they were right. According to Talbot, the simple fact was that they didn’t want to fuck them up.
And that extends to the lyric sheet. Though the composing of tracks is as democratic as possible, with each member free to put forward ideas, the words are Talbot’s alone. “No one else has a say,” is how he puts it. Once the bare bones are in place he will retreat for a solitary, intense listening party to start work on putting pen to paper. “When the song’s finished I’ll go away and listen to it about 200 times until something pops into my head,” he says. “And then I’ll just write it in one go, normally in one sitting.”
But then comes the hard part: recording. Their reputation for intense live shows is often where many conversations about Idles begin and they struggled for a long time to capture the essence of their performances in the studio. “With us it’s very much a kind of thunderous, aggressive, visceral thing and I think when you’re in the presence of us and you see how much we enjoy it it’s easy to translate,” Talbot says. “If on a record you miss that element, then I think you’re missing the point of the music. It was very important for us to capture it and it took us a long time.”
While recording ‘Meat’ and ‘Brutalism’ they used a method not dissimilar from baseball’s three strike rule in order to ensure that their performances didn’t become sterile. “We decided to record it all live in a room and give ourselves three takes for each song only, so there’s that sense of urgency and there’s that sense of real time,” Talbot says. “We’re not playing to a click, so when we really get into it and we’re feeding off each other in the studio we speed the song up subconsciously. Hopefully that translates to the listener and you feel your heart rate go up, that sort of thing. We try to make it as live an experience as possible on the record.”
Despite their best efforts, though, Talbot accepts some may not quite grasp that the music and subsequently the band’s performance are in pursuit of an overarching concept. The anger and vitriol in their sound is supposed to be inclusive. It’s supposed to speak to people.
“People will misread your stuff no matter what,” he says. “They’ll misread your eulogy, you know what I mean? People will always misunderstand things as soon as it’s read or spoken or heard. It won’t translate how you want it to. I think if there’s gonna be some fucking bellends at our show that start getting really aggressive they are missing the point, completely. I don’t condone violence. I think violence is important with aesthetic and sound and voice and words and you can do things in a way that captures people. But I don’t want to incite bullshit. It’s not what I’m about.”
‘Brutalism’ is out now through Balley Records
Idles Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Tue March 14 2017 - BIRMINGHAM Hare and Hounds
Wed March 15 2017 - GUILDFORD Boileroom
Thu March 16 2017 - BRIGHTON Prince Albert
Fri March 17 2017 - TUNBRIDGE WELLS Forum
Sat March 18 2017 - BEDFORD Esquires
Mon March 20 2017 - OXFORD Bullingdon
Tue March 21 2017 - SHEFFIELD Plug, The
Wed March 22 2017 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Think Tank?
Thu March 23 2017 - ABERDEEN Tunnels
Fri March 24 2017 - DUNDEE Redd Suite
Sat March 25 2017 - EDINBURGH Sneaky Pete's
Mon March 27 2017 - YORK Fulford Arms
Tue March 28 2017 - HULL Adelphi
Wed March 29 2017 - NOTTINGHAM Bodega Social Club
Thu March 30 2017 - LIVERPOOL O2 Academy2 Liverpool
Fri March 31 2017 - WAKEFIELD Unity Works
Mon April 03 2017 - STOKE Sugarmill
Tue April 04 2017 - PRESTON Guildhall
Wed April 05 2017 - CARDIFF Clwb Ifor Bach
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