With the release of their latest album Character Stop, which drops on October 23 via Hex Records, the London-based noise rock group USA Nails have added a melodically vibrant new chapter to their impressive discography.
It’s the fifth full-length album from the band, who’ve kept up a perhaps startling pace of releases (their previous record, Life Cinema, came out just last year!), but the band’s guitarist/ vocalist Gareth Thomas shares that he thinks that the band’s latest recording sessions were the first time that he’s been immediately fond of a musical creation that he’s been a part of.
The new album, which packs a marvelously vibrant mash-up of noise rock abrasion with punching melody à la classic-feeling post-punk, feels like it could perhaps help scratch the itch for the vibe of a DIY rock show, since there’s truly a lot of sprawling energy packed in here.
Below, Thomas and Steven Hodson, who both handle vocal and guitar duties on Character Stop, discuss the development of their band’s latest record (on which they’re joined by bassist Daniel Holloway and drummer Tom Brewins).
Thomas and Hodson also touch on the question of how difficult it would or wouldn’t be to make the pop group Maroon 5 sound like the post-hardcore group Shipping News, how easy it might be to make USA Nails sound like the Foo Fighters, and, on a slightly different wavelength, the inclusive positivity that they see leading the way for the DIY heavy music communities that they’re a part of.
Thanks for your time! The new record sounds great. So, on a broad level, what sorts of things would you describe as guiding principles behind the album’s creation? In other words, what was the modus operandi like, in a sense?
Hodson: The manifesto was pretty much the same as always: keep it simple and don’t over think. Lyrically, on my part, the songs are about characters, either observed on social media, or characters played through everyday life. By that, I guess I mean switching from singing in a band to teaching to being a Dad—seems a bit stretched at times, but it’s all worth it.
Thomas: For me, as this was the first album we’ve written where I’ve known that I would be contributing vocals (when we were writing our previous album I didn’t know I was going to be doing any of that until quite late on), I tried to stay more mindful of that in my approach. Like, in making sure there are at least some guitar bits that I can sing at the same time as playing.
There’s definitely a substantial lineage of “noise rock” bands that have crafted impressive music. Whether or not there’s a particularly one-to-one relationship between any of those bands and your own music, would you say that you had a solid idea of the kind of sound that you wanted to capture when diving into writing this record? Or did you more just want to kind of start fresh and see where the songwriting led? Some of both?
Hodson: Like I said, it felt like business as usual. No major action plan other than working quick and keeping simple. I don’t really understand what noise rock is, but we get lumped in with decent bands, so that’s good.
Thomas: I don’t think we are that similar to any singular noise-rock band, or any band, really. But then everyone says that about their own music that don’t they? I’m pretty sure we aren’t trying to reference any one artist either. Not consciously anyway. Did you know Maroon 5 started out as a noise-rock band? [Bassist] Danny [Holloway] told me that. I don’t have any links to hand, but I swear it is definitely, 100 percent true. Their old songs are on YouTube. I wonder if they list Scratch Acid or Girls Against Boys or whatever as influences.
Having said that, I don’t know if Wayne Adams—who has produced all 5 USA Nails albums—has go-to references when we’re making records with him. Often when we’ve tried to give him our own refs he’s come back and said stuff like “nah your drumming isn’t crap enough this won’t work” etc. I’ve always thought a large part of genre comes from production. Imagine how we would sound if Rick Rubin produced us? Like the Foo Fighters probably. Having said that, I am up for working with you Rick, if you are reading this, which you definitely are.
Maybe if Wayne produced Maroon 5, they’d sound like Shipping News.
There are a lot of dynamics across Character Stop. What sorts of things would you say underpinned the sort of melodic bent of your latest record in particular—were there particular aims that you’d say drove you that direction? How did that aspect emerge?
Thomas: Personally, I felt like I wanted to expand on the more melodic ideas we started to explore on Life Cinema. I think maybe we all lent that way. Ahead of writing, we didn’t agree on a specific aesthetic for Character Stop, at least not explicitly, but it feels like we were all on the same wavelength.
The lyrics on the record and the thematic vibe overall both seem quite pointed. So, what sorts of things would you say weighed on the “feel” of the record, both in terms of the lyrics and just the overall vibe, so to speak? What was the sort of headspace and/or emotional state that underlined that?
Hodson: I touched on this earlier but I think as well as the overarching, middle-aged-man-still-trying-to-be-in-a-punk-band, there’s songs that are a bit more personal. I think in the past, my lyrics have been a bit more tongue-in-cheek, but I’ve started to reflect a bit more on my experiences and my personality.
I’m quite an anxious character but cover it up a lot through having one too many beers to build confidence. I have recently become a father too, which is great, but it has brought some mad experiences up from my past. I lost my Dad when I was quite young and certainly don’t want my daughter to have to experience what I did. It’s made me think about my lifestyle a lot.
Is there a particular element of the record that you really hope comes across for listeners? In other words, is there something that—from your perspective—is really a “cornerstone” of what the record is all about, in a sense?
Hodson: I hope people like it. It’s a bit more varied than any of our other records. I think thematically it works well, too.
Thomas: Yeah, I definitely think it’s our most varied album to date, and I really love that about it. Often, just after I’ve tracked a record (with any project, not just with USA Nails), I HATE it. I guess from being too close to it or whatever. In the following weeks I warm to it, and eventually come to love it and feel pride for it (with some exceptions). But, I think this is the first recording session where as soon as I stepped out of the studio I immediately thought “I really love what we’ve done here.”
So, on a bit of a broader level, have you had a chance to really connect with a local DIY rock and heavy music community? What’s your experience been like on that front?
Thomas: We’ve all played in bands for years, so it was connecting through the local and national music scene that brought the band together in the first place. We’ve been lucky enough to make great friends and play with some really inspiring acts. Things are so vibrant at the moment in the underground, and it is to great hear what’s coming out at the moment, but the fact that even the DIY scene is still dominated by white cis het men is telling.
We try to be more mindful of that these days, like doing what we can to make sure bills we appear on are inclusive and diverse, and that gigs provide a safe environment for everyone to enjoy etc. Not saying that we are perfect of course, and there’s always more that can be done. But thankfully, it feels like most people share the idea that more needs to be done to make the scene more inclusive, and more safe.
There are so many generous, progressive, wonderful and talented folk who are part of it; it makes me excited for the future.
Pick up a copy here.
