Life’s a beach for Libertine hoteliers Barât and Doherty
new-found homes in France, Denmark, Margate and London, to The Albion Rooms – the hotel-cum-recording studio run by Doherty and Barât in Margate, with Grammynominated producer Dimitri Tikovoï (The Horrors/Charli XCX/Becky Hill), for four weeks of recording in February and March last year.
The end product, eleven new Libertines songs with writing credits shared among the four band members, saw, according to Doherty, the foursome “really came together as a band. It was a moment of rare peace and unity, with all the members contributing.”
For Barât, the whole Libertines journey has been leading to this moment. “Our first record (2002’s Up The Bracket) was born out of panic, and disbelief that we were actually allowed to be in a studio.
“The (self-titled) second was born of total strife and misery; the third (Anthems For Doomed Youth was born of complexity)... this one feels like we were all actually in the same place, at the same speed, and we really connected.”
Doherty adds: “We’re over the moon, and the ball is in the back of the net… and I’m chuffed for the lads!”
He adds, more seriously, “I feel like we’ve completed a cycle of some kind as a band, and finally now we can add these songs to the set list, because we’ve got some bangers in there. Now we’ve opened the hotel and used the studio ourselves and it’s all worked out – more Libertines records? I should hope so!”