Interview Class of 2021: Black Country, New Road

Good hygiene notwithstanding, the band's introversions have hardly got in the way of cultivating a dedicated fanbase. As one deft online forum poster puts it: "people get weird about this band."

Vinyl copies of towering debut single 'Athen's France' have been changing hands for up to £100 apiece online, while members of 2000-strong Facebook fan group Sunglasses Posting speculate daily about the band's unconventional merchandising forays (including jigsaw puzzles and USB sticks). Isaac's lyrics for 'Sunglasses', meanwhile, have recently ended up plastered on cans of posh booze against the band's will. I Am Locked Away In A High-Tech Wraparound Translucent, Blue-Tinted Fortress is now the title of a kettle-soured IPA from Cheltenham craft brewery DEYA, and "it's an absolute belter,” according to the beer makers. The band won't be pressing charges, though: "We have bigger fish to fry," says their singer.

Signing to experimental dance label Ninja Tune was likely the catch of the day, then. It's about as unconventional a signing either party could make - and therefore, a perfect fit. The sense of the unknown was part of the appeal, they explain. "I don't think we recognised anyone on their roster," says Luke of the tastemaker label, known for championing trip-hop and turntablism in the '90s. Lewis was sufficiently satisfied by their non-musical credentials: "Did you know that in Shaun of the Dead, Shaun's lounge has a Ninja Tune poster?"

The mystery of Black Country, New Road only thickens when the band's musical influences are brought to light. The six cacophonous epics that make up 'For The First Time' are fuelled by screeching horns, jazz drums and strings that hark back to the pioneering post-rock of Talk Talk and Slint. But, for Black Country, New Road, these touchpoints are nowhere near obscure enough. Take 'Science Fair' - a scuzzy, avant-garde guitar-and-brass monster that serves as the band's most recent single. "It's a pretty straight-up Cuban beat flip," says Lewis, as if the statement makes perfect sense. Sensing our confusion, he offers another take: "It's a scientifically perfect drum beat."

Georgia, meanwhile, explains that traditional Jewish Klezmer folk music has informed the band elsewhere. "It's like celebratory party music," she exclaims. "But it sounds sad because it's in a minor key." Even the album title is plucked from strange pastures. It's a reference to an obscure Dave Brubeck jazz album titled 'We're All Together Again for the First Time' that Isaac chanced upon. We've never heard of it, either.

Speaking of the enigmatic vocalist (still nursing his cup of tea), it’s through him that Black Country, New Road boast their most compelling asset. Oft-compared to the cutting social commentaries of The Fall's Mark E Smith, Isaac's lyricism posits the band's work in the chaotic present day. You'll find references to Kanye, NutriBullets and Danish crime dramas in 'Sunglasses' alone; they combine to spin a vivid tale of millennial trauma. But for all his aptitude for a good one-liner, Isaac is strangely bereft of insight. What inspires such vivid and contemporary tales? He's blunt: "I can't even really remember what I was supposed to be saying."

Perhaps Isaac’s obtuseness is just a symptom of real-life anxieties; the song does, after all, climax with the deranged, screeching refrain of "I'm more than adequate / Leave my Daddy's job out of this!". When pressed on why he re-wrote the lyrics to several tracks for the album recordings, the theory gains further credence. "I considered my best attempt to say something a failure. They just didn't succeed in doing the job they were supposed to."

He does admit, though, that he hopes "to make the story universal, and easy for the person to put themselves into." It seems at odds with the band's sprawling, uncommercial sound, but then again, Black Country, New Road's paradoxical nature is at the heart of their appeal. One song in particular sums up the plight of a leftfield scene better than any other. The disarmingly sweet 'Track X', which mixes cooing backing vocals and staccato strings a la Lou Reed's 'Street Hassle', could almost sell itself as Brixton Windmill's answer to 'Fairytale of New York'. "I told you I loved you in front of black midi," Isaac sings gently - as if to suggest that there's solace to be found at the heart of all the disharmony.

For all their muteness, the band do, at least, take huge stock in how lucky they were to be able to complete their debut when they did. "If any of it was delayed by a couple of months, we simply wouldn't be where we are,” says Lewis, pointing out the financial struggles of record labels across the world in the wake of the pandemic. And in that regard, the album could end up being more culturally significant than any of them could have anticipated. "There might not be anything in the same style, made with the budget that we've managed to secure, for a long time," Lewis concludes.

He's right. Because, whatever the future brings in the coming years, it's likely to be a bumpy ride for everyone. But whether 'For The First Time' is the final Frankenstein creation of an industry on the brink of a major overhaul, or the foreboding sound of another hurricane ready to strike, Black Country, New Road prove that one thing is certain: let the music do the talking, and you'll always make a powerful statement.

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