On The Cool Side of Rock: The Sherlocks Talk 'People Like Me & You'
Thursday, 03 August 2023
Written by Simon Ramsay
Refusing to kick back and rest on their laurels, The Sherlocks have truly hit their stride over the past couple of years. Blasting back in double-quick time following 2022’s top 10-crashing ‘World I Understand,’ the band’s anthemic fourth record ‘People Like Me & You’ is the work of a collective primed for the big time.
Determined to forge a career that was, to quote Tom Petty, built to last, when they first emerged from Bolton upon Dearne in 2010 brothers Kiaran (vocals and guitar) and Brandon Crook (drums) knew exactly how to shape the band’s career to ensure they wouldn’t become another flash in the pan.
Instead of rush-releasing music before developing into the kind of well-toned act that would stand out from the crowd, they toured their backsides off, honing their craft and building an ardent fan base in the process. Validating such a strategy, their debut album ‘Chasing Shadows’ eventually arrived in 2017 and hit number six on the UK album chart thanks to its accomplished blend of high octane fervour and pop savvy.
After two founding members jumped ship prior to recording ‘World I Understand’, they simply shrugged it off and returned stronger than ever with new recruits (guitarist Alex Proctor alongside bassist Trent Jackson) and a record Kiaran described as their most complete work to date. Until now.
Shepherded by producer Al Groves (Bring Me The Horizon), ‘People Like Me & You’ trades in hook-laden bangers that, without sacrificing their guitar driven intensity, find Kiaran’s stories of everyday life playing out over radiant new textures. We caught up with the singer to hear about the surprisingly chaotic creative process behind their latest record and squeezing in recording sessions between the band’s many gigs, while also learning what new releases they may or may not have lined up for next year and why, at least for now, they won’t be indulging their inner Slipknot.
Releasing two albums in a year is wonderfully old school and typifies your work ethic. You come from a small ex-miners' village and those locales, built on blue collar industries, are known for producing real grafters. Is that something the area and people instilled into you?
It probably is. Since the band started we’ve always worked hard and when you’re basically a DIY band, not signed to a massive label, you’ve got to make it work for yourself because there’s no one else pushing it for you. So this time around we were like, ‘Let’s get straight in and get another record done, no matter what songs they are, whatever songs we’ve got.’ We didn’t have any songs and then I just began looking at all the ones I’d started and realised we have got quite a few tunes here. They might not be finished but I’ve got at least 20 ideas I can whittle down and make into good songs. And then I played them to the boys and it were obvious which we should focus on and make the album. It’s a gamble a lot of the time, but you’ve just got to trust the process and trust that you’ll all step your game up.
You’ve said you went with your gut every single time when it came to making decisions about the structures, lyrics and sounds employed on the record. Are there any examples you can give of that instinctive approach in action?
Sirens, straight away. It were like the blueprint to the album. There’s always one that you get more excited about than the others and we couldn’t wait to record that. Working with Al, he came down to our Liverpool show and I played him the demo of Sirens in the dressing room. His manager had sent him a bunch of our demos but when I played him that he were like, ‘What’s that? Why didn’t you send me that one?’ So that really sparked it. You could tell he were super excited to start working with us. So when we got in the studio we were all absolutely buzzing.
It were all just feel though. We just went with us gut and, lyric wise, Sirens were one of the last to finish too. I remember being in the studio, not over thinking it, just sitting and singing what sounded right as opposed to ‘What’s this song about?’ and ‘Let’s make a serious story.’ It didn’t matter if I was singing random lines as long as it sounded good. It’s nice to tie stuff together so you’re not just singing absolute nonsense, but it is a good way of working.
You’ve described Sirens as your heaviest song and it certainly sounds like the kind of complete ripper that must blow the roof, doors and anything that isn’t fastened down, off most venues. Might you explore that style more in future?
It does. We stepped into a direction we have gone in before, but never that far. It is heavy but, when you’ve heard it a couple of times, it doesn’t feel that heavy. We could go a lot heavier if we wanted to. But we’re just taking baby steps. We don’t want to end up like Slipknot on the next album. We enjoy listening to straight up rock music as well. It’s just finding the balance. Working with Al, we wanted to stay on the cool side of rock and not overdo it. So if we’re making certain things heavier, let’s make sure we’re stepping in the right direction.
At one point we did make it super heavy and had to rein it back a little because it started making us laugh. It sounded a bit like a joke and it’s surprising how quick that can turn. It can be a drum beat, you can just change a slight thing…the aim is to get it on the edge where you’re thinking ‘I don’t really want to go much further.’ If you’re in that danger zone you’re probably in a great spot, but if you’re sat comfortably thinking, ‘This is bang on’, you’ve probably played it too safe.
You said you tried things on this record you would never have dreamt of a couple of albums ago. What made you more open to doing that and what songs best exemplify the twists you’ve thrown in?
The reason is just experience. Once you get past the point where you know you can write a song and you’ve done it a few times, it can become boring doing it the same. So it’s having fun and trying to make the most of the studio. Trying different things, trying different instruments, trying different ideas, different ways of working tunes out. We know what we want a lot of the time, but sometimes it’s good to relax and listen to what somebody else thinks. On the first few albums we weren’t really like that. We wanted to do it our way all the time. We do it our way but are more open to ideas and that’s ultimately what makes you come away with a different album.
We’re always gonna sound the way we do because I’m singing and Brandon’s playing drums, but I’ve found the people we work with are the last piece of the jigsaw to come away with a different album. Our third album were with Dave Eringa and it felt like a big rock album because that’s kind of his thing. This album, we flipped that on its head. Obviously Al’s a bit younger, no disrespect to Dave, and into more programmed stuff. There’s quite a bit of that on the album which you might not notice until maybe the third time listening to a certain tune. Examples? Going Nowhere. There’s a lot of good stuff in there. Big synths. Remember All The Girls, at the end there’s some sounds we maybe wouldn’t have put in before, and might have felt it were a bit pointless, but there’s a mad sweeping Basement Jaxx synth thing.
Louder Than Words sounds quite interesting, too.
Good shout. I think that’s going to be the dark horse on the album. The actual song itself, and the riff with trumpets — there you go, trumpets — we wanted to put them on. We never would have put stuff like that on before. The riff were crying out for it. Obviously you want to get played on radio but you can’t let it rule the actual song or you’ll just come away with 10 three minute songs all the time. Like, three minute radio edits. So we just wanted to record that tune as it were. You trim the fat a little but always double check it is actually fat and not just cutting it for radio. So there’s a couple of songs that are a bit longer but we just kept absolutely everything we thought were good.
How did you set about integrating those new layers and textures into your music without sacrificing The Sherlocks’ trademark high energy guitar aesthetic? Was it easy to get the balance right between the fresh and familiar?
No, I don’t think it were easy. We were up for the ideas, we all wanted them in there, it were just how could we navigate them in so that, one, it doesn’t sound stupid and, two, it doesn’t sound like we’d just covered it in them. So we were just questioning those things and, also, not doing it for every track either. It came down to whatever the song demanded and some demanded that stuff. We’ll always be known for being a guitar band, that’s our thing. So when it came to programmed stuff we were more cautious, feeding it in super quiet, seeing if we could almost hide it. Get it to that sort of spot where you’re almost not hearing it but, once you’ve got all the tracks lined up and you take it away, you notice it’s dropped. That’s where we tried to position it. We didn’t want it in your face. Louder than Words is a good example of that too. Especially in the chorus. You can’t hear it in the finished track but I guarantee if you mute the chorus it won’t feel as big.
You’re on a roll right now, so can we expect another new album in 2024?
There will definitely be something coming out next year. I’ve been working on some acoustic tunes of ours. Not recording them as they are, but flipping them round and changing them up a little bit. You can probably expect that next year and, if it’s not that, it might be a live album. And in the meantime, pretty soon actually, we’re gonna start cracking on with recording album five. There’s plenty of tunes knocking around.
The Sherlocks Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Sun August 06 2023 - LEEDS Vinyl Whistle
Thu October 05 2023 - BRISTOL O2 Academy Bristol
Fri October 06 2023 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Institute
Sat October 07 2023 - NORWICH Waterfront
Thu October 12 2023 - GLASGOW St Luke's
Fri October 13 2023 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Newcastle University
Sat October 14 2023 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Thu October 19 2023 - LONDON Islington Assembly Hall
Fri October 20 2023 - SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms
Sat October 21 2023 - BRIGHTON Concorde 2
Thu October 26 2023 - LIVERPOOL O2 Academy Liverpool
Fri October 27 2023 - MANCHESTER Manchester Academy
Sat November 04 2023 - SHEFFIELD O2 Academy Sheffield
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