Hot Press meets Everything Everything

As a wise Partridge once warned, “Go to London – I guarantee you’ll either be mugged or not appreciated.” Everything Everything do not hail from that fictional Alan’s home of Norwich, or even Steve Coogan’s Manchester (they arrived there from places like Kent and Guernsey). They do, however, have a healthy regional mistrust of the music scene in the Big British Smoke and are aware of its fickle nature and dangers.

“We’re kinda spread out now,” notes singer Jonathan Higgs. “Alex [Robertshaw] does live in London. But we decided not to go there as a band. We’ve always called ourselves a Manchester band and that’s been important.”
The quartet view that decision as one reason why they’ve ridden – and survived – the waves of hype that could bring a band crashing down on the rocks of anonymity a mere album into their career. Another comes from outspoken bassist Jeremy Pritchard: “We were helped by the fact that we’re not particularly cool and we don’t particularly look great.”
It should be pointed out that Pritchard has developed a fetching quiff in the time between albums, which he proudly displays on the cover of the terrific Arc. So he may be protesting too much.
Mostly, they’re sick of “accelerated cultural tides”, “over-saturation” and “hype”. They’re tired of the ‘rock music is dead’ tosh that gets thrown at them.
“We’re not going to save anyone from boring rock,” Higgs breaks it to us, less than gently. “Boring rock will live forever. But... so will bands like us.”
As for their own press, Pritchard professes to no longer reading it. He should, some of it is extremely well-written. Ahem.
“It sends me mentally ill. I wish my mam and dad would leave it alone as well. I religiously collected everything we did on the first record, thinking, ‘Oh, I’ll put it in a shoebox and I’ll look at it with my grandchildren when I’m old.’ I can’t be bothered with that anymore.”
Higgs smiles: “It will be implanted in their heads or something by then anyway.”
It’s a throwaway line in keeping with the image of the band as pessimistic souls. Technophiles or technophobes depending on the minute; equally reviled and fascinated by where we’re headed as a species.
“I think that’s been misinterpreted a little bit,” counters Higgs. “Particularly the “we’re all fucked!” thing. I don’t know where that fucking quote came from – the NME love to use it again and again! I don’t think any of us ever said it. It depends what kind of scale you’re looking at. There’s definitely a finite lifespan of everyone and everything. If you speak in huge terms then yeah... you can’t help but be quite pessimistic.”
It does inform a lot of the writing on Arc.
“Yes,” he concedes, defeated by my exceptional line of enquiry. “But I’m surrounded by things that are quite fatalistic anyway. In my personal life. We’re living in a recession. It’s quite a downer view I have. So projecting that onto the future is inevitable.”
If there’s anything making them uncomfortable, it’s their inevitable transition to ‘big band’ status. Arc pulled it off with aplomb, toning down the excessively clever-clever, awkwardly quirky parts of Man Alive. As Michael Stipe once sang, “this fame thing, I don’t get it”. Though not as insightful as Alan Partridge, it is relevant. Everything Everything are the first to admit they don’t have a handle on their own ascent as yet.
“People we see at our gigs today?” starts Higgs. “We don’t know really if it’s their first one or their tenth. Or what they’re expecting. They might think it’s amazing that we can sing and play like we do. And yet, other people might be thinking, ‘Uh, they’re so much shitter now’ – I don’t know!”
“I think if I was one of those holier-than-thou, ultra-early indie fans,” says Pritchard, “I’d probably think that we’ve ironed ourselves out a bit. I can understand why. It’s also important to remember that almost nobody cares. We care more than anyone
else does.”
“Take Arcade Fire,” says sticksman Michael Spearman. “A lot of people say they’re arseholes but with a lot of the bands that get that balancing act right, they’re... not neurotic, but very tight on details.”
Like all good songs, we should really end with the drummer. The bassist is a fan of the last word, however...
“Control freaks,” he summarises. “They just look after every aspect of their own affairs. We do that and it sends us mental but.. I don’t think we’d feel safe if we didn’t.”
Just call them the neurotic, quite wonderful, Self Preservation Society.

Everything Everything play Forbidden Fruit on the Sunday. Arc is out now.