Nothing But Thieves: Getting On Splendour In The Grass Saved Us

UK outfit Nothing But Thieves have had a pretty turbulent year. Following the release of their debut album last October to rave reviews, and an equally acclaimed live show, they’ve been touring non-stop.

Sometimes it’s been great: they were asked to open for Muse on their recent tour. Sometimes, it’s not too great: they were among the bands that were on the Soundwave line-up who had to cancel shows when the festival kicked the bucket.

For their Australian audience, it’s been a frustratingly long wait, but this July, they’ll finally get the chance to catch up with the band at Splendour in the Grass, and also their two sideshows. We got a chance to speak to Joe Langridge-Brown, guitarist of Nothing But Thieves, about their year so far, and how they feel about finally getting to play to their fans Down Under, and what it was like to open for Muse.

“It’s been a long time but we’re looking forward to actually coming down. It’s been quite an infuriating time with Soundwave being cancelled and we’re actually quite glad to get to finally come out,” he said.

“It’s almost quite refreshing playing to a whole new audience who’ve never heard you before. As a band, we’re so tight and so together at the moment, we’ve really nailed our show. We’ve really nailed how we present the album and our live shows. I think they should enjoy it, we’re pretty happy how it goes.”

When asked about if it’s potentially intimidating to bring their sound to a whole new audience, Langridge-Brown didn’t seem phased for even a moment.

[include_post id=”465214″] “No… [laughs]. But I mean, it’s not an accident. Like we’ve practiced and toured our asses off, rehearsed loads, and we’ve really honed what we wanna do. In the last year, we’ve really honed how we want to present ourselves. I’m really looking forward to it. I don’t worry about our live show, I think that’s the strongest part of our band.”

Langridge-Brown also spoke how personally incredible it was when Nothing But Thieves were asked to support Muse.

“Obviously it was an incredible experience with us, like they were actually the first band I ever showed my Dad, like I went to my early musical life where my Dad introduced me to lots of bands, and they were actually the first band I showed him. So to support them was quite a big moment for me, personally,” he said.

“It’s a huge deal. To have a band that big endorse your music, when they choose all the support bands, it was very cool. Seriously, you can’t really outdo Muse- I don’t know if you’ve ever seen them live- but their show is absolutely insane.”

He also spoke about how the Soundwave cancellation was particularly hard for the group, mentioning that they only found out when the news broke on social media.

“It was very frustrating. We heard before the announcement that something was going on, and we’ve heard in the past about things like this going on. It was not totally unexpected I guess, but it’s very frustrating, because as a new band, which we are, you rely on getting festival payments to play these shows.

“Like it’s literally halfway around the world, and as a new band we can’t do that for free. We need to get paid from these festivals if we want to play other shows. We were really looking forward to it and unfortunately it didn’t happen,” he said.

“Thank God we got a Splendour slot, we could manage to afford it again. I’m sure other bands didn’t get that lucky.”

Langridge-Brown was also hopeful for what the rest of the year held for the group.

“At the moment we’re pretty burnt out, as we’ve been touring solidly since January. So we’ve got a few weeks off, so we’re going to use that recuperate and then we’re going to head back out on the road again for the rest of the year, pretty much.”

“Whatever band you’re in, that’s what you want: you want to get your music to as many people as possible, and then you’re hoping they like some of the music that you do and that they enjoy it,” he said.