“MUSIC’S SUCH A POSITIVE, UPLIFTING THING”| INTERVIEW WITH THE WOMBATS
INTERVIEW | DANIEL HAGGIS OF THE WOMBATS By Keira Knox
Ahead of the release of The Wombat’s sixth studio album, ‘Oh! The Ocean‘, we sat down with Dan Haggis to talk everything from their arena tour, Sealife, grassroots venues and so much more. In his own words, Dan much like myself is “a fellow verbal diarrhoea sufferer“, so much so that before this interview was conducted we spent 5 minutes attempting to search for an official diagnosis, Logorrhea.
For a band that have achieved so much over their extensive career, The Wombats have stayed true to their Merseyside roots, sharing their appreciation for their hometown throughout. Although they’ve achieved arena status in recent years, Dan Haggis discusses the vital part that independent grassroots music venues have played in their career and why we as a community need to pull together and show our support.
Keira : It’s been 2 years since scoring their debut UK No.1 album with ‘Fix Yourself Not The World‘, you’re set to release your 6th studio album ‘Oh! The Ocean’ on Feb 14th. How does this album differ from previous releases?
Dan : Well, it’s very easy to compare. So the last album, ‘Fix Yourself Not The World’, we recorded that during the pandemic, which was obviously, out of all the albums we’ve done, a very different experience. We weren’t in the same place. We were never in the same place as Murph. Me and Tord got together for a good bulk of it. It was so disparate and sending files back and forth and kind of difficult to be spontaneous as a unit. I’m really proud of the fact that we actually managed to make an album in those circumstances and with what was going on. It really gave us something to focus on in a pretty bleak time for most people.
Obviously, as musicians, we couldn’t travel, couldn’t do live shows, couldn’t get together and play. So it was a shitter! (laughing) To be able to do something positive and creative out of that, I was really proud of it.
It was so nice, with this album, to get back into the same room together and actually just stick up a load of mics and get to play and be like, “Oh, actually, when I do this, can you do that?” “Oh, what about when we do?” Working with the producer, to just sort of try to get more of that spontaneity and mistakes and just embracing all of that. Everything that comes with three people playing music together! So it was really fun, I think that comes across in the recordings. It’s got a different feel.
Keira : When you go into the studio, do you have a specific idea in mind for certain tracks? Or do you come up with it as you go, is it more spontaneous in that sort of sense?
Dan : This time around, working with John Congleton for the first time, when we go in to record an album, we’ve got a bunch of demos that we’ve made, writing demos essentially, where you’re putting a song in a rough direction and figuring out where it could go. Usually producers would, I mean, we often co-produce at the same time anyway, but they would listen to the demo and be like, “OK, cool”. Whereas John was like, “I don’t really want to listen to the demos if at all possible. I don’t really care about them.” He’ll listen to them once, but didn’t want us to fixate on trying to replicate a demo. He was very much like, “I want us to create something.”
So it was really kind of interesting in that sense because you’d start playing stuff, playing through a song and be like, “well, I could maybe go like this.” You start feeding off each other a bit more rather than feeling too, we’re not constrained because we always jam around to things. It just felt a little bit maybe more, the possibilities are endless; for each kind of like version of everyone’s parts and sections, where John could hear it going. So it was really fun and spontaneous. Some of the songs took turns that we didn’t expect, which after doing music for this long is always really exciting to experience!
Keira : How do you feel your music style has changed over the years from your first album till now and where do you see it going in the future?
Dan : I feel like we’ve constantly just been on this journey of like curiosity as a band, just looking for those moments of excitement that keeps our attention. Capturing something in that moment that like when it happens, you feel something that feels fucking great! Every band’s looking for that feeling. It’s different for every band, which is what’s so great with music.
With our first album, we pretty much just wanted to capture how we sounded live and that energy that was in a live show and get it onto a CD or online, into a recorded form of that. As we’ve gone through every album, we’ve worked with different producers and different people and learned along the way. So many different ways of recording and using so many different instruments and synths. We experimented a lot with production stuff, both in the demo and the writing process, but also in the studio.
I guess you get to a point where you have a lot more tools at your disposal, all words in your language. You get to that point and I feel like we’re kind of there now. It’s really fun to be able to incorporate the love of live energy with some elements of using the studio as an instrument and getting to experiment with all that. We also learnt to embrace mistakes and encourage spontaneity and you know, shit that you might think is just you messing around.
Moving forwards, I would hope that we just keep that sort of playful, curious sense of wonder that you have as musicians. Keep trying to surprise yourself and just have more recordings for 80-year-old us to look back on as like a little sonic memory box! (laughing)
Keira : How has creating this album shaped your sound as a band and influenced you personally?
Dan : I would say that the actual recording, to work with someone completely new in the studio for the first time in quite a while. We did album three, four and five with Mark Crew, which was amazing! I’ve done a bunch of solo stuff with one other guy. Me and Tord have done stuff together. Having someone outside of those people that we’ve been used to working with, that in itself was very reinvigorating; it makes you question a lot of your habits, sometimes we get into like a way of doing stuff. Sometimes it takes, a new friend or a new person or a new book you’ve read. There’s different ways that we get that as humans.
That was definitely something for us as a band. Me personally, to just see a different way of working and see that it works really well, stops you from beating yourself up about trying to do something too perfectly. Just showing you a slightly different way of approaching things, opens your mind up a little bit. It’s inspiring. So I would say that that’s probably, that’s the main takeaway I’ve got from doing this album.
Keira : You’re about to embark on a series of intimate gigs at some of the UK’s most renowned record stores. How important is it that as music fans we keep supporting local venues like these?
Dan : I don’t know if you’ve been following like Music Venues Trust at all; on our last album, we did a bunch of shows linked with them. I’ve been keeping an eye on what they’ve been doing, following them on socials and all that. I went down to a talk they did at Westminster last year where they were lobbying the governments essentially to look after grassroots music venues. It’s so important, we would not be a band if it wasn’t for grassroots music venues, quite simply. I think that’s pretty true of like 99% of all bands out there, whether they are Coldplay or us. Anyone in between stadium, arena, smaller gigs, you need those places for every city and town. They’re so important to give young musicians a chance to actually get out there and try out a new song or try out a new project they’re working on.
Whether it’s to try and fail or to just to get up there and build up the confidence to do it. It’s not something you can really learn, to play in front of people without starting somewhere, can you? It’s pretty obvious. With the rents rising everywhere and the pressure on cities and towns. There’s the music venues, as with a lot of art spaces, it feels like sometimes it can be a second, an afterthought. I think we’re getting to a point where it’s been an afterthought for too long. It needs to be very much priority for cities to actually acknowledge.
What will all the young musicians in this town or city do? If you’re 16 or whatever, or 14 when I started, you can’t be driving off to like, you don’t have a car, you don’t have a license to drive. You need somewhere on your doorstep that you can go with your mates and shock a few songs around. It’s so important.
For us to do like these buzz shows, it’s great fun for us, obviously, because that’s where we come from. To be honest, we still play places like that around Europe and in America, that’s where we’re sort of still at. We get a really lovely like range of venues anyway, but to do that in the UK, it’s a slightly different experience playing in like smaller venues. We’ve never played the majority of our new album live. We’ve only played two songs from it at any gigs. It’s all new for us. It kind of gives you that feeling of starting out again and having to like win over a crowd with a song they’ve never heard before. Those small little intimate venues are so good for that. People need to support the local venues and so do the frigging government!
Keira : 100%! As you touched on there, there has been so many incredible bands come up through these grassroots venues. You’ve got some incredible bands supporting you on your upcoming tour. Red Rum Club, for a start. What do you think of the upcoming music scene coming out of Liverpool right now?
Dan : Yeah, they’re great! They actually supported us in America as well last year. Such lovely guys, all in it for the right reasons. Some of them still have other jobs going on. They just love playing music. They’re obviously great at what they do, loads of great songs, our crowds every night just loved them. You could tell the energy that they created as well was like really good. It’s great to see, we can’t wait to have them on tour with us this time around!
We’ve got Everything Everything as well on the tour. I’d sort of mentioned them a while back. I just became obsessed with that song called ‘Reactor’ from their latest album. Just putting this name out there, if they were even remotely interested. It’s great that they hopped on board. I know they’re not like a new band from Liverpool or anything, but still awesome!
Keira : We have to talk about the album listening party that’s set to be hosted at Sealife. How did that idea come about?
Dan : I only heard about it recently from our label, I don’t even know who put it together at the label! I don’t know whether they’ve worked with them before or what. I guess the album’s called ‘Oh, The Ocean’, so it sort of makes sense. When we were in Australia, we did a bunch of DJ sets. We did one on a boat in Sydney Harbour, one by the sea outside of Melbourne, which was awesome! I guess in London, it’s not surrounded by sea, so the Sea Life Centre is going to be the next best thing! (laughing)
It should be an interesting experience. They do loads of like for conservation. the person at the label who sorted it was like, “they’re really good for raising awareness for like marine animals and the plight of the ocean” and all the rest of it.
Keira : Is it going to be in the tunnel bit with the sharks going through. That’s like how I imagine it’s happening!
Dan : That’s how I imagine it as well. (laughing) I’m not sure whether it is going to be like that, but I think that’s the plan. It should be a pretty magical, interesting experience. I think weirdly as well, the way the album sounds, I often hear music and see colours at the same time. I feel like that sort of light blue of the ocean, it’s a good colour for the album. Hopefully those things will match for anyone else who sees colours when they hear music.
Keira : The Wombats will be setting out on their biggest ever UK Arena Tour next month, how are you feeling about playing the new songs live? are there any tracks you’re especially excited to bring to the stage?
Dan : Massively excited! We just did seven days in a row of rehearsing. It was the first time we’d properly played the songs in their final arrangements and versions, actually the three of us in the room. So it was really fun. There were a few songs in there that I hadn’t expected to feel as, not I thought they were all going to feel great. But like ‘The World’s Not Out To Get Me, I Am‘, that came together really quickly. We were all like, wow, that one didn’t fight back very hard! It slotted into place, and felt really lovely. ‘Reality is a Wild Ride’ as well. It just felt so epic by the time it got to the last sort of chorus and outro section, it was proper goosebumps moment, which is what we’re searching for. Those moments when you’re just not thinking about anything else, it’s total bliss. I can’t wait to play all of them, to be honest, but those ones in particular.
Keira : The band are also set to play their largest homecoming show at Liverpool’s On The Waterfront. What is it about Liverpool that makes live music performances that extra bit special?
Dan : Liverpool as a city has just got such a unique energy. I’ve been to lots of places around the world. I lived in Paris for five years, lived in London for seven years. I moved back to Liverpool two years ago and as soon as I got back here, I went into the local shop, within 10 minutes there was this old lady chatting to me and winding me up about struggling with my bag. I was just laughing my head off, it’s so nice to be back. It’s like a sense of humour and an energy. People are just up for a good time, wear their hearts on their sleeves. It’s just such a lovely, lovely feeling.
It’s got a real soul, if a city can have a soul, if a human can have a soul for that matter. (laughing) I feel like us being from here and having grown up playing around Liverpool, there is just such a love for music. It’s very interwoven. I’m sure it’s the fact that it’s a port, there’s always just been loads of people from all over the world, all different music being shared all the time. The Beatles kind of paved the way, didn’t they? In a big way, for people from Liverpool, I guess also to feel like if they did it, maybe we can too. I suppose as well, the Irish links, there’s so many people in Liverpool, that do have Irish family. The sort of traditional, both singing and playing music, that’s a big part of Ireland and obviously it’s a big part of Liverpool.
June the 19th, we’ll be adding to that cacophony and people will be kicking off!
Keira : Hometown shows are so special, but does it feel any different knowing that it’s a hometown show compared to other headline ones that you play?
Dan : Yeah, it does add a slightly different element to it. There’s so many more friends and family who end up being there. It’s literally down the road, it definitely adds an extra layer to the show. Once you’re actually on stage, you know, you get just swept up in the music kind of no matter where you are. I do think like playing where we’re playing, looking out on the Mersey, I have seen that river my whole life. It feels like home so much that playing there will definitely add an extra surreal element to it.
I think there’s another thing that gets added with hometown shows is that because we started as a band here, you really feel that like full circle kind of like, you know, the nostalgia and actually a sense of how far we’ve come from the beginning. Last time we did a Liverpool show on the last album, there was a radio station, I can’t remember who it was, we did a guided tour around Liverpool with this radio station. We visited all our old haunts, where we’d played. We were all just buzzing. The amount of memories, all the things that had happened, all the gigs we’d done that we’d almost forgotten about because you don’t necessarily talk about it all the time. That’s something that Liverpool throws up for us. Lots of old, really fond memories of like starting out, it almost feels like it was yesterday when you’re in the same place!
Keira : We need a Wombats version of The Magical Mystery Tour!
Dan : Imagine that! It would be awesome.
Keira : With the tour fast approaching as well as festival season being just around the corner, how are you preparing yourselves for the sheer number of live shows you’ll be playing?
Dan : Well, if you’d have asked me a week ago, I don’t think I would have known. We’ve just done seven days nonstop rehearsing and got these little finger strengtheners and I just went to this blaze class today. That was really intense. Trying to stay acknowledged that we are getting older; we can’t just go out and get wrecked every night like we used to and expect to be able to do this many gigs.
We’re trying to be a bit more sensible, it’s definitely an important part of being in a band, you know, almost treating it a bit more like you’re a curling champion or like a croquet player or something, you’ve got to look after your body. Otherwise you won’t be able to compete at the highest level. A lot of it is technique and warmup, we used to do gigs and literally just drink a beer and a shot of tequila and walk on stage and then get off stage and just carry on. There’s no warming up, stretching, yoga, vocal warmups, there was nothing. Then you’re wondering why your arms are absolutely in bits? You couldn’t do any sports and not ever warm up or warm down!
Keira : You’re set to play a huge set at the return of NBHD Weekender, a festival not too far from your hometown. How does it feel playing festivals in comparison to headline shows? Do you have a preference?
Dan : You can end up playing to some pretty insane crowds, I remember the first time we played the other stage at Glastonbury, that was like a bricking it moment mixed with just, oh my God, I can’t believe we’re doing this. This is insane, you look out and there’s like what looks like 40,000 people or something. There’s an added element of, you know, just the sheer size of a crowd that the energy that you get back sometimes at festivals is like a regular gig on steroids.
I feel like our gigs are fairly rowdy in general, to be honest, but there’s something about a festival especially in the UK, people kind of like really let loose, don’t they? I’ve been at Glastonbury after we’ve played and I’ve ended up in like in a rainbow leotard with glitter all over my face. No, actually it was a pineapple leotard with glitter all over my face and some bobbles in my hair or something like that. Don’t even know how it ended up happening. Before you know it, you’re dancing to a band that you don’t even really know much about, but you’re having like the best time ever.
Neighbourhood is down the road from, it’s like 25, 30 minutes from here. It does have that kind of l extra little Northwest. To be honest, Manchester feels like that to me as well. The whole Northwest, as a kid growing up, Liverpool didn’t have the arena when I was younger. I would go to the MEN in Manchester, which is now the AO, or the Apollo, that would be where I’d see all big bands. It’s close enough that all our friends and family could still happily go to Warrington, Manchester, obviously Liverpool, but the whole Northwest has got that like home, hometown feel.
Keira : You’re the Thursday headliners at this year’s YNOT Festival, what can fans expect from your headline performance?
Dan : At festivals you rarely get to play more than an hour or 75 minutes. So with six albums, that’s only two to three songs from each album at most. It’s probably going to be a bit of a greatest hits, I think it’s always really fun. We don’t that often headline festivals, when you get a chance like that, it’s always really fun because you’re usually on when the sun’s going down, if we play a bit earlier in the day, you don’t really have much of a lighting show. It doesn’t matter though! When you do a headline show, you definitely get to go out, go a bit more all out on the production side. I think it’ll be probably a greatest hits set with a few new ones and hopefully some fun production shit, maybe some party poppers or something!
Keira : You’ve already inspired a wide array of artists that have emerged from the northwest, how do you hope your legacy as a Merseyside band will continue to impact the industry?
Dan : Oh, that’s lovely to imagine that we have. I think in the same way that I mentioned before, not to compare us to the Beatles, because I’m just realizing that’s what I’m doing. The Beatles were a band that comes along and can be part of paving a way for showing other musicians that it’s possible to get out there and share your music with the world. Why not have a go? Get some guitar lessons or, start trying to play along to your favourite songs or get an old drum kit out the garage and have a bash. Music’s such a positive, uplifting thing to do in general or to be part of, whether it’s being a promoter, or a sound technician or whatever it is, whatever direction you want to go in or just as a fan. I feel like it’s such a positive aspect of life.
I guess I would just love the legacy for us would just to be hopefully giving people in generations to come as well something to listen to that makes them think, puts a smile on the face. I would imagine a lot of the stuff, whether it’s like more on the mental health side or just relationships or just stupidness. People can relate to those things moving forwards, it gives people something. For other musicians and songwriters out there, be honest in their lyrics and try and be honest with themselves, use it as a therapeutic tool in your life. I’m just generally having a fucking great time, playing music with your mates and make some noise and have some fun. We kind of did it a bit, so maybe you can too!
It’s mad to think that when you’re young musicians now and they’ve been listening to us since they were eight or whatever. People say how they started learning to play like the drums along to a song or guitar, it’s always like a bit of a pinch yourself moment. There’s a young girl whose dad wrote to me the other day. She’s seven and she’s got ADHD but she just loves playing along to Wombat songs, she’s learning to play the drums. I was just like, oh, my God, so fucking cool! That literally that means more than playing any gig or festival or anything. Those moments kind of remind you as well, that’s why you make music. It’s lovely to hear. To be part of that is just an honour!
The Wombats UK Tour Dates
Author
