English indie rock sweethearts Wild Beasts are well on their way to world domination, unleashing their new single Wanderlust and gearing up for the release of their fourth full-length studio album next month, Present Tense, and frontman Hayden Thorpe dropped by to tell us all about it.
Thorpe says that the making of Present Tense was quite different to the previous three Wild Beasts records, with the band taking a more structured and less spontaneous approach. “It was kind of more Darwinian – the album evolved a little, and so it was scary and kind of, at times, kind of troubling, because when you spend a long time, you have to wait for those days of epiphany.”
Hayden tells us the follow up to 2011’s highly acclaimed Smother has been veiled in more mystery than the quartet intended. “We were, like, going around Germany and France and everyone’s like, ‘What’s this mysterious album?’ and we’re like, ‘It’s called Present Tense.’ It’s just that nobody’s told anyone. But like I said, secrets in this industry are kind of an asset and it’s nice to kind of keep one to ourselves for a while.”
The band have recently toured places as varied as Moscow and Istanbul, but Thorpe is no stranger to Aussie shores – his mother is Australian and he holds an Oz passport, so a Down Under tour isn’t out of the question. “I’d love to do, like, Townsville and the full swing round but it seems to only be, like, Smokie and 1960s, 1970s bands who are still being discovered by India who can play those towns.” Be the change you want to see, Beasts.
Present Tense is out February 24, 2014 through Domino Records, and you can check out the Wanderlust video here.
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Listen: Music Feeds Podcast Episode #65 – Wild Beasts
http://youtu.be/pGd_TsuNsFI
