This could be an important summer for Nothing But Thieves.
The band's rock crunch has taken them to cult hero status, a group whose live show can rival their heroes.
New album 'Broken Machine' arrives on September 8th, with Nothing But Thieves set to play a flurry of live dates across the summer.
Due to make a stellar turn at Standon Calling, Nothing But Thieves could be about to reach the next level of their feral evolution.
Clash invited the group to pick out a few key influences…
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Conor…
Blur – 'Go Out'
The innovation and reinvention of this long standing favourite of ours will never fail to show you 'how to do it'. I remember one of my favourite nights as a band watching Blur at Isle of Wight festival and thinking the power to write songs so brilliant they still feel relevant when screamed in a crowd twenty years later is something we'd like to do (isn't that what everyone would like?). The point is it was inspiring and eye opening.
I remember at the end of it Joe and I hugged haha! We were moved and motivated for the next album.
Bob Dylan – 'Mama, You Been On My Mind'
Maybe a strange choice for a band with our sound and delivery but to me it's the simplest of all influences. It's the influence that at the root of any song we do however different they may be from one and other if you strip it down to an acoustic or a piano there is a song there.
Real good songs is our only goal in writing, you can take away the tricks and the sounds but underneath it has to have soul. To me listening to this on a long American tour reminded me of the soul in songs and always calmed my mind with whatever was going on in my world.
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Joe…
LCD Soundsystem – 'Get Innocuous!'
During the recording of the album, we didn't actually listen to much music. We were in the studio 13 hours a day and it seemed counterintuitive to have outside influences like that affecting what we were trying to create.
I remember that in between writing the record, we played Open'er festival in Poland. It was the first time we'd ever got to see LCD Soundsytem live and it blew our minds. It definitely had an influence on how we thought about groove. Get Innocuous! has an infectious rhythm which rubbed off on a couple of tracks in particular.
Manic Street Preachers – 'If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next'
There were a few reasons I was listening to this really. It was a song I'd heard a lot when I was a kid; I stumbled upon again and it had a nostalgic quality to it. At its heart it's a protest song. I think the art of 'the protest song' has been lost to general music listeners in recent times and it was something I wanted to bring to 'Broken Machine.'
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Dom…
Radiohead – 'Daydreaming'
I think this is a real showcase for how subtlety and intricacy can be used to create a powerful and emotive piece of music. Every time I listen to it I notice something different, it's a bit of a gift that keeps on giving. On a sonic level it was definitely inspiring – every sound is unique and tastefully placed which is something we tried to incorporate in our music. I'll probably notice another thing I like about it next time I listen to it.
Queens Of The Stone Age – 'Skin On Skin'
Struggled to settle on a Queens song as they're all so fucking great. The masters of groove, guitar tones and swagger. The genesis of a lot of the songs on 'Broken Machine' began life as grooves. It's the musical foundation we commonly build off of.
As a band, our musical tastes are heavily varied but we'll often meet in the middle if something makes us wanna move, shuffle, shake or any other pointless synonym for 'dance' that I can think of.
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Nothing But Thieves will release new album 'Broken Machine' on September 8th.
Standon Calling runs between July 27th – 30th.
