THE CLAUSE ON THEIR UPCOMING HEADLINE UK TOUR | INTERVIEW WITH PEARCE MACCA
Before the band’s massive UK headline tour this winter, I had a chat with Pearce Macca, lead singer of The Clause. The four-piece band hail from Birmingham and combine the swagger of the 1960s with the rolling grooves of the 1980s and the wild energy and attitude of the 1990s. Their distinctive sound defies classification, transitioning smoothly from massive, swinging bass to shattering percussion. There are darker, edgier passages that evoke late-night rides along dilapidated back alleyways, as well as epic sing-along choruses suitable for stadiums and packed festival main stages. They are among the most exciting up-and-coming indie bands in the UK, and speaking with Pearce before what will undoubtedly be a transformative few months was a pleasure!
Keira : What made you decide that music was the thing for you?
Pearce : I think the first time I decided that music was for me was when my dad bought me my first bunch of albums! He bought me The Killers record, the Arctic Monkeys record, and he actually bought me the Sugababes record as well! I was only like 4 or 5. Ever since then, I’ve got more into music, I always knew that I wanted to do this!
Keira : In the mix of all the indie, I love the fact you’ve got the Sugababes in there! (laughing)
Pearce : They’ve got bangers!
Keira : You’ve got some huge festival slots coming up, including YNot, Birkenhead Live and Gone Wild Festival! How does it feel playing festivals in comparison to headline shows? Do you have a preference?
Pearce : They are two very different beasts! I don’t particularly have a preference; I love playing festivals because it’s a big day out! You’re playing on some of the main stages that we’ve been lucky enough to be involved in playing recently! Watching everyone there having a drink, dancing to your tunes and going mad is a really good feeling! When you’re doing a headline tour, as we’re doing towards the end of the year, in some massive venues and people are spending their hard earned money on coming to see us; singing our tunes back, it’s an unmatched feeling! I can’t really pick between the two, you’ve caught me there! They’re both wicked!
Keira : Let’s talk about your upcoming UK tour this December, how excited are you for this?
Pearce : Me and the lads are so buzzing for it! We’re so lucky to even be in a position to play some of these venues let alone sell some of them out! We’re playing some massive venues up and down the UK, venues that when we started the band we could only dream about playing! The institute in Birmingham [for example] and Gorilla in Manchester, Omeara in London, The Leadmill is another massive one in Sheffield! We’re just buzzing for it! Tickets are doing really well, it’s going to be a bit of a mental end to the year for us! We get to go to Europe as well: Paris and Dublin. It’s going to be a messy one but I can’t wait for it!
Keira : Can we expect to hear any more new or unreleased material from you at your upcoming shows?
Pearce : Our second EP ‘Weekend Millionaire’ is going to be out before the tour commences, so we will have all of those tunes on display! We might even throw a couple of ones in that will be released next year but we’ll see how we feel, whether we’ve even got time to fit them in! We’ve still got 2 or 3 tracks to come out over the next few months that will be in the setlist for the tour!
Keira : That sounds incredible! Are there any dream venues or festivals that you hope to perform at in the future?
Pearce : The O2 Academy in Birmingham has been our dream venue since we started! That’s been our goal! I’d love to play Brixton Academy as well, I love that venue, I’ve watched so many gigs in there! That would just be a belter to play! Festival wise, it’s an easy answer but my first ever festival was Glastonbury when I was about 15! I think that’s the dream for every band in the UK, any band or artists anywhere! That would be a pinnacle for us, even if they put us next to the toilets, we’ll still set up and sing! (laughing)
Keira : I think having Glastonbury as your first festival is such a huge brag to have! I would tell everyone!
Pearce : I think I set myself up for disappointment a little bit although I did follow it up with Reading Festival! That Reading Festival when you turn 16 is like your coming of age, you either go to Reading or Leeds! I didn’t do too badly after it! (laughing)
Keira : What is your best experience on stage to date?
Pearce : It’s probably a toss up between playing the main stage at Isle Of Wight, we walked out not expecting to play to many people as a fairly new band, but seeing thousands of people standing there watching us was all a bit surreal! Listening to people there, on a little island off the coast of England, singing our tunes back in their thousands was mental! When we headlined the O2 Institute in Birmingham and we played ‘Where Are You Now?’, which is quite a close song to all of us personally; it’s probably is my favourite moment on stage, we all just burst out crying at the end of the song, it was a little bit embarrassing actually! (laughing) It was a belter, and it will be a memory that stays with me forever!
Keira : Let’s talk about your latest single ‘Fever Dream’, what was the writing and recording process like with this track?
Pearce : I wrote that song in the shed in the back of my garden, it’s where I do most of my writing! It was one of those songs where I wrote it and didn’t really expect it to go anywhere. It was just a little bit of fun! Then I sent it to the boys, in our WhatsApp chat, asking them to listen to the tune, just a little head bopper, but then they’re all were like “This is really good! We should go and record it next!” We took it into the Vada studio where we’ve recorded all our material up to now, including our new EP that’s coming out in a couple of months. It all just fell into place! I think the lyrics in it are quite personal, they’ll resonate with a lot of people who have been through the same stuff I have! You can pick apart bits during the track! Collectively, it’s probably our favourite yet! We’ll say its our favourite until the next one comes out! (laughing)
Keira : You’re set to release your second EP ‘Weekend Millionaire’ this year, what can we expect from this EP?
Pearce : We’ve hung our hat on the fact that it’s our best music that we’ve written and recorded yet! We’ve had some of these songs written for a while, ‘Weekend Millionaire’, the title track, was written 2 years ago and we’ve just been waiting for the right time to release it! It’s a collection of our best music yet, we can’t wait to get it out, we’re itching to get it released! Everyone can get their ears around it and love it as much as we do! On top of that, it’s a window for what’s to come in the future, and our next project, which will be our album!
Keira : That all sounds so exciting! Did you have any specific inspirations for this new EP?
Pearce : A massive inspiration that I didn’t clock onto until the mixing process, was that it’s very The Killer’s orientated! Especially coming off of their first two albums ‘Hot Fuss’ and ‘Day & Age’, it was subconscious to write it in that way! It’s grassroots indie music with driven synths and driven riffs! It’s something we’ve been working on, to be able to craft a sound for the past however many years that we’ve been doing this band! We’ve stripped it all back and locked into our indie roots and influences!
Keira : How do you hope your fans and listeners will connect with or interpret the message from the EP?
Pearce : The clear message is to just cast aside all the little worries that you’ve got in your head! You’ll hit some hard patches but there’s no point sitting around and dwelling on it, mulling over bad choices, like where you could have been if you cared a bit more. Just go out and have fun, it’s been lacking from everyone’s life over the last 2/3 years. It seems like a collective feeling of everyone being down and hard done by, just get yourself out into a festival field or gig venue, just go mad and enjoy your time while you’re here!
Keira : How do you envision playing these new tracks to a live audience?
Pearce : (laughing) You know what, I’m not sure how to answer that! We need to practice them more first! Lock them in before we can say that! I think they’ll go down like very other record we’ve put out! People will listen to it, they’ll turn up to the gigs and they’ll have an absolute riot in the crowd to whatever we sing! I’m hoping these will be the best songs in our setlist, on the headline tour, we can’t wait to get there and test them out!
Keira : Besides the upcoming shows and EP, what are The Clause’s plans for the rest of 2024?
Pearce : Just a lot of fun! We are currently in the process of finishing the writing of our debut album which will follow this new EP! After our tour in November and December, we are going to be going in to record that, hopefully before the year finishes! The rest of 2024 is leading up to what’s probably the biggest year of our lives! It’s been a pretty mad one and we’ve still got 4/5 months left! We are going to be foot to the floor for the rest of it , it’s going to be a good ride!
The Clause UK Tour dates 2024:
Fri 22 Nov 2024 – London OMEARA
Fri 06 Dec 2024 – Manchester Gorilla
Fri 13 Dec 2024 – Birmingham O2 Institute
All dates and tickets can be found www.theclause.co.uk
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