It’s about time So Young got around to speaking to Idles.
Obviously their values hit home with you then?
In a sense though we’ve chosen a very good moment. The band have just announced that their new record ‘Joy’ is on
It all just changed really quickly when I spoke to Tim
it’s way later this year and have dropped the devious and
Putney who’s head of the label. He just blew my mind.
overwhelming first single ‘Colossus’. Anyhow, Joe Talbot
He called me super late because he’s in New York and we
bluntly puts it, “We’re glad you jumped on our fucking
just ended up talking for two hours. He was fascinating
bandwagon because we love the magazine.” Calling Joe
and very passionate. Every conversation I’ve had with him
an interesting speaker is a massive understatement, so
since has been as inspiring and magical. It’s basically given
we didn’t ask him all the obvious questions about their
us a morale boost in the sense that they were speaking our
whirlwind last few years, what it was like meeting Dave
language. They were reading our art, listening to our music
Grohl and all the rest because that’s a story which has
and getting it. They said, we understand your messages
already been written. Instead, we got stuck into the future
and want to help you translate that outside of the UK to
and where the hell this titanic band are headed for next. (I
the rest of the world. Everyone we’ve met in the label has
can assure you it’s not an iceberg).
been earnest, hard-working and interested, that’s what we’re about. It’s just felt like we’re part of the family and I’m
Your transition into Partisan seems to have been
more than happy to welcome them into our family as well.
amazing, tell us about the move?
It’s been a very quick thing because we had the second album set in terms of artwork, themes and songs. We had a
It kind of happened rather quickly really. We were looking
couple of hurdles along the way but we got through them.
for a label for quite a while to give us the platform we
It’s all a bit of a blur but now we’re on the other side with
needed and nobody came about so we cracked on on our
an album in our hands. It’s a beautiful thing.
own. Then we had Partisan approach us and by that point I was like, we don’t need a fucking label, what’s all this bullshit. So I was a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, I wasn’t bitter or anything but I was just self-aware enough to know that we were doing fine on our own. I didn’t want to sacrifice all our hard work by signing with someone who just wants to jump on our backs at a time when we’re finally doing alright for ourselves.
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Words by Rhys Buchanan
