Chilling in the name of: An interview with the frontman of The Courteeners

When you turn 30, it’s generally understood that you should probably start cutting back on the wild nights out and take life a little more seriously. For Liam Fray, frontman, guitarist and creative force behind the Courteeners however, reaching that milestone actually made him go in the opposite direction. This new-found relaxed attitude informs much of the material on his band’s fifth album, Mapping The Rendezvous, and his not-quite-midlife-crisis has yielded his most daring collection of songs to date.

“Even though there are a couple of slow moments on it,” says Fray,” the whole album is a little more light hearted compared to previous records. We’re not taking ourselves as serious this time and that’s been a big thing for us. I think it’s due to turning 30 and going, ‘Right, maybe chill out a bit more and have some fun.’ It’s weird, I’m not lying to you, I don’t think we’ve had as positive a response to one of our records, possibly ever, as we have for this one. I don’t think we even got it for our first album, St Jude. Everyone who has listened to it has only had good things to say, which means a lot.”

Regarded by the band as a “party record”, the singer once again set up camp in Paris to lay down the groundwork for the album. Thematically eclectic, it was inspired by subjects as diverse as French rioters and the death of Prince.

“Going back to Paris was basically a good excuse for a holiday,” laughs Fray. “It’s like, I could either sit at home, watch Loose Women and get fat, or I could go and live the life for six weeks in France and write songs. I loved being back there. I’d stroll around during the day, sit in a few cafés and jot down what I saw, then come back, have a few tins, a few bottles of wine and press record.

“Lots of things inspired the album. Like, we saw this riot once where people were pitching over scooters and stuff. I had a front row seat for it. It was fucking nuts man, so I used that as inspiration. Prince dying was another one. We were sat in the apartment writing and then news came through that Prince had died. I was messing about on a guitar and came up with a Prince-y sounding lick that we felt we had to stick into the pre-chorus of ‘Kitchen’. We’d have never done something like that a couple of years ago. I can’t say I was a huge Prince fan, but I won’t deny he was a genius.”

With life in Courteeners-land at an all time high thanks to huge moments like headlining Heaton Park in their home-town in front of 25,000 fans last year, does Liam feel he’s answered his critics?

“We had 25,000 people come to see us,” he replies, “So who are these ‘taste makers’ to say that these kids’ opinions don’t matter? I don’t want to sound to negative, but it’s been well reported we’ve not had as many doors opened for us as other bands have in terms of radio play or whatever. But seeing all those people at that show made us realise something’s going right. A few years ago nobody wanted to support us, but now we’re getting appreciation from our peers and that’s cool.”

In the current musical climate, it’s no secret that many mainstream indie bands initially burn bright before inevitably fizzling out. The Courteeners have bucked that trend by gradually building a fanbase and making records which stretch their sound each time out. They also grow bigger every year, despite playing a style of music that some might say is out of fashion nowadays. How does Fray feel about the band’s longevity?

“It’s strange,” he muses, “because after our second record, there was a chance we could’ve slipped away too. We had to rally ourselves as we didn’t want the band to die out. I feel extremely privileged to still be here. Making records is my dream, so it’s fucking cool to be able to do it, but to also have changed musically – whether we’ve been given credit for it or not – is something I’m very proud of.

“We knew we had an established fanbase and changing pisses people off, but you have to grow. I’m glad people came with us for the journey.”