Scottish pop punks Woes have just finished up a European tour with Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, and now they’re back in the UK for a new EP and loads of dates of their own. Singer DJ interrupts planning the band’s next video to introduce his band.
Hey DJ, how did Woes get together, then?
We had all played in bands before Woes that had gone nowhere, in spite of us putting in a lot of time and energy. We had always prided ourselves on writing really weird, technical songs that were kind of challenging to listen to, but maybe not in a good way!
So anyway, we started jamming with the intention of writing really, structurally good songs – not super-poppy or anything, but we wanted to focus in on the details, like when things come in and out, when the chorus comes in to create the biggest drop. Once we started doing that we became inspired to take that same approach to everything – social media, playing live, branding etc. and before we knew it we were just kind of like, ‘This is a whole new project, and it’s the best thing we’ve ever done’. So we started a new band, called it Woes, and here we are now!
Can you remember what your first few songs were like? How has your songwriting developed since your early efforts?
Yeah! Our first song was called ‘Tight AF’; it’s the first song on our debut EP. In fact, our first two or three songs are all on that EP; we don’t throw away songs often.
I think originally the way we wrote songs was like, ‘Okay, here’s a cool riff, let’s do a verse, chorus etc.’ These days we’re looking to create sections of music that immediately make you feel something. I think that’s important, using distinctive sounds to create a feeling, then using the lyrics and melodies to drive that feeling home.
Also when we first started writing for Woes there was no expectation, we just did whatever sounded right in the studio at the time. But for the last six months, we’ve been playing these huge rooms, sometimes to thousands of people and we’re really into writing songs that sound great live, that will get people on their feet, jumping up and down. And I think that’s one of the most challenging things you can do with music, make complete strangers lose their shit and start dancing.
You’ve said the songs on your new EP are “about trying to understand yourself better” – did writing it help you understand yourself better?
Yeah, definitely, to an extent. One of the things I always try to do when I’m writing a song is to have my say, and then try to look at it from the other point of view. How does the person I’m singing to see me in this situation… how do my friends and family see me? Am I doing all the right things? Am I being selfish? Could I have done something better? All that kind of stuff. And in a lot of cases, I’m writing about situations where I think I’m 100% dead right, and by the time I’ve finished the song, I feel completely guilty about how I mishandled a situation.
How did you approach curating the EP’s track listing?
I could make up an answer here, but I’m not going to lie. For various reasons, this was an extremely stressful record to make. We changed labels halfway through; there were a lot of deadlines. We recorded big chunks of it ourselves, which took longer than expected. So when it was done, we were just psyched that it was ready. I don’t even know who decided the track listing now I think about it! It’s definitely the best record I’ve ever made, by quite some distance, and I think the songs on there are all great representations of us. The first EP was five songs in the same style, really cohesive, whereas these are five really different songs. I think we show a huge amount of range on this one, which is great. I think people will be surprised.
It sounds like you’ve got a lot on this year – how was your tour with Frank Carter?
Yeah, it was amazing, but an eye-opener at the same time. The shows were great; every show was sold out. Rattlesnakes, Demob Happy and the crew were all lovely. Frank is such a consummate performer and a really, really sweet dude. I learned a lot from watching him every night. We bought our own van to go on this tour, and it was just the five of us. Managing ourselves, doing our merch, setting up the stage, all that stuff. Which is great, I love the DIY aspect of it, but it’s hard going, especially when you’re driving like eight hours every day to get to the next show. Also, a lot of the audience had never heard of us, and they were mostly hard rock/metal fans. We had to do a lot of work every night to get people on side… We succeeded, we had people clapping and jumping up and down every night, which is awesome for an opening band.
Are you excited about festival season? You guys are at both Slam Dunk and Download, right?
Yeah, we’re still actually waiting to hear about a few more festivals, so it could get even busier! We’re dead excited; this is our first festival season, we had never played outside until very recently! But yeah, the shows are going to be great, we’re looking forward to hopefully playing to some huge crowds and just bringing our absolute A game. You work hard and practice for ages to get these opportunities, and we’re looking forward to surprising people once we get there.
Do you all have to juggle band commitments with real life jobs and stuff? How do you make it work?
Yeah, it’s really, really hard. I think some bands get away with it because they’re maybe 20-21, living with parents or whatever. We’re all a little older; we have quite serious jobs that we need to stay at for the time being. But we’re lucky that our partners, friends and bosses are all supportive. We’re all super hard working people so we’ve worked hard to put ourselves into positions where we can take extra time off to go on tour and stuff. And it’s just a case of keeping that work-rate extremely high. If you come to a Woes show, and it’s the last night of a tour, you can probably guarantee that I’ll be back at my desk at 9am the next morning. The last show of the tour with Frank Carter was in Amsterdam, as soon as the show finished, we drove 20 hours in a row to get back to Edinburgh and were in work the next morning after that.
What else have you got coming up?
We’re writing our debut album just now! It’s going great so far; it’s getting very weird, very experimental, a lot of different influences and sounds in the mix, which is great. That’s the kind of album I’ve always wanted to make. I suppose that goes back to what we were talking about earlier; I want to make an album that’s interesting, challenging, doesn’t stick to a genre but is made up of structurally great songs that people can resonate with. No pressure! Asides from that, we’ve got a couple of great tours lined up, loads of festival dates. This year has been the absolute best of my life, so just trying to work hard to keep that going as long as possible!
