Everything Everything: Art Rock Troubadours for the End Times
By fred spanner
They’re the mad scientists of sound, mixing glitchy synths, guitar licks, and lyrics that make you feel like you need a degree just to hum along.
Since bursting out of Manchester in 2007, they've been dishing out tunes that are as brainy as they are banging. Dystopian disco meets anxiety-ridden anthems for the digital age. If you're into music that melts your face and makes you think, you're in the right place.
They’re about to go on tour to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of their classic album Get To Heaven, and they couldn’t have timed it better, considering the subject matter. But more of that later, as Loaded chats with frontman, Jonathan Higgs, who is currently in his underground basement. A fitting place, considering the chilling nature of the album’s lyrics.
Mountainhead won Loaded’s Album of the Year last year. The theme of the album was workers elevating the hierarchy even higher. The harder they worked, the poorer they got, and the richer the wealthy became. I guess it’s always been the way of the world.
Do you think we’ll ever learn how to narrow the rich/poor divide, Jonathan?
“I don’t see why. Unless we get to the point where robots do everything for us, maybe we’ll have some new thoughts then, but it’s highly unlikely.”
Luckily, it was released last year. The Succession spin-off of the same name is getting some awful reviews.
“I saw that. It’s not the first time it’s happened. There was a film that came out called Everything Everything, so that messed up Google searches. Then there was Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. It seems to happen every few years.”
The artwork on the cover of Mountainhead was amazing. What was the thinking behind it?
“It was an idea I was dead set on just after I came up with the name Mountainhead. The inverted mountain felt quite potent, so it looked like a cave just coming out of the guy’s head, as if that’s all he thinks about. I mocked it up, and an artist we work with made a good version of it. We wanted it to look simple, and maybe a bit amateurish. No AI used this time.”
The single, Cold Reactor, got some daytime play on Radio One.
“It was great to be back on there. We thought those days were over. It’s the biggest streamer since Distant Past a decade ago.”
My personal favourite on the album is Your Money, My Summer. Can you give us a bit of background on that track?
“It came from an old demo, without any vocals. It was just this weird little tune I’d made. We didn’t do anything with it back then, but we were looking through some old stuff, and it just jumped out at me. I just sang over it for an hour or so and thought it could be good. We didn’t even re-record the guitar. It’s the original from the demo.
“I wrote these lyrics about a half-nostalgic summer, and being a bit of a vandal. I’m not sure how much of it came across. It was a mixture of old feelings and images from summers past.
My dad collects skulls. My childhood was always punctuated by the finding of a skull. So, if we were on holiday, and we drove past some roadkill, it wasn’t unusual for him to pull over and see what it was. If it was of interest, he’d either cut the head off or put the entire body in the back of the car.
One summer, we were on the beach, and there was this awful stink. There was a huge, dead, basking shark. I remember my dad umming and aahing as to whether he was going to take it. He didn’t on that occasion, but that’s where the swimming with the basking sharks reference comes from.”
Instead of decapitating them.
“Yes, because people wouldn’t believe it if we had. And if I said that it did, it would just sound like another one of my lyrics. Plus, it didn’t happen. But it makes me inwardly smile.”
I feel there’s a Netflix special waiting to be made about your dad.
“Haha. Maybe.''
You dare to tread lyrically where others dare to go. Is the reason for the cryptic style a way of protecting yourself a bit?
“I don’t find it particularly interesting when I can immediately see what someone means from their lyrics. It’s the same with politics and art. If a movie says it’s satirical and then turns out to be cheesy, it’s just boring. I never want to be seen that way. I think it’s low art. It doesn’t require any thinking, and it’s not realistic. I don’t subscribe to being a particular X, Y, or Z. I do have limits, though. There are certain things I’m not into!
“Outside of that, I think there’s so much going on in our heads that we forget the more we know, the less we understand. I think if you spent a bit more time with me, you’d work out more about what I believe, but it’s more interesting if you don’t. If it’s not ambiguous, it’s no fun for anyone.”
Do you think music is still a powerful way to send a message?
“The value of music has definitely plummeted. A lot of it is free and can be made for free. It can be made without any humans now, which is the latest step. But, then again, should music be something that only the elite can do, or should it be for everyone? Whilst I like that idea, I also think it produces a lot of shit music.
“I think we’re in a transitional period. If we had this conversation in 40 years' time, we might see where this AI thing is going; it might be okay. But, it might not.”
How does the algorithm of the charts sit with you?
“Every time we put an album out, we’re told the charts have changed from last time. Now, you have to do 9,000 plays, or 9,000 streams, which is one play, or it’s going to take the top 10 per cent of your plays, and so on. You look at the charts, and Ed Sheeran has been in the top 10 while our last three records have charted. We’re not going to get number seven, cos Harry Styles is still there from five years ago. It’s completely ridiculous.
“If we were just starting out, we wouldn’t be in the charts at all. We see a lot of young bands coming through, gathering as much hype as they can, and they don’t make the top 100. I don’t know what the answer is. People get in the charts nowadays because their music is streaming all day in the Co Op, but no one’s really listening to it. It’s passively charting, and that’s a bit sad.”
Do we need more music shows on TV?
“We formed too late for Top of the Pops, we got on Jools’ show. I think there’s only one other music slot on TV nowadays, and that’s The Jonathan Ross Show. It’s a difficult world nowadays if you want to get people’s attention.”
Is the process of making an album quicker these days?
“We have sped up in recent years, partly through necessity. When we made Re-Animator, it was the pandemic. We’d made the record just before it, so it didn’t affect the recording of it, but it did mean everything we did was on the internet. This is pretty much the way these days, too.
“After that, it was faster. We made Raw Data Feel and Mountainhead really fast. I think it’s good to have a long time to write, and a short time to record. I think an overblown recording can be overindulgent. We’ve had to be very strict with ourselves because we can all play our instruments, and I’d love to put 10 guitars on every song, but it’s not a good idea. You just end up with a big fart of egos. The best stuff is always less. Less is more.”
The video for Arch Enemy was a cracker. Whose idea was it to animate a giant fatberg?
“It was mine, originally. I’d been thinking about it for a while, and I thought it was time to create the fatberg of my dreams. I don’t know why, but it just seemed like an appropriate image of excess. It was so gloriously grotesque. We filled a sewer with this giant turd of unmovable fat. Even now, thinking about it, I want to use that image again.”
There was also an app where you could put your face on the fatberg.
“Oh, yes! Someone came up with the idea of making it ‘youth-friendly’. It was gross.”
How long did it take to put the video together?
“A little while. I was learning how to use 3D software. I’d just about gotten to the level where I could make these little wobbly guys. One of my school friends was pretty good at that stuff, so I was like, “I’ve got this little project. I want to make a video of this dancing fatberg in a sewer.” He was perfect for it. We used to draw the most awful stuff at school.”
You have the 10th anniversary tour of Get To Heaven coming up. It was written about the rise of global terrorism and the rise of evil. Thank God we live in a more peaceful time now, eh?
“Yeah, nothing's changed since I wrote that album. If anything, it’s got worse. Power-hungry people achieving their aims through skulduggery, populism, and blame.”
Do you think the world leaders are trying to confuse us as to who the good and bad guys are, like the Mitchell and Webb sketch?
“There are millions of programs out there deliberately creating misinformation every second; more than anyone could ever read in their lifetime. When I wrote Get To Heaven, I was very consumed by the news and the internet in a way that is perhaps more common now than it was then.
“There were people on there who seemed to have all the answers; answers that I couldn’t quite believe they were giving. They seemed to be from another time, and I couldn’t believe how much traction this stuff was getting. It seemed inevitable to me as the more I looked, the more people seemed to be falling under this spell. Those types of ideas are in the Whitehouse right now. We saw it coming.
“It’s very difficult to stop because a lot of people aren’t very happy, and it’s when people are unhappy that dark shit starts to happen.
“There were some pretty high-profile beheadings back then, like Jihadi John.”
Will your ‘dictator’ haircut return for the tour?
“I am growing it a bit, and it’s almost there, but the reason I’m not going too far down that line is because I’m getting married this year, and I can’t do that to my wife. Perhaps I’ll give myself a bit of a ‘Hitler swirl’ on the night.
“The problem is, 10 years ago I had this satirical dictator hairstyle, and these days you wouldn’t be able to tell if I was joking or not. You’ve got Sieg Heils on TV nowadays. Reality has completely taken over satire. It’s fucking insane.“
The album kicks off with To The Blade, which appears to be about a suicide bomber and his family who perhaps didn’t realise he’d been radicalised.
“Yes, you’re bang on. Though I don’t really subscribe to the idea that my interpretation is the correct one. I was imagining what it would be like to be close to one of these people. I was traumatised by what happened to Jihadi John. He was a guy from around here who’d been radicalised, and I thought they wouldn’t behead him, but they did.
“I was trying to imagine how I would feel if my best friend were radicalised. What would I say to myself? I guess it came out in that song. ‘We didn’t see it coming, and this is why he felt so strongly.’ There are parts in there that are almost trying to sympathise with him, even though he did this awful thing. I guess it was my way of dealing with the trauma I received from it.
“I mean, why would you look at someone doing this awful thing and wanting to see their side of it? It’s just where my head was at the time. But, it’s easy to just look at and say, “They’re just crazy. They’ve got this strong religion over there that we don’t understand,” but they’re people just like us. It happened to them, and sometimes it happens to people next door. I’m exploring the strength of belief that can make someone do that.”
Who are your mates on the festival circuit?
“We’re very close to Foals, Wolf Alice, Bombay Bicycle Club, and Cmat. We’re also good friends with The Macabees, so it’s good that they’re around again. When you first start out in a band, you pretty much take the piss out of every artist, but as time goes on, you realise how lucky you are to be in this crazy business. We’ve seen too many bands die off to be complacent about it.”
Any chance you’ll be tempted to use AI again?
“Not for a very long while. It was two albums ago. It’s old hat now. I was checking the other day, and I think the cover for Raw Data Feel was the first to use an AI image. I don’t think anyone else has realised this, but ours may well be the first.”
Any new material on the way?
“We’ve got to get the tour done first, so there’s no huge desperation to squeeze anything else out just yet, but hopefully next year we’ll start to work properly on some new stuff.”
What comes first, the album or the costumes?
“Oh, definitely the costumes!”