For more than a decade, Public Service Broadcasting have been doing things their own way, blending krautrock grooves, post-rock build-ups, electronics and archival samples into records that feel as much like storytelling projects as albums.
Whether looking to the space race, the coal mining industry or aviation history, the London outfit have built a reputation for turning big ideas into deeply human, surprisingly moving music.
That approach continues on The Last Flight, their latest album inspired by the final voyage of aviator Amelia Earhart, and it’ll no doubt feature in the band’s much-loved immersive live show when they return to Australia this May for a run of dates with Handsome Tours.
Ahead of the tour, Tone Deaf caught up with J. Willgoose, Esq. to chat about the stories that keep pulling him back, why albums still matter in a singles-driven world, and what fans can expect when Public Service Broadcasting bring their signature audio-visual spectacle back Down Under.
Your work tends to live somewhere between history and storytelling. When you’re working on a project like The Last Flight, at what point does it stop feeling like research, and start feeling real and emotional?
Our albums are written as records. They’re written in sequence. They’re written chronologically. They’re written with a great deal of care and affection. And so it is nice if people want to experience them as a record, but at the same time, there are always one or two songs that kind of would stand alone or could be taken in isolation. I personally get the most out of our records by listening to them from start to finish and ideally reading the sleeve notes. But creating an album like an historic capsule is now kind of a vanishing breed.
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There’s a common thread in you work (space, industry, aviation) that ties to humans venturing into the unknown. What keeps drawing you back to those kinds of stories?
It was amazing to see the Artemis II adventure recently, living up to the words of Gene Cernan, when he left in 1972 – “hopefully we won’t be away too long.” And it’s amazing to think there was all that interest in it back then, and then it just petered away. It’s amazing, it’s sad, but it’s also kind of a microcosm of how the human mind and the human race works? Once we’ve done something, it’s on to the next thing.
It’s not so much like we keep doing the same thing over and over again, but it’s nice to see that we are actually finally going back to space, to the moon. It’s great that a whole new generation is being engaged and energized by space travel. It’s something we can all kind of get behind.
Your live shows are more than just music, they’re an experience. How do you take something quite conceptual and make it “land” in a room full of people in such an immediate way?
Our shows are about letting the music lead the performance. It becomes much less about narrative. Each song has its own kind of internal narrative, which does stand on its own. But it’s about letting the music dictate the ebb and flow of a show. It’s much more about that than worrying about set lists and song order. As a band we need to build to a climax at certain points. So we’re not going to throw “Go” in as the first song. Expect music from across our entire canon and a visual show to match.
Your sound feels more expansive and cinematic now than the earlier, sample-driven days. How do you balance the technical side of your music while making sure it still hits people where you want it to emotionally?
The idea with Night Flight, the remix album was to invite people we know and like to work on their own interpretations of it. I actually did a few remixes too, as my own side project that started during lockdown because I didn’t have any of my equipment. All my equipment was all in Germany and I was in the UK.
So I made a record as Late Night Final in 2020 and I wanted to reanimate that a bit, so I ended up remixing PSB stuff with a different hat on. It was really interesting and liberating to do that. So three of the nine guest artists on the album are me, and then the rest was, trying to get people we really like and respect to reinterpret it. Part of that is creativity, we find that sort of thing interesting. And part of it is trying to extend the life of the original record, because things come and go like in a flash these days, and it’s really hard to hold people’s attention.
You used to be able to get two tours out of a record, no problem. And, maybe two years, but you’re lucky if you get 12 months now. So it was about extending that and reminding people of the album and bringing it to the surface of their minds again. And also reminding people that we’re still here.
We did the same with The Race for Space. We did an album of remixes for that, which we just released for Record Store Day on the weekend. It’s a nice thing to be able to do, to add a different layer of interpretation. The actual record is always as it was when it left, when I was either bored of this or I’m not making any better. It’s done. Yeah, then it goes.
Public Service Broadcasting 2026 Australia & New Zealand Tour
Tickets on sale now via Handsome Tours.
Friday, May 1st
Powerstation, Auckland
Saturday, May 2nd
Meow Nui, Wellington
Monday, May 4th
City Recital Hall, Sydney
Wednesday, May 6th
Princess Theatre, Brisbane
Thursday, May 7th
Northcote Theatre, Melbourne
