Tax The Heat
After “the boldest and brashest debut” of 2016, the sharp-dressed men suit up for their second album of rhythm and blues-infused rock’n’roll.
The sharp-suited West Country rockers return with more classy, hard-hitting rock’n’roll.
If there had been a competition at this year’s Download Festival for the event’s sharpest dressed men, West Country blues rockers Tax The Heat would have strolled off with the title. Clad in tailored threads, with immaculately sculpted hair and the finest of leather shoes, the band stood out like Savile Row regulars in a field full of bedraggled rockers. After opening the Second Stage in 2014 with barely an EP under their belt, they returned this year a much more experienced band, and are now preparing to release their second album.
Second albums are supposed to be difficult, but after the reception their first, Fed To The Lions, received, Tax The Heat aren’t fazed by the prospect of following up a record we described as “arguably the boldest and brashest debut” of 2016. For that follow-up, they headed back to The Chairworks studio in Castleford, and producer Chris Goss (Masters Of Reality frontman, Queens Of The Stone Age producer, desert-rock legend) was once again in the driving seat. If it ain’t broke…
“Chris was a massive part of the first album,” says frontman Alex Veale, “and it made sense for him to be a big part of this one as well. It feels like a complete unit in the studio when we have him around. It all flows naturally.”
“It’s much more cohesive than the first album,” he adds. “Your first album is taken from years of being in a band, so it’s all your best bits and your strongest songs. But you’ve got a short amount of time to write a second album, so it’s more about a snapshot in time. It’s about where you are at that moment, and I think it’s caught us at a really good point.”
“I definitely felt the pressure,” says guitarist JP Jacyshyn. “But it’s good pressure. It helps your creativity. You’ve got to do it.”
Who knows where this album might take them. Royal Blood can’t be the only band to ‘do a Royal Blood’. And for all the spectacular noise about the Brighton duo’s spectacular noise, Tax The Heat’s own brand of explosive R&B is less reliant on effects pedals and more inclined to strap a giant chorus on to one of those thundering riffs.
The band are clearly having fun. They joke about releasing a cauliflower-themed concept album, about learning to drink, about riding the chilli highs from the studio’s jerk chicken dinners, and about a bizarre night out at a local karaoke-cum-pubquiz night, where a father and son duo sang Elton John songs to each other. They also talk with pride about the album they’ve just made, about how good it sounds, and about the thing that happens when four young men in a band spend a lot of time together and the alchemy that ensues.
“Everything we want to do is about that classic tradition of rock’n’roll,” says Veale. “The album is the sum of us. We’ve found out who we are.”
“THE ALBUM IS THE SUM OF US. WE’VE FOUND OUT WHO WE ARE.” ALEX VEALE