“IT’S BEAUTIFUL, INCREDIBLE” – WALT DISCO ON THEIR EXCITING NEW CHAPTER

INTERVIEW | WALT DISCO by Morgan Hermiston

Ahead of their final show on the Too Tight Tour, I spoke to drummer Jack Martin and bassist Charlie Lock from walt disco. Outside Sneaky Pete’s, and avoiding the rain, we chatted about how their tour has gone, dream support slots, albums of the year, and a new chapter in walt disco’s career.

The Too Tight Tour

As this was the final night of tour, we spoke about how the rest of the shows went. “It’s been a lot of fun, hasn’t it…we’ve had a great time,” they began, “it’s been so much fun, just playing all new material, which has been great“. They continued by saying, they’ve been “going out, playing headline shows where nobody really knows much of the material, even if they do know us [walt disco]. It’s interesting, but people have been really receptive to us. It’s made us really comfortable“. Walt disco have also been “going to a lot of places that we’ve never been before, so anyone that comes down, we’re thrilled. It makes us excited about the new stuff!“

Following on from the mention of new music, I asked how this has been received on tour. “I mean, we’ve got some opportunities afforded to us, because we’ve just signed with a new label [EMI North] who are working really had for us, which is awesome. I think what we wanted to do with the new single is, kind of, draw a line between everything that’s about to happen, and everything that has happened“. They described this as “the start of a new era. I think people received it like that“.

Continuing on, “it feels fresh. The reaction is quite similar to the way that they’d react when we play our oldest song. So we felt like it’s been welcomed with open arms in a way…you never know what to expect when you’re just hsowing people stuff they’ve never heard before. And, yeah, it’s been very well received“.

Supporting OMD and Dream Support Slot

Walt disco completed an extensive tour supporting OMD, so we had a chat about this, and if they’ve spotted any familiar faces at any of these headliner slots. “Yeah, we’ve seen some. Apart from Scott, our label manager, who’s been coming to a lot of our shows, there’s been some familiar faces. There’s been some people we recognise, some people who are showing up in the merch and maybe saw us before. I think, [when] we’ve toured a lot with OMD up and down the country, we’ve picked up a lot of new folk“.

I asked them who they’d love to support, should the opportunity arise. “That’s a very good question,” Charlie said, “I’m sure the list is very long, the list is long“. They both continued, bouncing ideas off each other, “who would we go for? I’d love to support, like, MGMT or something like that. That’d be so much fun, we’re always coming back to MGMT. The way they make music just seems like so much fun“.

They also added, “St Vincent, big one. I’m drawing so many blanks right now…Perfume Genius, which would be rapid. I guess, like, feeble little horse, it’d be sick to go out with them. We’re loving their new album right now. I feel like they’re coming from a similar kind of sonic direction as us, similar intentions with pushing where guitar music intersects with electronic production, so I think we’d have a nice time with them. I think Placebo too“.

How Did The OMD Support Come About?

I asked Charlie and Jack how the OMD support slot came to be. “They heard our tune on the radio, I think, and quite enjoyed it. Our song ‘How Cool Are You?‘, they heard that, Andy McCluskey heard it“. I mentioned that I did think that song was quite OMD-fuelled, “yeah I think they just, kind of, saw a bit of themselves in us, which they said to us a lot while we were touring with them“. They added, “their people spoke to our people, etc etc, and it kept growing“.

Continuing, they said, “we were on the Europe, UK [tour] and then whilst we were on that tour, we booked the American tour. It just kept growing arms and legs. It ended up being, like, 70-odd shows with them, almost two years out of our life with these guys. We got to play venues, the sizes of venues were just crazy. We’ve never been able to go to America, especially, and play this kind of level of venue. It’s really helped us out, with fan base growing“.

They concluded, “it taught us a lot about how to spread energy around a big room, and how to be a support band, be fearless, and win people over. It was a really valuable experience, for sure. It’s a harder show, but it’s more rewarding when you, kind of, win the moment. We’ve seen a lot of people who’ve come, who found us through OMD“.

No A Mean City

On Saturday 5th September, No A Mean City returns for a fifth time. In aid of Refuweegee, The Art School in Glasgow will host a range of Scottish acts, including walt disco. Their tour manager Mackenzie Burns has a major role in organising these events so we had a chat about this came about too. “We’ve been pals with Mackenzie for a long time and we’ve worked together a bit. And obviously, the cause that No A Mean City stands for in support of refuweegee is something that we all believe in so strongly. I think it was just a matter of time, for it to happen at the right time for us and our schedule. We just obviously jumped at the opportunity.”

They carried on by saying, “it’s an amazing thing he [Mackenzie] does, him, SMC, Crowded Flat, they do amazing work. So yeah, we’re really, really honoured to be part of it“. We spoke about how there’s other big names on the lineup too such as Declan Welsh. “It’s like an all-star cast,” they said. You can find remaining tickets for No A Mean City here.

Albums of the Year

While these shows draw a line between past and present, it would’ve been wrong not to acknowledge the accolades of previous two albums Unlearning, from 2022, and 2024’s The Warping. Respectively, they were nominated for best Independent Album, and Scottish Album of the Year. I asked Charlie and Jack what their favourite recent albums are, or who their picks would be for album of the year. “That’s such a fabulous question,” Charlie began, “feeble little horse‘s new album [“bitknot“], we’ve all had it spinning and spinning“.

Jack continued, “I guess, as far as UK bands, Conscious Pilot, another band based out of Glasgow, they just dropped an album called Human Poetry, it’s incredible“. He added, “it’s like a perfect band record in my opinion, I love it. Our mates also put out an album last year, which was my album for last year. Our mate’s in a band called Humour, they just put out an album called Learning Greek. It’s beautiful, incredible!“

New Music & Shows

We chatted about walt disco’s chaotic and anthemic new single, ‘Coup de foudre‘. We spoke about whether this newer sound was intentional, and how the approach to it was different to previous work. “We wanted to capture how we can sound as a band in a room. I think that was something that we’ve wanted to try and explore for a lot of the new music that’s going to be coming out“. They added it was a case of seeing “how much we can get out of the band and then, kind of build on top of that with the production electronic elements. It was a very simple song to write…just thrashed it out. Dead simple. The chaos comes from the playing and the energy…we’re excited to play it tonight“.

What’s next for walt disco? “Well, we’ve got some exciting stuff on next week. After we’re done with this tour, we’re playing a free show at The Lexington in London next week. There’s more stuff coming, we can’t say exactly what we’re doing“. However, alongside the aforementioned No A Mean City, they are “playing Twisterella Festival in October. We’re playing Humber Street Sesh Festival on the 1st of August, that’s going to be sweet, back out in the world again. We’re doing some radio stuff, which we’re talking about soon, which is really exciting“. Overall, they’re “just getting busy, getting some more tunes out very soon“.