Architects Interview

With the deluxe edition of their sixth studio album, ‘Lost Forever, Lost Together’, Architects are at the forefront of heavy metal music. The UK foursome have cemented their thundering sound with thought-provoking lyrics over the past 10 years, and with their first headline tour of Australia in five years on the horizon, they look set to return with a bang. While suggesting they’re not the most rock and roll outfit to come out of Brighton, Tom Searle lets us in on his songwriting, his love of Australian cities, and his not-so-much-love of airline food…

Hi Tom, how are you?
Exhausted, I’m on a flight to Manila and they just turned the lights on at 4.30am. They’ll be bringing round the rancid breakfast slop any minute now…Oh god, they’ve just started to bring it round. Fuck, this is a seriously bad batch; just the smell is triggering my gag reflex.

What have you been up to this week?
Just preparing for this upcoming run of touring. After Manila and Japan we’re heading out on our biggest ever UK and European headline tour. We’ve been snowed under getting ready for that. It’s all super exciting but at the same time it comes with a lot of pressure. We probably don’t help ourselves by not hiring any techs, so between our tour manager and us we have a ton of work to make sure everything is ready to go.

You’re releasing the deluxe edition of your sixth studio album ‘Lost Forever, Lost Together’; what did you want to express with it?
We just wanted the record to reach as many people as possible. It’s nice to be able to include our DVD as part of the package too, as that’s kind of tricky to get hold of, as it was self-released.

You cover a lot of subjects, including personal ones such as Tom’s melanoma diagnosis; is it difficult to write about such personal things?
I don’t think so. All songs are personal in some way or another. They’re revealing in the sense that they’re an expression of your feelings and emotions about a particular subject. If you write a line of lyrics about anything and have to sit there and show it to your band mates, it feels personal. There’s a judgment made by those receiving them and it was you who wrote them, so no matter what, it feels personal. In regards to writing about getting diagnosed with melanoma, I suppose that’s a little closer to home than a lot of the stuff I wrote about on the record, but I wouldn’t say it was difficult. I was coming to terms with the fact that I might die during that period; so writing lyrics for it didn’t really feel like a big deal; it just felt like a natural thing to do. I love being creative and I was in a headspace that I hoped I’d never be in again. In a way it was an experiment to see what would come out of writing whilst in that state.

What bands or artists have inspired you musically and in your songwriting?
We’ve been going for 10 years and there’s probably bands who influenced us who I can’t even remember the name of now. We’re pretty open to being influenced by anything. I might hear something on the radio, whilst getting my haircut, by some garbage pop act whose name I’ll never know and think “I like the way that went into the chorus, I’m gonna try something like that.” It’s not as simple as listening to another metal band and thinking ‘I want to sound like that.’ Maybe it was back when we started, but it can’t work like that anymore. We need to sound like Architects. Emulating other bands at this point would be shooting ourselves in the foot.

What’s the most rock and roll thing you’ve ever done?
You’re asking the least rock and roll band in the world. Brace yourself for something underwhelming… Nah, I honestly can’t think of a single thing that we’ve ever done that is even slightly rock and roll.

You’re touring Australia in April, your first headline tour Down Under since 2010; how are you anticipating the shows?
Yeah, wow, how did we manage to take so long? That’s mental. We’re a little nervous of course; seeings as we’ve not done a headline run there for so long, it’s hard to anticipate how it’ll be. The two headline sideshows we did on the Amity tour sold out pretty quick and were a lot of fun, so that’s a good sign. Sometimes it’s nice not to know – it’ll be a surprise. We definitely feel like Australia has always been warm towards us, we love touring there.

So, what’s a live show with Architects like?
Please don’t ask me to sell our live show. This is where I’m at my most English. I see American bands saying things like “We’re gonna tear this place a new asshole.” etc. I just can’t manage it; my mouth won’t say it and my fingers won’t type it. There’s nothing wrong with other bands saying it, but if I say it then I sound like a cunt. Everyone would see right through it, surely. Just come to the show? We’ve managed to exist for 10 years, so we must be okay…? Right?

Is there anything you’d like to get up to besides the shows if you have time?
Well in light of the aforementioned skin cancer I’m not big on beaches anymore! But I love all the big Aussie cities. I can’t put my finger on it; I just like being there. Plus we have tons of friends in Australia, so hopefully they’ll be around for us to hang out with.

And what hobbies do you each have?
I’m not gonna speak for the other guys but most of my time is taken up with writing music, watching football, hanging out with friends and my girlfriend, exercising and cooking. It’s great!

Thanks, Tom!

Don’t miss Architects in Australia this April! Get tickets from www.oztix.com.au.

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