Their approach is the most interesting we've seen in years from any male band, to deconstruct rock. It is possible to make fun and really good music, in fact, it is possible to be able to create an album full of fantastic songs, put the struggles and attitude that young people manifest nowadays, and also have the ability to write beautiful and caring love songs.
“Why aren't people writing about paypigs?,” they certainly brought it to the table when asked about the traditional masculinity we tend to find in male bands. The album, Guitar Music, follows their recent critically acclaimed singles Loaded, Tennis and Jumper, as well as a string of festival appearances, including a sell-out performance on the Festival Republic stage at Reading and Leeds Festival, where the band threw several branded tennis balls into the audience.
While Tennis provided an early taste of this new musical evolution, Loaded (with an amazing music video directed by Thomas Harrington Rawle) and Jumper exemplify how the band is deconstructing their sonic template to playfully rebuild it while playing with new sounds, textures and compositional techniques. As for the latest single, Famous, they’re combining heavily affected guitars, electronic idiosyncrasies, anthemic choruses and sardonic lyrics about the tropes of modern life and growing up. The result is a song that portrays the band's musical direction and their focus on seeking to redefine what has come to be expected of modern guitar-based music. The whole album recreates a beautiful picture in which younger generations and their circumstances are cleverly represented by their innovative sound.
"We're writing a pop record and not trying to produce another bland indie record. I'd say it's a pop record," says Murphy-O'Neill. From Sophie to David Berman as major influences on the album, the most rock'n'roll thing you can do now is exactly that; to understand that pop music, like rock, is about attitude and emotion. Courting completely succeed in this respect; so, taking their sound, and their style to pop, they are as rock 'n' roll as you can be today. We had the chance to chat with Sean Murphy O’Neill and discussed all this, the process behind their best songs, being the answer to the current post-punk scene, and more. Enjoy!