White Lies don't want to be too huge too soon – but they mightn't have a say in it if their 'ridiculously electronic', Alan Moulder- produced second album takes off. Harry McVeigh talks Joy Division comparisons and NMEenemies with Lauren Murphy
IF WHITE LIES were looking for a fight, they’ve come to the right place. It’s a nippy winter’s afternoon in east London, and the young band are huddled together backstage at York Hall, one of the most famous boxing venues in England. Tonight, they’re using the venue to showcase songs from their second album, Ritual, to a mixture of fans who snapped up limited tickets for the one-off gig, and a group of international journalists impatiently waiting to be impressed.
But the trio have little to worry about. The follow-up to To Lose My Life. . . is certainly a progression from the gloomy, taut indie-rock anthems that Harry McVeigh and co were purveying just two years ago. Loaded with synths, epic choruses and huge production courtesy of Alan Moulder, it's clear that the band are taking it to the next level. Put it like this: if the record's big, bombastic songs, or the impressive lighting rigs dotting the stage tonight don't scream "stadium", then the branded tea towels for sale in the foyer certainly do. White Lies are primed to go toe-to-toe with the big guns.
McVeigh, a tall, strapping and extremely well-mannered young man, looks as confident as he feels about album number two. “We were approaching the end of two years on the road, and it was very much time for us to start writing again – we were definitely ready for it,” he beams, sitting in a dusty alcove of the band’s dressing room as roadies scurry through with armfuls of cables and gaffer tape. “There’s definitely a contrast to the first one. I felt that we were under a lot of pressure with that one – we were still very young, sort of naive. We didn’t really know how it all worked. But with experience under our belts, and then playing together for the amount of time we have been – I think it made a difference this time around.”
Unlike To Lose My Life. . . , much of which was written during recording sessions, most of this album, he explains, was penned with lyricist Charles Cave in the front room of the house he still shares with his parents. "We don't write when we're on the road, because it just makes it . . . too sporadic, too disjointed. And also, we're quite lazy. We needed to dedicate the time to write the record, to make sure it's coherent, and that it makes sense, that it's a body of work. We had it in a much better shape before we went in to record it, I think."
The old adage of having forever to write your first album, and a pressure-filled six months to write your second, obviously didn’t apply in this instance. Perhaps, I suggest, that was down to the steadying hand of Moulder, whose vast experience with bands such as My Bloody Valentine, The Smashing Pumpkins and Interpol seems to have paid off.
"He mixed the first album, and we got along with him very well when he did that – and I think he's a fan of the band," McVeigh nods. "He's perfect for our sound – and for where we wanted to take our sound, more importantly. Before we started working with him, I started exploring the records that he's produced a little bit more, just to understand what he was good at, and what we could gain from him. It opened my eyes to a lot of music that I hadn't really listened to before, like Nine Inch Nails. I think they were just slightly before my time, but going back to it now and listening to records like The Fragilewas just really exciting."
There are certainly hints of Trent Reznor on the metallic gurgle of tracks such as Holy Ghost,while elsewhere, another of Moulder's alumni – Depeche Mode – rear their heads on Peace Quietand Streetlights. The addition of electronic elements to their sound was no accident, the singer says.
"It's music that we like, and influences that we like," he shrugs. "Initially that was just the way we were writing the songs – we thought we'd try something ridiculously electronic. And in some cases it was quite over-the-top. Sometimes it stuck, and sometimes it didn't. Songs like Peace Quiet, Power and the Glory, that's the sort of electronic sound that I like – a really big bass sound, kind of '80s-esque, but the best part of '80s music. And something else that really inspired us was a song by The The called Giant. That's very much in that style of rhythm and bass."
Veering off the guitar-dominated course also means that the constant comparisons to Joy Division – largely down to McVeigh’s deep monotone rumble – may not be as pronounced this time around.
“For a time it was very frustrating, but we’re sort of over it now. I think those comparisons will be washed away quite a lot with the new album. Having said that, I thought about it quite a lot, and started to understand why people put us in the same boat as them. But obviously, as a band they command a lot of respect, which is fair enough. We’re not being compared to McFly. It could be worse.”
The band has already completed stadium tours with Muse and Kings of Leon. Are they comfortable with the thought of progressing to stadium headliners themselves?
“I don’t think there are many bands like us at our level at the moment,” he concedes after a moment’s pause. “That’s not to say that we’re the biggest band in the world, but we’re also not the smallest. So the biggest bands in the world want to take bands like us out on tour – that’s why we were offered those opportunities. And it was great, it was a really good experience. It was really good to learn how to do it – how to tackle a crowd that big, how to play on a stage that big. I wouldn’t say I was as comfortable as they are, but their career paths – well, Coldplay sort of exploded, but Muse and Kings of Leon, their career paths were much more balanced, much more slow-growing. Which, if we were to get to that level, that’s how I’d like to approach it, after five or six albums, rather than two or three. I wouldn’t feel comfortable at that level now.”
He might not have a choice. Depending on how well-received Ritualis, the prospect of playing to increasingly bigger audiences is something of an inevitability. All three members may still live with their parents, and McVeigh insists that their respective long-term relationships are safe as houses – but surely the temptation for three pals barely out of their teens to live the rock'n'roll dream is omnipresent.
“We’re pretty well grounded, I think,” he laughs. “There’s no one blowing smoke up our arses. We know how we got here, and we know that we can just as easily not be here, and there’s plenty of people around us, our crew, who don’t let us do stupid things, and don’t cater for our every need. That’s trapped a lot of bands, I think. We’re not pampered at all. We do most stuff for ourselves, which is how I’d always like it to be.”
Besides, he contends, the hype machine is a constant reminder of their status as mere mortals. Whereas White Lies were flavour of the month with publications such as NMEon their arrival on the scene, the need to prove themselves is unremitting.
"You can't really win or lose with NMEjournalism, or the music press in the UK – the tabloids, at least," he sighs. "You can't really do anything without shooting yourself in the foot. The NMEdon't really like us at the moment, actually. They certainly write about us a lot, but it's often not very complimentary. I don't know – what can you do? To be honest, as long as your name is out there, it doesn't really matter two shits. People will listen to your music these days and make their own minds up. You don't have to read a review before you buy a record, because you can download or stream it for free and listen to it yourself before you buy it. So I think it's neither here nor there. I don't read the NME any more."
McVeigh’s level-headedness belies his tender years.
“I just think it’s much better to sit back and take stuff as it come. I’m not expecting us to drop off the radar – although we could. We absolutely could – anyone could. But I’d hope that our fan base and the reach of our music will grow with this album. And the reason I expect that is because we were purposely very ambitious about making this record – we wanted to make a big record, one that was important to us, and also to the fans. So I just hope that there’ll be a reaction to it.”
Ritualis released on January 14
