BOSTON MANOR // Good Things Are Coming!

After a series of cryptic posters were spread around Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne claiming ‘Good Things’ were coming, all was revealed when the Festival announced a save the date, the date for the full line-up release and also the first band on the announcement … Boston Manor.

MORE: HALLOWEEN HYSTERIA: Your Guide To The Best Gig This October // THE AMITY AFFLICTION: No Script Necessary

Boston Manor are a Blackpool based five piece with one studio record under their belt, and another one dropping in a matter of days. Their first album Be Nothing debuted in 2016 and was a safe and consistent album that has seen the band through two years of intensive touring. We caught up with frontman Henry Cox, ahead of the release of Welcome to the Neighbourhood to chat about the album’s intentions and coming across the ditch later this year for Good Things.

HYSTERIA: Thank you so much for taking the time out to chat. You guys are two weeks out from the release of what will probably be your biggest album yet. How are you feeling?

Henry Cox: We’re really excited, its like that age old thing, that we’ve obviously had it done for six months and we just want people to hear it now but the response to the single so far has been insane. You know we didn’t expect that kind of reception so uh yeah I think it’s one of those things … it’s one of those albums where you get context to the rest of the record when you listen to all of the songs, not just the singles, I’m excited to hear what people think of the full thing, we’re kind of just waiting patiently now.

The release of Be Nothing really put you on the map, was there a level of intimidation going into the recording studio again after the success of your debut album?

Funnily enough you know, I was just having this conversation the other day but not really, and there kind of should’ve been really but there wasn’t. Usually there’s like no pressure for your first album but for the second one there is. It was kind of the other way around for us, we kind of felt that the first album was all this pressure, it was like if your first record flops you’re kind of dead in the water, and things are over before they’ve begun. We got in our heads about it, we didn’t really know how to start to write our first record, it was a lot of flying safe and making it up as we go along so to speak and then we were really nervous about that. Then the second record kind of just like got so lost in making it and having so much fun doing it we weren’t really even thinking about the reception and what people would think. Also I’ve gotta give credit to our producer because there were a lot of times where we were like ‘Well is this too far in one direction.’ and I would sing a line and be like ‘That’s so fucking northern.’ like, you know our american audience is gonna … I mean people often say I can’t tell what you’re saying here or there, so I thought ‘Should I tone it down?’ and he’s like ‘Nah, if that’s how you sing it then you do that.’ So uh he really kind of pushed us to really immerse ourselves into creating this thing. We were in a very isolated environment, snowed into this little church that the studio was built in, in the middle of nowhere in New Jersey, and we got so into creating that we kind of really think of what the reception would be, which I think was really great, there probably should have been more pressure than there was really—we’ll see what happens with album three.

I think we can all agree the world has gone a bit nuts and it’s changed so much.
[ Henry Cox ]

Two years is a long time to grow as a person. Did that time in between releasing and touring before sitting down to write influence what this album became?

100 percent! Like the last two years I think we did, both years we did 9 or 10 months on the road, so we were kind of away from home and together discovering a lot of things for the first time and having these experiences, and you grow as people and because we were in each other’s pockets, whatever one person is listening to the whole band or tour bus is listening to. It’s on the radio or we’re passing headphones around so we were all very much on the same page musically and creatively, all the ideas were stuff that we were like talking about back and forth for almost 2 years, I think it was about three years in between writing both records, it’s a lot of time especially in your early 20s, you change a lot and discover a lot more about your art and the world and stuff and in that time we were in a totally different place compared to the next record. I think that shows on the whole record.

Welcome to the Neighbourhood is an album that attacks the misdirected apathy of the current generation, what was the turning point for you as a band to add an underlying social message to your music?

Yeah! 100 percent, yeah. Specifically the last 2 years, I think we can all agree the world has gone a bit nuts and it’s changed so much. It’s definitely not a political record but we meet so many people, you go on tour everyday, and you meet so many people, young people, and you start to learn a lot about people and you also hear stories and the kind of things that kind of ring constant no matter where you’re from—you know Australia, America, UK, Europe wherever and that kind of inspired a lot of the album. We’re not so different in our problems permeating through our generation and not just like problems … just general things, people aren’t very satisfied, nobody’s happy with their lives and I think that’s fair to say for a lot of young people at the moment and yeah it also has to be said, I’m not some kind of social, political, or economical expert. A lot of it is things that I’m seeing a lot, and it’s pissing me off. Where we’re from is a kind of a metaphor for these things and we wrote it when we were at home. We were seeing these things a lot on the streets, and it was kind of me calling things as I saw them, so that’s kind of where the inspiration came from.

In your press release you mentioned “the things that are important to my generation are just so trivial in my eyes” and I agree, I feel like there is definitely a misplaced sense of importance. Was there anything specific you had in mind with that?

Honestly like I wish there was a really fitting example to give but I think it’s just … I really don’t like social media and I’m on it as a necessity, but particularly Twitter I think is so toxic. The kind of dumbing down of ideas, I was having this conversation with my Mum last night actually, but Twitter sits there and you’re encouraged to use social media as every young person is, as that’s kind of what do you want to say but boil it down to 140 characters, just say something because this platform exists to say something. So people are almost encouraged to talk when they really don’t have anything to say, myself included. But because of this boiling down, I know it’s not 140 characters anymore, but the 140 character culture, has allowed the simplification of communication and ideas. I think it’s why people are so fucking opinionated about everything these days, and to be honest man I don’t really think that people have the ideas or intelligence necessary to share these things, the world doesn’t need your fucking opinion, mine included. I just think we’ve come to the point where we need to be heard, but no one has anything to say, and I just see the trash constantly in my timeline and it’s just pissing me off, so that’s definitely one thing that led to it. But that’s only a piece of the puzzle, it’s indicative to this whole wider world and all of these experiences I’ve shared in meeting people, around town that I see everyday. The record isn’t specifically about that, but it definitely represents a large portion of the themes.

In the same release you continued on to say “I can’t really offer any immediate solutions, but I can try to throw a bucket of cold water on some of my peers, to just get them to feel more and think more and not be so apathetic.” And the album definitely demands an emotional response, will your live shows going forward also be representative of that sort of call to arms mentality?

I mean I’m not going to stand up there and preach, like I said I don’t have the answers, it’s just me sort of calling things as I see them, but the kind of anger and the intensity, to be honest the record boiled down to just being an angry album for me if you can channel or to recognise what’s frustrating to you, that’s kind mission accomplished really, but um the intensity we capture on the record we’ll definitely bring it through to the live show and it’s gonna be very engaging, we’re really excited about it, in fact I’ve got a rehearsal for it today, we’ve worked really hard to capture the energy we had on the last album live.

I just think we’ve come to the point where we need to be heard, but no one has anything to say, and I just see the trash constantly in my timeline and it’s just pissing me off …
[ Henry Cox ]

This album shows a lot more musical diversity, there were some tracks like Funeral Party where I got Dallas Green (Alexisonfire, City and Colour) vibes and others that had more electronic undertones. This album has really set you apart and has helped avoid being pigeonholed into a single genre, have you guys always had that variety within the band or was that a conscious change?

Oh cool! Oh no this was a real conscious change, we definitely know our whole career I think been considered slightly away from what we thought of ourselves, we really went down the rabbit hole of exploring new sounds, like you said electronic and industrial side, some hip-hop, and we definitely indulged ourselves a little with that, again props to Mike Sapone, he definitely sort of pushed us to explore more and have no fear in that respect.

The entire album has a really timeless feel to it, and then you dropped the music video for Bad Machine which was directed and produced in house, like by you guys in the band. It has a surreal film noir feel, it was almost like I was watching a scene out of a much larger production … can we expect more music videos to come?

That’s good! Yeah, yeah! I directed it and edited it and we had some help from our good friend Tom Hancock, who’s a talented EP (executive producer), I went to film school, well art school, to study film and I’ve kind of been doing that for a few years now, but it was the first time I sort of had the confidence to do it for my own band, cause it’s one thing doing it for clients, when you’ve got four of your mates to answer to and it doesn’t turn out right it’s a bit scary. I’ve actually been working on a third video for the album all summer, so that’s probably going to come out end of the year I’d imagine, I think we kind of realised on all accounts, we could take creative control on all aspects of the band, we design our merch, even before I started directing I would sort of have a heavy hand in it, I think moving forward we’ll still be collaborating with a creative but we’re really going to take ownership of our creativity on all platforms.

You were the first band for the debut Good Things Festival, is there going to be time around it potentially have your own headline shows in Oz?

We’ll definitely be coming back for sure, I don’t think we’ll be doing any headline shows this time around. There will be some other shows around that festival, I’m not totally sure yet—don’t take my word for it, we obviously want to play as many shows as we can. We will definitely be coming back to Australia at the next opportunity, we’re definitely keen to do it.

Congratulations on the album, and Australia can’t wait to have you guys back in December for Good Things! Just a heads up though, December is Summer for us so pack shorts. 

You can pre-order Boston Manors new album Welcome to the Neighbourhood which will be released on 7th September through Pure Noise records.

Boston Manor will be playing Good Things Festival!

Fri 7 Dec // Melbourne Showgrounds
Sat 8 Dec // Sydney, Parramatta Park
Sun 9 Dec // Brisbane Showgrounds
Tickets available here>