Cambridge art rock collective Black Country, New Road is currently touring the world just two years after releasing an acclaimed debut album during lockdown. Here the band talk about the Mercury Prize, Glastonbury – and the enduring power of friendship.
The 2023 diary is looking pretty full for Black Country, New Road.
The six-piece band is well into a global tour, taking in the Far East, North America, Europe – and a host of sell-out shows across the UK.
In the summer, they play the West Holts stage at Glastonbury.
But first – on Monday – they have a home gig at the Junction in Cambridge.
“We met outside the Cineworld,” guitarist Luke Mark says.
“It’s long been a dream to play at the Junction, at least for me it has,” drummer Charlie Wayne adds. “I once did a gig with Ugly at the Junction. They put us on before the doors opened.”
All but one of the group were sixth-formers at the city’s Hills Road and Long Road colleges when they got together.
Their debut album, For the First Time, released during lockdown in February 2021, earned them a coveted Mercury Prize nomination for Album of the Year and reached number four in the UK album chart.
A year later came their second studio album, Ants from Up There – and in February 2023, they released a live album, Live from Bush Hall.
“It was pretty amazing and very weird – we weren’t used to anything like that music-wise,” says saxophonist Lewis Evans.
“We hadn’t been playing particularly big rooms so it was strange to play at the Hammersmith Apollo to loads of people eating very expensive dinner.”
“We’ve never felt so out of our depth, it’s imposter syndrome,” adds guitarist Tyler Hyde, whose father Karl founded the electronic music group, Underworld.
The band – named after a road in the West Midlands – said releasing those first albums during lockdown meant they were unaware of their growing fanbase.
“As a band we came up releasing both our albums with some degree of Covid lockdown in place – we couldn’t tour the first album or the second so we knew our fan base existed – but we hadn’t properly seen it consistently other than in flashes,” Charlie adds.
“To do a full sell-out tour is nuts, especially when we’re playing music that has been released relatively recently on a live album.
“We’re all very grateful for it – it can be quite daunting and odd.”
The group are all best friends and came up with the idea of sharing lead vocals after singer Isaac Woods left in January to prioritise his mental health.
“I think the most important thing with the band is it’s always been a group of friends – it’s never about anything bigger than that,” Charlie adds.
“At the heart of it is a group of friends that met at school. The integrity of that friendship is the most important part of it and it always has been.
“The fact that Isaac felt he couldn’t carry on was fine if it meant that we could continue to see one another socially – the music was never bigger than the friendship.
“It was about keeping each other safe and looking out for one another.”
Tyler adds: “You assume you know how each other is feeling, because you’ve been best friends for so long, but you do forget to check in with everyone to the degree that you should sometimes.
“We learned to be better at communication.”
The band reacted to the change by redistributing the vocals – a transition they say has shaped the sound.
“When we’re writing we all come from very different places musically, so you get a lot of variation, it’s always going to vary the set so much more,” Lewis says.
“It keeps a live set very entertaining – it’s fun to see different people in one band sing.
“We’re aiming to be able to do a whole set with every single person in the band singing at some point and have enough songs that if someone didn’t want to sing on a night they didn’t have to.
“That’s the goal.”
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