THE RIFLES ON THEIR LATEST ALBUM ‘LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR’ | INTERVIEW WITH JOEL STOKER

With the release of their sixth studio album, ‘Love Your Neighbour,’ East London’s very own Britpop royalty, The Rifles, have finally returned after what seems like an eternity—and, to be truthful, it probably has. Fans will find much to appreciate in their return to the scene, even though the record represents a modest change in direction. Reviews for this highly anticipated album are coming in thick and fast. I had the chance to sit down with Joel Stoker to talk about the making of the album, the value of their fan base, and how the band is still going strong eighteen years after their hugely successful debut album, ‘No Love lost’.

Keira : The Rifles have had a steady presence on the UK Indie Scene for 20 years now! You’re sixth studio album ‘Love Your Neighbour’ is the band’s first album release in 8 years; how was it getting back in the studio and working on this album, how do you feel your approach to recording has changed over the length of your career?

Joel : The difference with this recording is that I recorded it myself, I have my own little recording space! It’s mad to think it’s been 8 years though! We’ve obviously been doing other stuff, like gigging but it’s hard as everyone has got jobs as well! It’s really hard to keep knocking albums out when you’re trying to do other stuff as well! [with this album] it was pretty easy really! We had some songs about a year to two years ago; some of them we felt weren’t good enough. However that gave me more of a direction in my head to know what we wanted it to sound like. We kind of went back to the feeling of the first album! We always have really great live gigs, there’s a lot of singing along so I wanted to write songs that I knew would go down well live! We wrote about 5 [tracks] really quickly right at the end of recording, and they became some of the first few singles! They shaped the album. It all came together in the end, (laughing) but we’re not very good at punctuality!

Keira : Was there a different approach in terms of the writing process for this album in comparison to the beginning of your career?

Joel : Possibly! The first album is always a weird one because you’re just writing songs and enjoying being in a band! You don’t know if you’ll get to record them! From then on though, you’re aware that it is going to be released! I suppose because we’ve been doing it for such a long time now, we don’t sweat that anymore! It’s nice to be able to record it all ourselves in our own time, most of it we recorded at home! It’s been pretty straightforward but the hardest thing finding the time! With regards to writing, it’s a similar sort of approach. We do have a few different approaches to writing; sometimes we’ll make music, record and then I’ll write the lyrics to it but some of it comes from home and I’ll take it to the band! It’s kind of how we’ve always done that! The only difference was that we recorded it all ourselves.

Keira : That’s really cool, I love the idea of the band recording it at home and just doing your own thing! Was there a track you found most challenging to write or record?

Joel : None of them really! Once I’ve got a clear picture of what it will be about, I mean everyone writes differently, but I’ll get some music together, then make almost gibberish over the top of it and create a melody! Once I know what it’s going to be about, I find it quite easy! It’s about getting that initial spark, but none of the tracks were that challenging, they all just worked! You can round and round the houses with recording, thinking “that could be better”. I love older music like Motown, they’re quite imperfect anyway which then makes them perfect, if that makes sense! They’re just good songs that they’ve recorded; the tambourine is louder than the vocals! But the songs are good and the feel good!

Keira : Speaking of inspirations, when I was listening to the album, for me, it felt as though it had been plucked straight out of the 2000’s indie scene, it’s got a really nostalgic feel to it! What did you take influence from for this album? Where there any major inspirations you wanted to reflect within your music?

Joel : Not musically, no. I suppose, if we were to look back, The Clash and those sorts of bands, which is what we were into when we recorded the first album! Quite a British sound. Everyday life is our main inspiration, throughout all our albums! We always seem to touch on that. ‘Love Your Neighbour’ was more like the first album in that sense.

Keira : What is the story behind the album title ‘Love Your Neighbour’? How did that come about, is there a backstory to that?

Joel : The story behind that is that I’d say to Luke in the studio, “give me something to write about!”. He told about a neighbour around the corner who grows sunflower’s and once they’re ready he’ll go around giving them to people in the neighbourhood that he likes! There is a song on the album, ‘Mr Sunflower’, it is about him! The actual chorus in that is ‘Love Your Neighbour’ , it’s a nice message I think, that there are actually decent people about!

Keira : That’s such a lovely backstory! (laughing) I mean, at least we know if he doesn’t like someone! You won’t be getting any flowers anytime soon!

Joel : Yeah exactly! (laughing) I know I won’t because I don’t live anywhere near him! It’s a good indication on who he likes though!

Keira : How do you hope your legacy as a band will impact the music industry? You’ve already achieved so much in your career, but is there anything in particular you’d like to achieve with ‘Love Your Neighbour’?

Joel : It’s really all about our fan base! There is no way we’d have been going for this long without them! I’m just so happy that they all seem to really like the album. We’re not intent on changing the world! We’re quite a cult band anyway, in that sense, we’ve never been in the limelight or on the edge of all of that! The more and more we’ve progressed, the more important our fan base has become! It’s nice to get good feedback from them!

Keira : On the subject of your fanbase, what did you want your fan to take away from ‘Love Your Neighbour’?

Joel : Again, it’s like a bit of a club or even a family! The gigs when there is a couple of thousand people there, everyone gets on, through social media [the fans] are like “Where are we going to go?”, “What pub shall we got to?”. That’s a really nice thing, it’s such a family atmosphere. We just want to continue that really!

Keira : That’s such a lovely thing for a fanbase to have! Do you have a personal favourite track off of the new album, that you’d think fans would particularly like?

Joel : I think my favourite track is ‘All Aboard’! (laughing) I don’t know why, I just like the lyrics and the point of them to be honest!

Keira : Right we’ve got some fun questions for you! If you could pick any artist to cover one of the tracks off ‘Love Your Neighbour’, who would it be and which track would you pick?

Joel : I could be selfish and just pick someone like Bob Dylan! (laughing) It probably wouldn’t be this hard if we had longer! Maybe it would be quite funny to have a female sing ‘Venus’!

Keira : Interesting! Who would you go with? I think Debbie Harry could be a good choice!

Joel : Yes! I wouldn’t mine Debbie harry covering one of our songs at all! I’d be fine with that!

Keira : One of the things I love to do when listening to albums is picturing a venue where I can imagine the album being played! Is there a venue that you think would fit the albums vibe perfectly?

Joel : There is a venue that I used to love, it’s not there anymore, called ‘Astoria’ in London! I would have loved to play there again! It is the perfect size venue, about 1,500 capacity! I like those size venues, they’re intimate but at the same time it’s a big crowd singing along! If I could, I’d play the album there!

Keira : I think gigs at the smaller venues feel that little bit more special!

Joel : We do a lot of acoustic sets that are obviously at much smaller venues! They feel nicer, in the sense that you actually get to see people! At the bigger gigs you become a little bit more disjointed from everyone! I do like the smaller ones but the 2,000 capacity gigs, they’re a good size, it feels like one big party!

Keira : At the time of this interview, it is the 18th anniversary of your debut album ‘No Love Lost’, I’d love to know what is your favourite track off of that album and why?

Joel : I suppose ‘Spend A Lifetime’ was the first song that I wrote that I thought was good and I really liked it! It’s always been in the set since then! So many people have got married and had that as the song for their first dance! So it probably would be that one for me!

Keira : If you could take a track from that album and mic it into ‘Love Your Neighbour’ which track would you choose?

Joel : ‘Out For The Weekend’ would probably work best! (laughing) I used to be able to go out for the weekend back then!

You can listen to The Rifles’ latest album ‘Love Your Neighbour’ below:

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