'Hate Is A Really Rich Well To Draw From': Lice Talk 'It All Worked Out Great'

“Support us? We’re gonna be supporting you, mate. You come to this city you’re gonna learn the meaning of support.”

That’s what Joe Talbot told Alastair Shuttleworth when they first met in Bristol three years ago. Shuttleworth, an English student moonlighting as a music writer, had interviewed the Idles frontman earlier in the evening and now, with a few beers in his belly at an afterparty, was asking whether his band, Lice, could open one of their shows.

At that point, Shuttleworth, guitarist Silas Dilkes, bassist Gareth Johnson and drummer Bruce Bardsley had played two gigs in total, one of them in a friend’s kitchen. Wind the tape on to the present day, and Talbot’s Balley Records is about to put out Lice’s early days collection ‘It All Worked Out Great’; the first release by the label besides Idles' own 'Brutalism' LP.

“It’s all the control of a self release but with all the professionalism,” Shuttleworth says. “Us signing to Balley is the culmination of two years of friendship with Joe and Mark [Bent - manager of both Lice and Idles] and being brought under Idles’ wing. The way that they have supported us is emblematic of the support that we’ve gotten from the Bristol community in a wider sense.”

‘It All Worked Out Great’ will stack up as two EPs and an LP, featuring tracks dating back to their 2016 ‘Nutmilk’ demos that have been gathering dust while the band finished their respective degrees. That dust has been well and truly blown away by Velcro Hooks guitarist Dom Mitchison, who has returned as producer to re-record the songs after also helming things the first time around. “When it came to getting a live punk band on record he was just a seasoned pro because, basically, that was what he’d been doing with Velcro Hooks for four years,” Shuttleworth says. “He knew exactly what to do.”

Mitchison also had a few unconventional tricks up his sleeve, including creating a lightless fort for Shuttleworth to record his vocals in and designing a vocal contraption from a guitar pick up and soup can. On another occasion, he got Johnson to slap Shuttleworth moments before a take of Gentlemen’s Magazine to prevent him from overthinking it. It worked.

The re-recording process also caused Lice to reflect and think about how they are going to progress. When they started out, they took direction from Dilkes, who lured them away from generic indie and metal and towards experimental art rock and punk. They were introduced to bands like Country Teasers, the Birthday Party and the Fall, but over time Shuttleworth has developed his own tastes. He mentions the “batshit” Bristol band the Naturals more than once, while Sheffield’s Blood Sport also get a namecheck.

Another major influence, not surprisingly, is his English degree. It has played an important role in his songwriting process. “I end up working out how I want the songs to go rhythmically with what I’m doing and so mark it down, dots and dashes,” he explains. “I did a course in poetry at uni in second year and they showed you how to mark out syllables in meter. So I do that. ‘I want that to have seven syllables’ or ‘I want that to have five syllables’. It’s crazy how much that frees you up.”

There are other elements, too. Stammering Bill, which tells three tragic tales of neuroses, takes inspiration from Flann O’Brien’s book At Swim-Two-Birds. Human Parasite and The Pervert Endeavour, meanwhile, are both essays, and Gentlemen’s Magazine is a dramatic monologue followed by a letter. “I wanted to have really compressed short stories,” Shuttleworth says. “Just have no flab, direct A to B linear narratives. That is something I think lyrics now and historically have always been very sadly deficient in.”

Shuttleworth also admits that his fascination with hate is something that shapes the subject matter of his songs. “The lyrical ideas come from my interest in hatred and the avenues that opens up for humour and satire characters,” he says. “The way that I do them stems from my interest and valuing of certain forms of prose writing and my disdain for the way most lyrics are done in poetic and abstract ways.”

‘It All Worked Out Great’ is a melting pot of influences, and the frontman is also keen to divulge how the band reconciled that with its artwork. Finding it difficult to marry the competing elements, they opted to give a familiar outside voice (almost) free rein. Continuing to keep things Bristol-focused, they called on Howling Owl Records co-founder and Spectres guitarist Adrian Dutt, who had previously created artwork for Lice, and entrusted everything to him, with just some small directions: no blood, dicks, or any “Fluffer Pit Party stuff”.

The cover of the ‘Volume 2’ EP shows the horse from the ‘Volume 1’ sleeve dead on floor of Malthouse Studio, where the tracks were re-recorded. Dutt’s work is “destroyed and dismantled” alongside photographs from Simon Holliday. Shuttleworth explains that this is what their new release is all about, namely “finishing off and moving on from these old tunes”. On this occasion, it appears art imitates life.

‘It All Worked Out Great’ Vol. 1 is out now. Lice open for Idles on their UK tour.

Idles Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Sun April 08 2018 - BATH Komedia
Mon April 09 2018 - PLYMOUTH Hub
Wed April 11 2018 - SOUTHEND Chinnerys
Thu April 12 2018 - RAMSGATE Music Hall
Fri April 13 2018 - MILTON KEYNES Craufurd Arms
Sat April 14 2018 - COVENTRY Central Library
Sun April 15 2018 - BLACKPOOL Bootleg Social
Tue April 17 2018 - GLASGOW G2
Wed April 18 2018 - MANCHESTER Manchester Gorilla
Thu April 19 2018 - LONDON Heaven
Wed June 13 2018 - ABERDEEN Tunnels

Click here to compare & buy Idles Tickets at Stereoboard.com.

You May Also Like:

Never Bored: Ugly-Pop Band Skating Polly Discuss Life On Tour

Mon 10 Sep 2018

Wanderlust is a word usually associated with gap years and middle aged people who want a fancy way of saying they’re bored with the life they’ve made for themselves.

Grin Through The Dark Stuff: The Dirty Nil Return With The Mighty 'Master Volume'

Tue 11 Sep 2018

Towards the end of Pain of Infinity, one of the singles from the Dirty Nil’s new record ‘Master Volume’, Luke Bentham drawls “and another thing, baby...” before ripping a guitar solo. He gets back to the microphone in time to yell: “I never loved you and I hate your friends.” The frontman is inconsiderately handsome, and has been known to play a Gibson Les Paul mid-knee slide while chewing bubblegum and wearing a star-spangled denim cowboy shirt.

Light, Love and Lineage: Amy Helm Keeps Her Family's Fire Burning

Thu 27 Sep 2018

Photo: Ebru Yildiz To some people music is much more than just a form of entertainment or artistic expression. On her latest solo album ‘This Too Shall Light’ Amy Helm, daughter of the Band’s legendary singing drummer Levon Helm and singer-songwriter Libby Titus, has not only crafted a beautiful collection of gospel-infused Americana gems, but also a record with a rich sense of heritage dripping from every note.

New Faces, New Sound: How Federal Charm Moved Forwards on 'Passenger'

Tue 18 Sep 2018

Imagine being in a rock ‘n’ roll band with two albums under your belt and a fistful of big-name support slots in the bank. Imagine you spent the best part of a decade building a fanbase. Then, just as you’re preparing to make that all important third album, imagine waving goodbye to half the group. Do you wallow in self-pity? Wave the white flag and call it quits? Or recruit two new members and bounce back with your strongest album to date.

Making A Big Noise Is Fun: Inside The Weird And Wonderful World Of HMS Morris

Wed 26 Sep 2018

Let’s start with some advice from Heledd Watkins and Sam Roberts, who are the backbone of the Welsh-speaking, genre-melding psych-pop band HMS Morris: “Expect the unexpected.”

Stop Standing Still: The Goon Sax Evolve On The Rich, Ambitious 'We're Not Talking'

Mon 17 Sep 2018

Photo: Ben O'Connor Louis Forster keeps forgetting something. He’s at his band’s rehearsal room picking up some gear. They’re going on tour; landing in London and moving on to an opening night in Glasgow after the long trip over from Brisbane. They’re pretty much good to go.

Poetry Versus Precision: Estrons Talk 'You Say I'm Too Much, I Say You're Not Enough'

Fri 05 Oct 2018

Photo: Imogen Forte When Estrons vocalist Tali Källström played a test pressing of the band’s debut album to a friend, their response was easy to remember. “It sounds like you’ve dipped in and had sex with every genre,” they said. Well, they’re not wrong.

Attan - End Of (Album Review)

Wed 19 Sep 2018

Attan released their debut EP, ‘From Nothing’, three years ago. There wasn’t a whole lot of fanfare, just positive rumblings and a few ‘ones to watch’ recommendations. Anyone who saw the band during that period got it, though. The Norwegians’ sludge-tinged, blackened hardcore was radicalised in the live arena as vocalist Remi Semshaug Langseth went walkabout during the cathartic seven minute epic Edward. He screamed in faces, slapped his heart onto his sleeve and then carved it open for all to see.