Scouting For Girls FAULT Magazine Cover and Interview
Scouting For Girls X FAULT Magazine
Today we have the pleasure of sitting down with Scouting For Girls as they celebrate the release of their new album, ‘The Place We Used To Meet.’ With a new tour on the way (and selling out quickly!) we caught up with Scouting For Girls to discuss their music, journey and their FAULTs.
“Glow” seems to be a song filled with both nostalgia and joy. Can you share the inspiration behind this track and how it sets the tone for your upcoming album?
I think Glow is one of the best songs I’ve written since This Aint A Love Song. It’s a big indie pop ballad. A love song about a long term relationship. It was written for my wife and is about Tokyo – the place we met 15 years ago and the place I asked her to marry me.
‘The Place We Used To Meet’ marks your return with a new album. What can fans expect in terms of the overall sound and themes explored on this record?
It’s our first original album in four years so we had a huge collection of songs to chose from. The first half of the record (I still think in terms of Side A and B of a cassette or vinyl!) is the best 6 songs we could find. Glow is the best song we’ve written in ten years. ‘The Missing Part’ is the best pop song. “The Place We Used to Meet’ is the saddest song we’ve ever written. ‘the Lukiest Boy in the World’ is the most ‘Scouting’ song.
The second half of the record is lyrically much more personal, addressing what’s been going on in our lives, something we haven’t really ever done before.
The album has been described as having a continuous suite of music. Could you elaborate on how the songs are interconnected and what this means for the album’s narrative?
The six songs on the second side of the album work individually but also flow musically into each other from start to finish if you play the album in full. The last song ends with the most beautiful string arrangement and goes back into ‘Glow’ at the beginning. I wanted to give people a reason to listen to the album from start to finish in the way it was intended. Was actually a lot more work than I imagined!!
You’ve experienced great success, when releasing new music, do you ever feel pressured to exceed your previous acclaim?
It seems that the lower our expectations are the greater the success we get. At the start of 2007 we were unsigned and never expected we’d get a record deal, let along be one of tehbiggest bands in the UK 18 months later. In 2010 This Aint a Love Song was supposed to be a set up single for the second album but then went to Number 1. The big single from that album was supposed to be Famous and it only scraped into the top 40 for a week before disappearing. I don’t think anybody thought our debut album would sell a million records but everybody told us our second album would (it didnt!)
Success in music is a combination of timing, talent, luck and huge amounts of hardwork. The only thing you can really control is the hard work. So you just have to make sure you only create music that you truly love and believe in and then work your balls off.
What would you say was the most challenging aspect of your successes in the music industry?
The sheer amount of music that comes out every day (something like 100,000+ tracks) plus the fact that everyone has access to the entire history of recorded music on their smartphones makes it so difficult to stand out.
I probably spend more time marketing our music through social media than I do actually making it!
The tour dates for the new album are selling out fast. What memorable moments from your live shows do you think about most often?
We are busier live than at any time in our career. This is our biggest tour since we started and it’s going to be completely sold out before the new album has even been released! Our audience seems to still be growing. We’ve done over 1000 live shows so there are too many highlights – generally you only remember the disastrous moments like when someone forgot to turn the monitors on when we played Wembley Stadium or when I forgot the words to London Calling when we played at Buckingham Palace in front of a global TV audience of 200m or when I split my trousers in front of 20,000 people in an arena… that list goes on and on…
As a band, what keeps you inspired and motivated to create music after all these years in the industry
Our drummer Pete would probably say his mortgage.
I honestly believe that we are making the best music we have ever made and that the best is yet to come. I definitely know we are better live today than at anytime in our history. And I also know that I’m enjoying being in this band more than ever!
Plus I have a big mortgage
‘The Place We Used To Meet’ set for release, what do you hope your fans take away from this album?
Tickets for the remaining unsold tour dates!
If they think it’s half as good as I do they will think its the best record we’ve made.
What is your FAULT?
Pretty much anything that goes wrong onstage is usually my fault (although I’m brilliant at making it look like someone else is to blame.)