IDLES Interview

We caught up with Joe Talbot, lead singer of British (not a punk band) IDLES, ahead of their Norwich show. Mental health, Jason Williams and swear words all feature in this interview. Some might say the holy trinity?? Either way, you have been warned. Lets cut the bullshit and get to the talking. 

You talk about your first album Brutalism being a source of catharsis whilst the second album was about recognising that need for catharsis. What did you find out about yourselves as a result of the second album: Joy as an Act of Resistance?

That I was very alone, I felt lonely a lot, that I wasn’t talking or being vulnerable enough. I started counselling during the second album and I never really talked about my feelings, I thought I was very open and honest, but I wasn’t. Learning about yourself isn’t really like learning other languages. I think the language of self-discovery is really like a big old cloud that doesn’t really have edges, you don’t really understand it in the sense where you think you're this sort of person or that sort of person. The older you get you realise you are not a sort of person, you’re just alive and experienced in things.

From various interviews I've seen and the lyrics in your music I find it quite inspiring how you openly talk about your feelings regarding toxic masculinity. I know you took a lot of influence from Grayson Perry's book 'The Descent of Man'. Do you feel that your music has greater capacity to influence a younger generation, and a potentially wider audience?

Um nah, I think there are things that change someone’s life, like a quote on Instagram, you know it could be anything. Anything that is positive or that is trying to change the narrative is important. I read Grayson Perry’s book and it changed my life forever. I have had many conversations with feminists and misogynists, none of them changed my mind as much as Grayson Perry. It’s just about context and how someone speaks to you at certain points in your life. I’m an alcoholic and it took me a long time and many different girlfriends telling me to stop drinking and doing drugs. but I didn’t want to listen. It was only when I was in a place where a certain person said it in a certain way, they treated me in a certain way, that I started treating myself in a different way. It’s all important as long you are trying you be part of the solution and listening to your opponents, then I think you know you are in a good place.

When you were doing this album and faced feelings of being more insular, how do you think the band responded? In creating another album how would you act on this experience?

Joy as an act of resistance is around the idea of mindfulness and being more vulnerable. Before we changed the course of our behaviour and the brief of the album changed into what it is, I was heavily into drugs and heavily into drink and being a horrible person. I started therapy and my relationships changed for the better. We started, as a band, actively discussing "how do we change" and "how do we write". Things like if you actively take time out of your day to go outside and go for a walk.

In a genre that is usually associate with sex, drugs and rock n roll it’s refreshing to hear you address these kinds of topics

I'ts unhealthy, that kind of rock n roll, masculine, stoic, strong, bullshit machismo, it stops you being human and open and breathing and listening to your body. To say "I’m fine, I’m fine" - you’re not fine, you’re depressed. You need to listen to yourself and figure out a way otherwise you'll kill yourself, if you don’t listen to yourself you isolate yourself from the rest of the world and isolation is one of the most dangerous feelings. You feel defensive and defensive behaviour is often attacking your world and attacking people and you become this angry and aggressive person (not necessarily physically).

The world is more populated and better connected than it has ever been and yet an increasing number of people are feeling isolated

I think a lot of it is just down to capitalism, it’s a very inhumane structure, it’s all about stuff, and the more stuff you have the more distracted you are from other people. It’s like how we're looking at the world through screens, it’s fucked, its mental, it’s not healthy.

One of my favourite lyrics is from the song Well Done: “Mary Berry loves reggae”. How did that come about?

I can’t remember what sparked it off, something on the TV that annoyed me. I’m middle class, but I hate that kind of condescending thought from the middle classes and upper classes - rich people that have this dislocation from the struggle or pain and don’t understand. It’s a lack of empathy from rich people basically that spurred on this song, although I’m middle class it doesn’t separate me from empathy. I just wanted to take the piss out of idiots.

Jason Williams said that you were appropriating the working-class voice

I think its bullshit and its sectarian thinking for starters, I’m not going to apologise for my privilege, I’m going to use my privilege to have a voice and change the course of culture for everyone. I want equal opportunity for all, I don’t want equal opportunity for the middle classes and NOT for the working classes. I want the working classes and poorer people to end up with equal opportunity for everyone.

He (Jason Williams) attacked us saying he heard the first album and thought we were a street band. He says that he listened to the second album and what I interpreted from him is that he was disappointed in us because he thought we were working class and he thinks we culturally appropriated the working class somehow, possibly from our vice and our anger? But I am angry, I’m angry about the injustice and the inequality from our country and capitalism in general. The poor are the poorest they’ve ever been, there is a food bank at the end of our street, these things shouldn’t exist in 2019. The world is not Dickensian Britain, it’s not upstairs downstairs, it's a lot more of a grey area, there is still this super rich and super poor and that's what we are trying to change. He is attacking us for just trying to open up the conversation and he doesn’t think we should be part of the conversation. Anyone who says we are the voice of the working class, we are not, we are the voice of the reasonable. Just go out and don’t be a cunt to people. If you want to be a cunt then don’t listen to our music.

Favourite genres?

Hip hop. Used to be Garage. And Grime. 

Excited for Glasto?

Not yet, I’m focused on this, i also have a baby and a wife now. When I make my Glastonbury cocktail - it’s called purple drink: Buckfast tonic wine, port and WKD blue - but when I make that for the Wednesday I’m going to be excited. It's not "purple drank", it's not a downer its a high. Don't quote me on saying drink it. 

All in all…

Don’t be a cunt, vote Labour, cheers

Slider and the Goose