'We Trust Our Own Abilities, We Trust Our Taste': Introducing Raucous Noiseniks The None
Friday, 28 March 2025
Written by Laura Johnson
Photos: Laura Johnson
“Fuck, I’ve got nothing now! Nothing!” Chris Francombe says with a laugh as he recalls a low spell from a few years ago. The drummer’s long term relationship had ended, and around the same time his two best friends and bandmates had moved abroad, settling in Vienna and Berlin. He was at a loss, until he got a message from Cassels guitarist Jim Beck. After that, things didn’t seem so bad.
Francombe was offered a position behind the kit in The None, a new project Beck had joined with former Bloc Party and Young Legionnaire bassist Gordon Moakes, who he’d previously met through a mutual friend. That pal started out as the original drummer, but as soon as he admitted he only wanted to practice once a month and had no interest in gigs, the nascent group quickly realised it was time to part ways.
“This whole band is all about trying to play cool shows,” Beck admits, which is why they eventually called upon vocalist Kai Whyte to add their two cents to their noisenik sound, having struck out during a long audition process with a raft of hopefuls. Beck and Francombe were very familiar with Whyte’s presence, having played in the same scene for years with their respective bands, and they concluded that the logistical challenges presented by the fact the singer lived in Birmingham, while they were based in London, were worth overcoming. Beck took his shot. Whyte needed only 20 minutes to reply in the affirmative.
Remarkably, The None had just four practices together before they recorded their debut EP ‘Matter’ in late 2023, putting it out the following summer via Bandcamp. The four-song release offered staggering intensity, its mix of heavy and hardcore punk-leaning noise-rock bolstered by Whyte’s captivating performances, ranging from guttural screams to powerhouse refrains. “When we were hypothetically discussing vocalists for ages, I was just like ‘What is anyone even going to be able to do over this?’ Then Kai pulls melodies out of absolute nonsense,” Beck says.
“It’s absolutely perfect,” Moakes enthuses. “I’m so glad that we have that. It’s not amusical to me. I hear tunes all over it, and I’m just so glad that that comes across. There are points where we’re playing the ugliest chords that we can, and Kai seems to weave a way through that.”
Armed with these tracks, they set their sights on the stage and independently booked a UK tour for February 2024. Road-testing the line-up further cemented it, and the four-piece quickly made a name for themselves with performances as fierce as their material. The buzz got them an offer to support Metz on the UK leg of their final tour and several festival slots, including Mutations in Brighton and Cardiff’s Sŵn, where Whyte found out live on stage that they can, in fact, do a handstand. “We didn’t expect to end up doing all this cool shit so quickly,” Beck says. “I don’t really know what we thought — we didn’t have any pre-conceived notions.”
The None’s second EP ‘Care’ arrived in February and was created in much the same way as its predecessor, with Tom Hill (whom the band call the fifth None) at The Bookhouse Studio in London. But there was clear progress sonically in just those few months — the kind that can only be gained by putting in the hours on stage. Not only had the music evolved, becoming more manic and experimental, but Whyte’s vocals grew more dynamic as they found they could utilise their full range in this project.
“When I was younger I really liked heavy music,” they explain. “I really liked Dillinger Escape Plan, going from screaming to a soaring vocal, I just thought that was really impressive. I like everything Mike Patton’s done, so I just want to be a versatile vocalist, and because this is the first band where I’ve only been doing vocals, I’ve got the chance to see what I can do. The vocals I write for every new song are the hardest yet. I need to chill out, because it’s going to get to a point where I can’t do it.
“But, that being said, it’s a muscle. I think I’m a better vocalist now than I was a year ago when we played our first show. As long as I keep practising I don’t think it’s too dangerous. Keep practising, stop smoking. I’m on the nicotine patches, trying not to vape. Vocal warm-ups have changed the game.”
Whyte’s approach here is to pair expertly punctuated, staccato bars with drawn-out wails to create a syntax that’s uniquely theirs. The lyrical content, meanwhile, also comes from personal experience, addressing everything from religion to race, poverty to identity. “I’m non-binary and a Black Jamaican first generation British person,” Whyte says. “I think I’ve got a lot of labels that can be ascribed to me, but I want to reframe them as opposed to seeing them as negatives or barriers.”
Religion was a subject Whyte was drawn to almost instinctively due to a youth spent playing in the worship band at church and their job as an RE and Philosophy teacher. “I’ve always been fascinated by religion and its inherent human behaviour, “ they explain. “We always find a way to take our superstitions to the next level. [You could say] ‘It’s horrible, we need to get rid of it!’ Well, that’s not gonna happen, is it? Shall we try to understand it?”
On ‘Care’, the chaotic Assembly was directly influenced by a conversation Whyte overheard in their classroom. But, after talking it over later, it was Beck who ended up writing the damning final verse: “Whose shame is more libidinal? Whose sin is more original? Whose God punishes the baddest? Whose end could be the saddest?”
“There were these kids, they were in Year 8, so they were only 12,” Whyte recalls. “They were packing away their bags and talking. One of them was like, “Well, what happens in my religion is that you’re burned with boiling water and then people are stabbing you with knives.’ One’s like, “Well, in my religion’s hell they do…” They were saying the most gruesome shit I’ve ever heard. I was horrified. This is a serious conversation between friends at 12 years old.”
Delving into the granular context of this sort of subject matter doesn’t suggest a straight line towards universal popularity. But it’s something The None have turned to instinctively. Zooming out, their uncompromising dedication to their honest selves also informed their decision not to play the music industry game. Why bother paying more for your music to be hosted on streaming services than you’ll ever make back, even with completely respectable listening numbers? Why pimp yourself out on social media platforms you’d actively avoid otherwise?
The None decided to skip all that hoopla, creating just the one social media account to keep people updated while releasing their music independently and exclusively through Bandcamp, avoiding languishing in the algorithm in the process.“I think we make music for music fans,” Whyte explains. “That sounds really pretentious, but I think people who listen to Bandcamp are a bit more open-minded. They like to throw a bit of change to the band. And we will take that change.”
“You kind of get lost on Spotify I think,” they continue. “Also, if we are going to get philosophical about it, I think a Bandcamp listener will listen to an entire project. They’ll listen to the whole EP, they’ll listen to the whole album, whereas Spotify is increasingly short-form. I don’t like playlist culture. Mixtapes, yes. Playlists, no.”
This sort of considered approach suggests The None know who they are, carrying themselves with bone-deep collective self assurance. But, just like the rest of us, individually their inner saboteur occasionally rears its ugly head. “Every single show,” is how Whyte responds to being asked if they still get nervous before a gig. “We played Supersonic last year and I had a full on panic attack before we went on. I was hyperventilating.”
Why put yourself through it, then? “You’ve got to lean into it,” they say. “Because sometimes, nerves can mean you care. I find playing in front of strangers easier, and whatever mood you show up in you take that energy to the stage. If I’m a bit moody that day, it’ll be a moody performance. If I’m playful that day, it’s gonna be a silly one. I think people just want a bit of genuine expression rather than a gameface.”
Capturing The None’s approach beautifully, Whyte then reassures us (and themselves) that the pay-off is definitely worth what it took to get there. “We trust our own abilities, we trust our taste,” they say. “We’ve worked really hard at that for a long time, so I think that’s the reward, that it will always be OK.”
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