INTERVIEW | THE CHEAP THRILLS | YNOT 2026 by Kayleigh Nickson
With The Cheap Thrills having just released their debut album, Keep Cheap, on Friday, it got us reflecting back on this summer’s YNot festival, where we sat down for a chat with the guys. Talking about their upcoming plans, the debut album, Liverpool and touring, keep reading to find out what they had to say for themselves.
Kayleigh: Welcome back to YNOT!
You guys played your biggest headline hometown show last night, and it was sold out. How the hell was that?
Anton: Amazing! The accumulation of years of hard work; it was a boss atmosphere in the room.
Callum: There will be some sore heads this morning.
Kayleigh: Your debut album is due to be released; how long has that been in the making?
Anton: Years. Like, we’ve been writing the tunes for four to five years before we announced the album because obviously, you just have loads of tunes. It’s a good mix of old and new tunes.
Kayleigh: What’s your favourite song from the new album?
Callum: Um, mine’s ‘Looking’ or ‘Hairs’. You know, I love ‘Hairs’, mate. It would be when we did the demo; ‘Hairs’ was immediately on my album list. Even from the phone demo, I wanted it on there.
Anton: ‘Looking’ is also a personal favourite ’cause it’s quite different to our other tunes. It’s got some female vocals, which is different for us, and a spoken word bit.
Lewis: The rap.
Callum: He loves it when you call it the rap.
Anton: It’s not rap, it’s spoken word. “It’s a rap. It’s a Scouse rap”.
Lewis: I’m a rapper.
Kayleigh: How fast is the spoken word?
Lewis: It’s not rap speed, it’s no Slim Shady.
Kayleigh: So, are you excited for your set?
Anton: Yeah, the crowd is so diverse sometimes, and some people have never seen us before.
Callum: I mean, it’s really good to play for music fans, so when you come on tour, a lot of people say, ‘Oh, we’ve seen you at YNot. So it’s a lot of good people who come see our sets.
Kayleigh: Speaking of tour, you got a big tour coming up in October; how many dates?
Anton: I think we do, like, 10 dates.
Lewis: With one day off in the middle.
Kayleigh: Where’s the one day off, though?
Lewis: Dunno, somewhere probably miles away where we can’t do anything.
Anton: We usually go for a swim or a steam room.
Kayleigh: And then you’ve also got some in-store little shows?
Lewis: We’ve got them when the album’s coming out.
Anton: We’ve got two in the Jacaranda in Liverpool, and then we’ve got one in Leeds Jumbo Records. That one will be great because I think it’s only 50 capacity, so that’s gonna be really small.
Kayleigh: With the Jac, are you going to be in the basement? It’s a good venue, but it’ll be very sweaty.
Lewis: Yeah, that’s our type of gaff that, though. It’ll be fun.
Kayleigh: Speaking of venues in Liverpool, where is your favourite place to play?
Callum: I love Content
Anton: Oh yeah, Content is a really good venue. They don’t do many gigs, but Fontaines DC performed in there… and us, of course.
Kayleigh: My last question is if you guys were in control of the Y Not 2027 line-up, who would you have headline?
Lewis: Maccabees
Callum: I got Fontaines on my mind now after you mentioned them before.
Anton: You know what? I’d like to see Cage The Elephant. I haven’t seen them around for years.
The Cheap Thrills’ debut album, Keep Cheap, is out now to buy and listen on all streaming platforms. Tickets are still available for their upcoming tour HERE.
THE CHEAP THRILLS TOUR DATES
INSTORE
Sep 18th – Liverpool, Jacaranda Baltic ** SOLD OUT**
Sep 19th – Liverpool, Jacaranda Baltic ** SOLD OUT**
Sep 22nd – Leeds, Jumbo Records
Sep 23rd – London, Rough Trade East
Sep 24th – Bury, Wax & Beans
About the Author
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