“Glitterbug just came to me as kind of sparkly and enticing on the outside but would rip your soul out from the inside” – Matt Murphy The Wombats
[Rewind 2016]
The Wombats Interview
Glitterbug Album Launch
Ahead of their mammoth world tour including Splendour In The Grass Side Shows, we catch up with Matthew Murphy, frontman of The Wombats to talk all things Glitterbug, LA and of course festivals.
Hi Matthew,
Hi Hannah!
How are you?
Yeah I’m good thank you how are you?
Very well thanks! Where are you chatting to us from?
I’m in my place in London, Stoke Newington.
So you’re gearing up for the Splendour In The Grass Sideshows, where are you most looking forward to playing?
Probably Splendour In The Grass I’d imagine. We haven’t played in Australia for a while, and to say they were pretty receptive would be an understatement. We’re just excited to get back over there and see what Aussie crowds are like again, as they’re pretty nuts out there!
What are you hoping to get up to if you get any down time whilst in Australia?
Any down time? No we don’t do downtime, we just do “on time”. I haven’t had any down time for quite some time.
Yes I was looking at your tour schedule, it’s pretty jam-packed.
What we’re about to do before Australia is pretty ridiculous. We’re doing three European festivals then flying down to Australia, then doing six shows in like seven days, then flying through the international date line then changing, getting off the plane then doing a gig in Chicago, basically in the morning. And then there’s some downtime.
Wow! So I’ve seen you’re also playing a few festivals I haven’t heard of before, including one in Romania, have you played in Romania before?
Yeah we’ve been before. i guess that’s the big festival over there, I think it’s a stage behind this pretty glamourous mansion , I think it’s called Summer Well.
The world has gone completely festival mad these days, where would you say the best festival you’ve played at is?
Fuji Rocks is probably the cleanest, tasteful festival I’ve been to. The line-up was amazing, you walk through all this woodland to get there and there were all these lights hanging from the trees, so it’s a pretty magical festival. We’re also doing one in the Arctic Circle, which sounds good.
So the new album Glitterbug came out back in April, and you worked with Mark from Bastille on it, how was that?
Yeah we worked with Mark Crew. We just wanted someone younger and fresher and potentially more virile to do the album with. It was our second album and we didn’t want to work with more older big time producers. We wanted someone young and funny and our age.
Mark Crew – Hatchit Management – “Has also worked on a number of productions and songs with James Arthur (the hit single ‘Empty Space’, as well as ‘At My Weakest’ plus the album tracks ‘Fall’, ‘Unconditionally’ and ‘If We Can Get Through This We Can Get Through Anything’), Katy Perry (‘Act My Age’), Tears For Fears (the single ‘I Love You But I’m Lost’), Freya Ridings (the single ‘Castles’, ‘Love Is Fire’), James Blunt (the singles ‘Unstoppable’, ‘Champions’ and ‘I Told You’) Louis Tomlinson (the single ‘Two Of Us’), MIKA’s album ‘My Name Is Michael Holbrook’, Ashnikko (“Deal With It”), Finn Askew (“Egotism”), he wrote songs for Rag’n’Bone Man’s second album (incl. “Anywhere Away From Here, ft. Pink”), and co-wrote and co-produced ‘Run Into Trouble’ by Alok x Bastille.”
How did the name Glitterbug come about for the album?
It was kind of an idea I had for a song a long time ago, and then when I realised the song was kind of about this one person, you know, it was pretty dreadful, but also very sweet and that combined with the running theme of Los Angeles and big cities, Glitterbug just came to me as kind of sparkly and enticing on the outside but would rip your soul out from the inside.
So on to the US tour coming up later this year, you’ve got quite an affiliation with LA, what’s the pull with LA for you?
I don’t know, I just like it. It offers a nice respite from London, when we would tour, I would always spend a couple of weeks in LA, I have friends there, and outside Liverpool and London it’s the place we have the most friends. And then I started a relationship out there, so I was going back and forth.
Where would you say is a good place for us to check out if we’re heading over to LA?
There’s millions of great restaurants for food. I don’t know where to start. There’s a place in Topanga Canyon, it’s not exactly where all the tourists go. But in Topanga Canyon there’s a place called the Inn Of The Seventh Ray and it’s like a restaurant and kind of a ver strange place. The foods awesome and they sell loads of weird crystals and anything your spirits may need really! It’s very odd!
Taylor Swift – The Inn of the Seventh Ray
Sounds good we’ll have to try and track it down sometime. So obviously you’re non stop touring ’til November, are you going to have any time to record any new material or will it be shows, shows, shows?
No there won’t be any new stuff until next year.
So are there any rituals you guys have when you’re on tour?
Not really, generally we talk about where we’re going to go for dinner all day, and then we go for dinner, and then afterwards we talk about the gig, and then we go to sleep. Before the gig we shake hands and give each other a cuddle. And then we just go out there. But generally most chat is about dinner and where it will be, what we’re going to have and how much it will cost, what time especially as we can’t eat too close to the gig time, and if we’re all going to go together or in pairs. It’s quite a logistical nightmare!
Why are you called the Wombats?
Me and Dan used to call each other Wombats as a derogatory term when we were in university and we didn’t have a name for our first show, and that’s what Dan put on the poster and I couldn’t believe it, we always wanted to change it, but we never did.
Well thanks for chatting to me this morning and good luck with the mammoth tour ahead!
By Hannah Shakir
@hanshak
The Wombats Australia Tour Dates:
Thu 23rd July – Metro City, Perth, WA – SOLD OUT
Monday 27th July – Horden Pavillion, Sydney, NSW – SOLD OUT
Tuesday 28th July – Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne, VIC – Selling Fast
Thursday 30th July – Adelaide Entertainment Centre, Adelaide, SA – Selling Fast
secret-sounds.com.au presents The Wombats
The Wombats – Glitterbug Buy Here on Bandcamp
[Fast fwd 2024]
The Wombats – Oh! The Ocean Buy Here
