Interview: Nothing But Thieves

Voor de jonge Britse band Nothing But Thieves had 2015 al drie optredens in Nederland in petto. Zo speelden ze in het voor programma van Gerard Way en Awolnation, maar ook op Paaspop. Dit charmante vijftal heeft nog geen debuutalbum op zak, maar is goed op weg een Nederlandse fanbase op te zetten. Wij spraken met de lead-zanger: Conor Mason.

Good afternoon, how are you doing?

Very well. I’m a bit sleepy. We’ve gone out in Paris last night, which was good. We had a bit too much wine and we did some karaoke. That was a pretty bad idea. We did Whitesnake.

Sounds awesome, what song?

“Here I go again”. It was good, it was fun.

So how has the tour been so far?

It’s good. It’s been really nice to be back in Europe. We were here with Gerard Way about two months ago. But yeah, it’s going really well, it’s lovely to be back. We’re just enjoying seeing all the places and seeing the fans. It’s really cool to have some of the fans who came before, that they come again. There are these girls outside, who saw us at Gerard Way and now came to see us, which is awesome.

Back to the Whitesnake, do you have any other 80’s guilty pleasures?

Oh my word, 80’s guilty pleasures? It’s got to be Aerosmith, isn’t it? I’m a massive AC/DC fan. They’re a bit of an oddball in that scene but I’m a huge AC/DC fan.  I love them.

Have you listened to their most recent album?

No, I haven’t and I don’t know if I want to. That’s the thing. I’m kind of avoiding it, but I should.

Does AC/DC also play a role when you’re playing for Nothing but Thieves?

All the time. AC/DC, Led Zep, all that. Just in the dressing room, listening to that. I know it’s more 70’s, isn’t it? I mean, instead of 80’s.

Well, AC/DC is still going on today, call it what you will. So you released your EP somewhere last summer, but there definitely are plans for an album, aren’t there?

Yep, In the UK it’s released in August, but I don’t know about the rest of Europe, so I can’t say. But I can’t wait. We started recording it last summer and we wrote some things before that. It’s great to finally be able to release that in August.

Are there any specific tracks that we need to look out for?

There is the favourite track of the whole band, which isn’t released yet. I can say the name, that’s fine. It’s called “Fog at Heart”. It’s cool. I love the song. It’s very close to us.

Is there something we really need to know about either you, or the band as a whole?

You know what? It’s as cliché as it sounds: We’re just mates from school. We’ve got quite an old-school story in the fact that we all have been mates for ages in the local area. I quite like that. I’m quite proud of that. That we did it an old fashioned way, we just wrote for three years before the labels approached us. Yeah, trying to do it old-school, I feel like we have done, which is cool.