Trio explore the joy of six
Their music may be serious, but Charles Cave says there’s laughter behind Lies’ sixth album
THEY may not crack a smile on their publicity shots and have a song called Death but White Lies laugh – a lot.
The trio - Harry McVeigh (lead vocals, guitar), Charles Cave (bass guitar and backing vocals), and Jack LawrenceBrown (drums) have questioned mortality since their debut album To Lose My Life... went to No1 in 2009 but always with a positive spin.
Today they are back for sixth album As I Try Not To Fall Apart and a huge UK and European tour including a Glasgow date in March.
Here main songwriter Charles tells the truth.
You and Jack have known each other since school and formed a band in 2002 with Harry joining two years later. How has your relationship with the other two changed? Do you feel like brothers?
Brothers feels close maybe, yes. Our relationship hasn’t changed all that much. When we’re on tour we can be teenagers 24/7. We laugh a LOT. It’s healthy!
Can you believe you’re releasing your sixth album?
We’re very proud of it. It’s a real statement record considering where we have come as a band, and the conditions it was made under. Wild to think it’s 13 years now since To Lose My Life... I suppose we have always hoped we could keep doing this; keep writing songs. But we never thought it was a given. Quite the opposite. We know how few bands reach a decade together.
How was the pandemic for you?
I feel like it had many different chapters. I quite enjoyed the first lockdown working alone most days on songs, walking as much as was allowed, doing some work on my home.
But as things progressed I definitely struggled through some pretty dark months.
Were you always going to write an album?
I planned to take 2020 off after a very busy couple of years. But once the pandemic hit I think Harry got itchy feet and wanted to start making music – albeit separately. It would have been slack of me to not do my part.
One day I was walking home and just started humming the bassline to Roll December out of nowhere. I got home, and wrote the song in a couple of hours. There’s always a song that opens the door.
Kicking off a post-Covid album with Am I Really Going to Die is a bold move…
It should be no surprise to White Lies fans. Mortality is always a crease in my forehead. That song is inspired by a really moving film called Ivan’s XTC. And it is part one of a diptych concluded with There is No Cure for It, the final song on the album.
It’s 13 years since our song
Death, but felt very prophetic – that mix of fear and positivity was how the collective mind has felt with worry of catching Covid, but also clapping nurses or Sir Tom Moore. That was a joyous thing. It was a meme. In the best way possible. Almost unintentionally subversive. How incredible to raise so much money with just a few steps.
Clapping nurses felt a bit saccharine and conflicted at times. I can’t speak for them, but my gut tells me they’d have been fine without the claps if more people had just obeyed lockdown regulations!
But I think it was good for children home from school, and illustrated how lucky we are to have people ready to take care of us - for free!
How did you feel about the way the government treated live music?
I wasn’t surprised. Did they
really treat live music with any less care than they do most things? Look where we are at right now.
Our government had more pressing issues than our music, aside from organising Spotify playlists for illegal parties.
White Lies have always questioned fear and anxiety – is this a perfect time for your music?
Perhaps. But it offers no relief for me. I’m very jealous of artists who find work cathartic. I’m not sure it helps me, it’s simply what I feel compelled to do – some of the time! But music is made of stories. And people need stories to remind them that other people are feeling what they’re feeling.
One of the new songs is called I Don’t Want to Go to Mars. In reality would you like to go to space like these billionaires?
No way. I’m sticking right here. I can’t imagine Mars being much more than a distant Dubai.
You have a gig in Glasgow next month. Do you like playing in Scotland?
Absolutely love Scotland. I always joke about the early days of touring in a van when you basically get 15 minutes north of Newcastle and suddenly the view out the window turns beautiful after hours of grey. It’s very much on my to-do list to do a big holiday around Scotland. I had such great times as a kid on Mull. Scottish crowds are brilliant – everyone knows it. ●White Lies release new album As I Try Not To Fall Apart today. They play Glasgow SWG3 TV Studio on March 15. Tickets: www. whitelies.com/live