“I hope I end up like Elton.”
Your former band was named after John Cooper Clarke’s PostWar Glamour Girl – how much of an influence is he?
“My dad gave me his records, the CDs of Snap Crackle And Bop and Disguise In Love, and I connected with them a lot, the humour and the flow of it. I always loved Ian Dury’s lyrics, too, and then stuff like MF Doom, Wu-Tang Clan and Eminem. Courtney Barnett was quite a big one: when she came out, I was trying to do that style of writing and her breaking through really encouraged that. She’s a really good lyricist. And I guess when I was younger, Alex Turner and Jarvis Cocker. When you can relate to it, and you realise that you can say those things and you can find some interest in using quite blunt language – that’s quite exciting.”
There’s a lot of empathy in a song like Tall Poppies – how does that fit with the rage elsewhere?
“There are a few times when I quite overtly stick the boot into people I don’t agree with and I’m not particularly proud of that. Overall, I want to show empathy for people, and I want to observe. I don’t want to tell people that I’m right and they’re wrong. Tall Poppies draws on my youth, reflecting on one way I could have gone if I hadn’t left the village [Lymm, Cheshire]. That stuff kind of shapes you and I don’t think you realise that unless you’re forced to – or you decide to write a really long song about it.”
Is Payday’s line about “growing your own lettuces in the potholes on the road” a dig at gentrification?
“The gentrification of growing vegetables. Like, pottery is now the definition of being middle-class, but people just used to be potters. They had to make their own cups. It wasn’t a status symbol. And it’s the same with growing things in your garden. Cultivating vegetables when we’re going to end up with all these food shortages, it’s a skill that they should be teaching at school. Instead, it’s left to the suburban gardeners. Survival things are subverted and turned into hobbies.”
The Overload often feels overlapping conversations – do you collect other people’s words?
“I am a note-taker and I do get a lot out of talking to people. I had to take my car to be scrapped the other week and the man at the scrapyard was just something else. He was just a full-pelt conspiracy theorist. He shouted out “I’m Indiana bastard Jones” at one point – I don’t know what he meant. There was just gold coming out of his mouth. It’s just really nice to see what angle everyone comes at the world from. I take notes on my phone now; I used to write things down on paper but my pockets weren’t big enough.”
How do you feel about Elton John declaring himself a Yard Act fan?
“I love Elton John. It just blew my mind. I’d love to write some lyrics and see if he’d let Bernie have a week off or something. I can’t really explain how I’ve come to be in Elton John’s orbit. He seems like a good guy. He still loves new music and that’s ace. I hope I end up like Elton.”
James Smith speaks to Victoria Segal.