BACKSTREET BOYS, BARBERS AND THE BUSINESS: HANGING WITH THE MEFFS
INTERVIEW | THE MEFFS by Craig Harston
Earlier this month we headed along to watch fast rising Essex punk duo The Meffs when they stopped at Preston‘s The Ferret on their recent UK tour run. Ahead of the show, Lily and Lewis kindly invited us along early to catch up, not only just in the dressing room, but whilst Lily was getting her hair cut! Chatting about how the pair came together, influences, festivals, Frank Turner and even the Backstreet Boys!
Northern Exposure: Hello Lily!
Lily: Hello!
NE: We’re having an interview while you have your hair cut! (laughs).
Lily: Yeah, I’ve never done this before!
NE: It’s a first for me as well!
Lily: Yeah? Oh good, I like that!
NE: Yeah, it’s good! So, this is Timmo?
Timmo The Barber: Hi!
NE: Timmo The Barber!
Lily: Hi Timmo!
Timmo: Timmo The Barber, that’s me!
Lily: The legend!
Timmo: Oh, stop it you! (laughs).
Lily: No, you stop it (laughs).
NE: (laughs) So, I believe you cut hair for bands a lot?
Timmo: I do!
NE: Have you done it for The Meffs often?
Timmo: Pretty much every year. At least a couple of times a year if we can help it.
Lily: I haven’t had another hairdresser since I met Timmo. I literally wait until we go anywhere near Liverpool.
NE: Yeah? (laughs).
Lily: Which is rare, which is why I end up like this (referencing her long hair).
NE: Obviously you’ve got Lily’s trust there, Timmo!
Lily: Exactly!
NE: Is Lewis the same on that?
Lily: Lewis will go to a barber in town but he will very much look forward to this. This is the proper cut!
Timmo: He ‘conveniently’ forgot his beard trimmers.
Lily: He actually did forget his trimmers so he was ready for you today.
NE: He’s going for the works, it’s got to be done!
Lily: Yeah.
NE: So, of course The Meffs have been going for a number of years now, I think you formed around about the pandemic, about 2020?
Lily: Yeah.
NE: So, can you tell me a little bit about how you guys met and how that led to the formation of The Meffs? Like, have you known each other forever or did you meet in college or somewhere along the way?
Lily: No, so Lewis used to work in a pub called The Purple Dog which was quite a popular place to go drinking – it’s where I used to go drinking so we always knew of each other sort of in our late teens, early twenties. But we were never mates who would meet up separately, you know what I mean?
NE: Yeah.
Lily: And then I saw a picture of Lewis online and he was playing an electric kit and I sent him a message because I was looking for a new project. I said “Do you want to be in a band?”, we swapped influences and then had a rehearsal and that was it, the band was formed and we’d written the first two songs.
NE: It just rolled from there!
Lily: Literally, rolled from there. And it’s like you said the pandemic hit and we were sort of stuck for a good 18 months really. But, you know, it all came together afterwards.
NE: Absolutely. So, you mentioned your influences there, what were your influences that you shared with each other?
Lily: Definitely Backstreet Boys, number one.
NE: Really??
Lily: No (laughs), that’s the joke for tonight, you wait!
NE: (laughs) Okay!
Lily: No, we –
Lewis: Definitely my influence!
Lily: Definitely your influence, yeah (laughs). I do listen to that album a lot (Backstreet Boys 1999 album ‘Millennium), I appreciate it. At the time, it was round about Soft Play’s beginning when they were obviously Slaves back then.
NE: Of course.
Lily: And they released a record that we both really liked (2018’s ‘Acts Of Fear And Love’. We love like The Distillers, they’re one of my big ones, all of that sort of stuff, Rancid. And then a lot of the old sort of UK punk stuff as well, we sort of discovered we both quite liked, like UK Subs, all of that. I mean our influences are really varied, I know everyone says that but you know, we can be in the car and we can be like listening to punk then UK garage then pop then anything.
NE: Eclectic!
Lily: Eclectic, exactly. And I think that’s also why it works, we’ve got lots of outside influences, yeah.
NE: Yeah, that’s really good, brilliant. So, obviously, once you were able to get going after the pandemic you had a few songs around then like ‘Eton Mess’.
Lily: Yes.
NE: But then you were able to put out your first two EPs on Bottles To The Ground when you signed with them. And of course you worked with Frank Turner on both ‘Broken Britain‘ EPs and of course ‘What A Life’. What’s it like working with Frank?
Lily: Aw, he’s beautiful!
NE: Yeah?
Lily: Frank is, he’s just great, he’s really supportive of new music, but new music that he likes. We sort of knew that already so when he wanted to work with us – obviously we wanted to work with him but when we found out he wanted to work with us as well, it meant a lot as we knew he works with people that he actually really likes. And we just got on really well with him, you know, he’s a big hardcore fan which is fantastic. And it just worked, he knew the sort of sound that we wanted to go for, he knew we were really new and probably quite naïve so he pretty much held our hand, recorded the record and took us out with him and it just went from there really and we became mates.
NE: That’s really good! It’s good that he likes to take up and coming bands under his wing – it gives you the exposure and obviously he’s somebody who knows the business.
Lily: Yeah, 100%!
NE: And all three releases have been great!
Lily: Thank you, stop it (laughs)!
NE: Sorry! (laughs) So, you’ve toured with Frank, he’s took you out on tour before and in the last few years you’ve toured with some really massive bands – obviously Alice Cooper was huge!
Lily: Yep.
NE: And then of course there was NOFX on their final UK tours – both times! (laughs)
Lily: Oh yeah (laughs) we did both runs!
NE: Which was amazing! But is there anybody on your wish list that you would love to tour with someday?
Lily: Ooh. There are wish listers. I mean, we both love Amyl And The Sniffers, we have since they formed, that first EP we loved (2016’s ‘Giddy Up’). They’re definitely up there – it changes, though. If I mentioned Turnstile, Lewis’s heads going to explode, probably, because I think I listen to them too much and talk about them too much (laughs). But honestly, I do think they’re one of the best bands sort of breaking now, you know what I mean?
NE: Absolutely, yeah.
Lily: So definitely guys like that. I’m quite into Scowl at the minute as well.
NE: Oh, yeah, they’re on the rise at the minute aren’t they?
Lily: They’re on the rise. So bands like that. But then there’s loads of bands that we’d love to play with, I’m sure, but they’re the main ones that come to mind, definitely.
NE: That’s brilliant. But is there anyone that’s been going that little bit longer, like – are you due to go out with Stiff Little Fingers or you’ve already been out with them?
Lily: So, yes, we did a few shows with Stiff Little Fingers – maybe some more, let’s see! That was really great. We did the Sex Pistols support in Berlin, I mean that was another level, Frank Carter is a fantastic front-person, like really gets the crowd going. We love all of those, we love UK Subs like I mentioned before, just before the pandemic we were meant to go out with them and obviously everything stopped which sucked for us! So yeah, any bands like that – basically look at the Rebellion line up and just send us out with any of them as well (laughs).
NE: Of course, it’s always a good line up there! So, on the back of that, you mentioned you’re listening to Turnstile a lot – is there any other bands you’re currently listening to that you’re currently enjoying?
Lily: Like I say, definitely Scowl, I really like the new record that they’ve released (this year’s ‘Are We All Angels’), I think it’s a proper step up from what they’ve done before – not that I didn’t like the other stuff , I just think that production-wise it’s great, it’s just a nice big sound. Other bands I’m listening to at the minute? There’s a little band called The Beatles (laughs), they get a bit of play.
NE: They’re a mainstay (laughs)?
Lily: Yeah, definitely. We’re playing with Face Up tonight so I think people should definitely give Face Up a listen. They are thrashy, heavy, shouty, screamy, just in your face, basically, and they’re good friends of ours as well so we really like when we get the opportunity to go out with them. So yeah, everyone listen to Face Up!
NE: Brilliant – and I’ll make sure I catch them later!
Lily: Yeah, definitely!
NE: So, this year, you seem to be on a mission to appear at all the festivals – obviously you were at Slam Dunk, I caught you at that and you were amazing, you did Download as well and of course Rebellion. Do you have any that are your particular favourites?
Lily: So, 2000 Trees is definitely up there, we played that twice and we’d both been there once just as punters as well. Great festival, really good for new music and established music so it’s a really nice balance I find. Bearded Theory, we love Bearded Theory. This year, one of our favourites was Beautiful Day Festival – so The Levellers put on a festival each year and it’s quite family friendly and we just got a really good response, you know, it’s just one of those festivals where the crowd was massive, there seemed to just be this little whisper of like “Go and watch The Meffs” and I don’t know where it started, we didn’t plant anyone (laughs). But it was just a really good turn out, a really solid crowd, just game for everything that we do, it was just so natural, we weren’t trying to push anyone, we weren’t trying to get people involved, they were just there for it. So yeah, Beautiful Days was a really nice surprise this year, so hopefully we can play that again next year.
NE: That’ll be really good!
Lily: And shout out to Glastonbury, we got to do the Left Field stage this year.
NE: Oh yeah, you did do Glastonbury this year, that’s huge!
Lily: We met Billy Bragg, the OG!
NE: Nice! What was he like, was he alright?
Lily: He was absolutely lovely. He came up afterwards and just had a chat while he was eating his pie and mash. He just had a plate of pie and mash and then we went on our way (laughs). Really down to earth.
NE: That’s really good.
Lily. Oh, I’ve just remembered, I’ve really gotten into the latest High Vis album, fantastic album (2024’s ‘Guided Tour’). I said to Lew the other day – who is it that’s splitting up, who’s the hardcore band that’s doing their final tour at the minute?
NE: Refused?
Lily: Refused. And they said something like they think High Vis are going to one of like the next hardcore bands to take over. And I was sort of listening to their new record and in my head, it wasn’t hardcore. Like, I loved it, but what I was hearing wasn’t hardcore. And then when we listened to it a bit more I was like, I can see exactly what they mean. It’s deep, you know what I mean, it’s not necessarily heavy, but it’s proper, it’s such a good, solid album. So yeah, they’ve definitely on my list at the minute.
NE: Recommend them, then?
Lily: Yeah, we want them to take us out with them as well.
NE: And obviously Refused would have been a good one to play with as well.
Lily: Oh god, yeah, imagine that!
NE: So, going off the festivals, is there any that you would love to appear at that you’ve not appeared at yet?
Lily: There’s quite a few in like Germany and stuff, Hurricane Festival, there was a big one in Poland I saw this year, not Poland Rock, I can’t remember what is was now but a lot of bands like Lambrini Girls, Soft Play, they all appeared this year. It looked mad, it looked ridiculous! But yeah, a lot of the European ones we’d love to give a go.
NE: There’s a lot over there isn’t there?
Lily: Yeah, so Hurricane definitely. Probably some of the littler UK ones like Truck Festival, we’ve never done those ones, so Truck and Hurricane, hopefully for next year. Fingers crossed!
NE: That would be really good. And of course you have your own festival, Meff-Fest!
Lily: Yeah, Meff-Fest!
NE: So how did that come about?
Lily: I mean, we always try to do the hometown gig once every year. We did a new years eve one, did a Christmas show. And then, our mate AJ, we rehearse at his place and he does our demo’s for us, he’s got a venue in town so we thought let’s just call it ‘Meff-Fest’ and get our mates down? Funnily enough, Face Up were on the first Meff-Fest which is funny to think. So yeah, it was just a 200 capacity venue, sold out obviously as it was a home town show, and it went from there. And last year we went, right, let’s just make it bigger. So, we hired the university and did it there and got a bunch of bands down for that. We got Saffron from Republica to come and play which was surreal! So yeah, it just went from there and we decided it was something we were going to make the time for every year really. And we’ve just got the venue sorted for 2026 and we’ve just secured the first two acts, which are massive and I don’t know how!
NE: Are you able to tell me who they are?
Lily: Well, one of them we’re not allowed to announce until November. The other one – when I’m wearing my leather jacket later, I’m wearing their badge. But that’s all I can tell you!
NE: Okay (laughs)!
Lily: Very cryptic (laughs)!
NE: I’m liking that your shows have like little Easter eggs!
Lily: Exactly that (laughs)!
NE: The Backstreet Boys thing now this – it’s not the Backstreet Boys is it??
Lily: Oh, I wish! Millennium by Backstreet Boys is epic, it’s a great album. Fight me (laughs)!
NE: (laughs) So, one of the songs you always play live, and always goes down an absolute storm whenever you play it, is ‘Breathe’ by The Prodigy. It’s always great when you play it live. But have you ever had any plans to record that?
Lily: Yeah, we have thought about it but we don’t really know the ins and outs of if we’re allowed, you know what I mean?
NE: Of course, yeah, it’s different live, isn’t it?
Lily: Yeah, it is. So live, obviously you can play anyone’s, like if someone plays one of our songs live – one day hopefully (laughs) – obviously it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t affect us but I think recorded it’s slightly different, like I don’t know about permissions or who wrote it, I’m guessing Liam (Howlett) wrote it. We’ve thought about doing like a demo of it and giving it away and not having it online, and just having it as like an MP3, we could probably get away with that (laughs). We would love to, we love The Prodigy, they’re one of our biggest inspirations, not just musically but they’re from where we’re from, so yeah, they’re one of our biggest loves.
NE: It would be really good and everyone would listen to it but maybe it’d make it less special when you play it live if you did.
Lily: Good point! We’ve always had it in our set, we’ve always played it. We tried to add another cover in for this tour and we took it out after night one (laughs).
NE: Really?
Lily: Yeah, because we were like, ‘Breathe’ is enough, ‘Breathe’ is the one!
NE: What was the cover?
Lily: ‘Bad Reputation’ by Joan Jett.
NE: Oh, nice! See, I’d love to hear that! But, yeah, ‘Breathe’ is always great. It wouldn’t be a Meffs show without ‘Breathe’!
Lily: Yeah!
NE: So it’s only been two years, no nearly a year – when did ‘What A Life’ come out, it was last year wasn’t it?
Lily: Yeah, about a year!
NE: It feels like ages ago! So it’s about a year old, (it was later realised ‘What A Life’ released a year ago to the day), but are there any plans for any new music soon?
Lily: Absolutely! Listen, if the world continues to be the way the world is there is the space for new Meffs music. We started demoing and we were meant to have a bit of time off at the end of September but now we’re not, we’re recording the first half of our next album.
NE: Oh, amazing!
Lily: So, yeah, we are recording. It’ll take a while to come out, obviously these things always take time but yes we are recording and we’re playing you a new one tonight!
NE: That’s exciting, I’ll look forward to that!
Lily: It’s about the music industry and how much we hate it.
NE: Fair! Are you working with Frank on this one again?
Lily: We’re actually not working with Frank on this one, no. We worked with Frank because he moved quite near to us and he had a studio at the time and now he doesn’t have a studio because he doesn’t live there anymore. So it would’ve meant hiring somewhere and it would’ve been quite a different vibe I think. And he’s on tour 24/7 (laughs) so there we go!
NE: Hard to pin him down?
Lily: Yeah, so we’re working with someone else on this one, it’s going to be really special and it’s going to be different, it’s going to be a bit heavier.
NE: That’s cool!
Lily: Yeah, it’s going to be a bit bolder – we don’t really hate the music industry by the way. My brains ticking over now – we just dislike them sometimes.
NE: Well, it’s a minefield isn’t it? I think everyone who works in the music industry knows that.Lily: Exactly!
NE: And as we touched on before you had Frank who obviously made sure you didn’t get screwed over.
Lily: Literally, yeah, exactly right.
NE: So, just touching on what you mentioned there about how messed up the world is, if you had one thing you could change about the world, and I’m sure there’s many, what would be the top of your list?
Lily: Oh no, one thing! My mind’s moving all over the place now! There’s so much! At the moment, I mean, we’re big on LGBTQ+ rights, like that’s a big part of what we’re about and it’s a real shame as women in this country we’re sort of moving backwards and people feel like they’ve got a right to not agree with it, and there’s nothing to not agree with. What are you protesting against? There’s nothing to protest against! So that’s always at the forefront of our message, of what we’re about. But I think we can’t not talk about the fact that we have probably more wars and genocide than we’ve had, ever, going on, do you know what I mean? We’re not talking about a world war, we’re talking about these issues all over the world. So if I could stop that right now, that would probably be what I would do. I think most of us would probably be thinking exactly the same.
NE: I’d say so yeah – well, those of us that are reasonable!
Lily: Yeah, exactly, those of us that are normal, basically. That’s what normal is to me, to just be rational and be kind and just to not want people to suffer, to be discriminated against, to die to fight for their rights. It just shouldn’t happen.
NE: I totally agree.
Lily: Do you want to ask Lewis a question? A really embarrassing one? Ask him what his first concert was!
Lewis: Oh, yeah, you like this one! You’ll love this one, it’s kind of along the lines of Backstreet Boys, it was S Club 7.
NE: Nice!
Lewis: I was young, it was after my parents split up and they wanted to do a couple of things to try and soften the blow so they took us to Center Parcs and then got us tickets to S Club 7. My younger sister loved them and I was like “I don’t want to go” so I wasn’t going and they gave the ticket to my friend who lived next door and because she was going I suddenly wanted to go again (laughs). So my dad had to get another ticket because my mate was going. And yeah, that was my first gig. Wembley Arena and I was buzzing, it was good because I watched my dad do ‘Reach For The Stars’, that was the funniest thing.
Lily: No he didn’t, oh my god, Mark Copsey doing ‘Reach For The Stars’!
Lewis: He loved it!
NE: Amazing!
Lily: There you are, a little bit about Lewis (laughs)!
NE: So I’ve got to ask now, what was your first gig?
Lily: Oh, mine? My first one was quite cool, wasn’t it?
Lewis: Yours is pretty cool!
Lily: My first proper one was Anthrax, in our home town with my dad. It must have been like an over 12’s – I suppose the Art Centre’s all ages, isn’t it?
Lewis: Usually, yeah, it says over 14s but yeah, we’ve had kids come to our gigs. That was back in the days when more big bands came to Colchester.
Lily: Oh, it was fantastic, wasn’t it?Lewis: Yeah. My first punk show – I’m trying to think, I went to the Isle Of Wight in 2008, that was my first festival. Iggy Pop and Sex Pistols were there.
NE: Nice!
Lewis: That was my first festival experience. The Sex Pistols was wild, absolutely wild – I got crushed!
Lily: I bet! What was better, the Sex Pistols then or the Sex Pistols that you saw at Download this year?
Lewis: I mean, frontman wise, Carter was a lot better vocally and more energetic (laughs). But the crowd was nuts at the Isle Of Wight.
Lily: I can imagine.
Lewis: And then I went to see them at Hammersmith Apollo for their last UK show with John and that was mental. Drenched in beer (laughs). I could’ve probably got a pint out of my t shirt. But yeah, obviously as far as a frontman goes, Frank Carter’s younger and has the energy.
NE: That’s the difference, isn’t it?
Lily: He’s got the values (laughs).
NE: Well, that too. I don’t think many people want to be associated with John Lydon these days, do they?
Lily: Not now, yeah.
Lewis: The thing is, his album (Sex Pistols only studio album, 1977’s ‘Never Mind The Bollocks’) was like my gateway to punk.
Lily: 100% agree.
NE: Absolutely!
Lewis: So his songs and that album, phenomenal.
Lily: I wonder what did it?
Lewis: God knows!
Lily: The butter adverts, definitely the butter adverts (laughs).
NE: That’s probably up there!
Lewis: And ‘I’m A Celebrity’.
NE: Amazing, so that’s every thing I had.
Lily: Thank you very much!
NE: Thank you very much! It’s been great!
Lily: It’s been an absolute pleasure.
Later that night, after a brutal set from Face Up (Lily was not wrong about them, absolutely in your face) Lily and Lewis hit the stage to play a fairly eclectic set from across their discography. From early songs ‘People‘ and ‘Budget Luxury‘ (very much in keeping with the grassroots approach to the tour) to the likes of ‘Deathwish‘ and ‘Stamp It Out‘ from ‘What A Life‘ via many songs from the Broken Britain EPs (‘No Future’, ‘Broken Britain, Broken Brains’, ‘Wasted On Women‘, etc), plus making time for perpetual live favourite ‘Breathe‘, the new song (‘Business’) with accompanying crowdsurfing and finishing with a barnstorming rendition of ‘Clowns‘ (man, when that riff kicks in at the start!) The Meffs absolutely dominated the night in a perfect storm of punk rock, politics and unity! No Backstreet Boys though, sadly!
