But your aesthetic is something that, to me, feels more derived from bands like Motörhead or the Clash than anything in punk over the last decade or so. The type of songs that you write, the way you feel about it, that it’s rock and roll, it’s not specifically this, it’s not specifically that.
I read a piece where New Found Glory, the big pop punk band from the States, they were reviewing our single for a magazine, and they described us like Motörhead-style. I totally see it. Our songs are pretty full on. Like a classic Motörhead track, ‘Ace Of Spades,’ it’s just a smash in the face, and when that came out, it was probably the heaviest thing around. We totally believe in that. We don’t adhere to playing straight-up punk rock, it’s all just a mixture of rock and roll and hard-hitting music in general.
At the same time, bands like that usually don’t care about putting together a coherent film to go along with their music. That’s a little different. It’s kind of a concept album. You’re not writing Tommy, but that’s the kind of idea where you have a whole film going along with the music. That’s a completely different idea that never really entered the minds of bands like The Clash.
When we did the album, as it was coming together and as we were introducing all the different musical parts, we’d write these segueways which would lead into tracks. Instrumental parts with strings and piano. The whole album felt very dramatic. And because the whole album is on the same subject, it is pretty much a concept record.
For us, to do a video, it’s just holding onto the idea of Grey Britain. We could have done a video and said, ‘Oh, well this video is going to be in a skate park and we’re going to have hot girls dancing around the skaters.’ That would fall out of place and it would ruin the whole imagery of the album. For us, it’s not a piece of music, it’s a work of art as well, visually, lyrics, everything. To us, it’s art, and it’s something we’ve really enjoyed creating, and we nearly killed each other making the album because it was such an intense record to make. We were pulling our hair out making sure everything worked the way we wanted it to.
