"This is a great year for Albums": The Boxer Rebellion Talk to Skiddle

An Englishman, an Australian and an American walk into a bar. No, it's not the premise to a terrible joke, but actually the premise to the very brilliant alt rock fourpiece The Boxer Rebellion.

Currently peddling the wares of their third LP The Cold Still, which was released last month, the London based multinational band hit Manchester's Ruby Lounge on Sunday 6th March. 

Abbas Ali caught up with the guys to talk about the new album, going it alone without a label, and David Letterman.

What was it like performing on US TV’s 'The Late Show With David Letterman'? It’s a bit of an institution!

It was really cool. It was quite nerve wracking. We got there at about 7.30am and set up. It was a strange experience 'cos we’ve never really played on TV, at least not to that level. While it may not necessarily get you tons of fans, it definitely solidifies our presence. At least we see it that way. It’s nice for us.

Watch the band's Letterman appearance here:

How is the reception this time around, now you’re promoting your third album, The Cold Still? Is it different to your last album, 2009’s Union?

It’s a little different this time, just because, last time we didn’t really have a huge fanbase, and we didn’t know what to expect, whereas this time we have a much bigger fanbase, we have our names out there more. From what we can tell, it’s been a good reaction. I mean, we always knew this album was gonna be a slow burner, cos you have to spend some time with it, to let it grow on you. We kinda knew that. It seems to be going well.

With this new record, are there any particular themes or sounds that you were going for? And what was it like working with Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Kings Of Leon, Laura Marling)?

It was excellent. We weren’t going for anything other than more of a live sound, because we recorded it all live. We would just do some overdubs for backing vocals, or keyboards, things like that. So that was great. He’s someone we’ve always really wanted to work with, so he was our first choice as a producer, so we relished every second of it. It was kind of like a holiday, it was hard not to treat it like a holiday!

Where did you record it? Was it somewhere in Britain?

Yea, we went to a place called Real World Studios, near Bath, it’s Peter Gabriel’s studio. It’s in the middle of a small village. It was during May, early June, nice and sunny out, and the food there was really good so you didn’t have to eat out, so you could just concentrate on making music. That’s why it was kinda like being on a holiday.

There are three different nationalities in the band. (Nathan is originally from Tennessee, guitarist Todd Howe is Australian, and Adam Harrison (bass) and Piers Hewitt (drums) are English). Has that influenced the music you make?

Not necessarily. At the beginning, what got what us together was our influences, but it hasn’t necessarily maintained that way. We have three or four cool bands we really like, but other than that, it’s all pretty diverse, which I think is a good thing. We weren’t friends when we got together, it was to play music, but now, it’s kind of the other way round, we are friends and it happens that we start doing music together. I think sometimes when people are friends beforehand, they have the same tastes. You run the risk of sounding like a cheap version of The Clash, or something like that.

What do you say were the key influences in there? I’ve heard early U2, Echo and The Bunnymen and The Verve in particular being mentioned, but I can hear a little bit of Radiohead in there, in the recent stuff?

Yeah, we can’t deny a love of them. Yeah, all of that stuff. But we did get The Verve (mentioned) a lot, but it’s kind of strange, because we didn’t listen to the Verve a lot. I mean, we did get Urban Hymns, but it was never like a steady diet in our music, but it’s something we liked.

Are there any new influences on this new record that you were listening to at the time?

Well the last year we were listening to The National, and Band of Horses, things like that. I think Ethan Johns, one of the reasons we wanted to work with him, was the because of the sounds he’s gotten out of certain acts. So we liked some of that stuff. Some of the early Kings Of Leon albums, and Ryan Adams, so those are influences as well, and that’s what lead to Ethan.

What sort of bands are you interested in right now?

I’ve been listening to a lot of The Walkmen’s album, which was out last year. I’m looking forward to the new Elbow album, that’s great, and the new Radiohead album. I think this is a great year for albums, there’s a lot of great bands, and I’ll be curious to see how it all sounds by the end of the year. I loved last year’s Deerhunter album, too.

You’ve had a very colourful history with the music business, starting out on Mercury (Universal) records, and then Poptones, and then unsigned since 2005. How does it compare, being signed to a major, with being unsigned?

It’s been, for the most part, like night and day. We didn’t have much of a relationship with the major part of the label Mercury, Universal. It wasn’t the best of relationships. Now we have choice with everything, we have great management, and I think we’ve learned a lot over the years. How we like to run, I guess, our business. The differences have almost forced us to grow into being smarter about what we’re doing, and being knowledgeable about how to do things well financially. I think when we were on majors, we wasted a lot of money, because you don’t think of it as your own money, whereas on your thing, it’s your own money, and so you’ve got to be careful.

The Cold Still has just come out in most countries. Is this going to be the headlining tour you’re going to be doing to support it, playing venues across Europe, the US?

A lot of the venues are by far the biggest we’ve played, especially in London. Some of the places aren’t necessarily a step up, but we’re trying to fill the place, as opposed to having it three quarters full. It’s something that I think we’ve been waiting for a very long time, because we’ve been a band for 10 years. It’s so much more exciting to start a tour when you know that people are there, that it’s sold out.

Interview: Abbas Ali

twitter.com/abbasali5000

See The Boxer Rebellion at The Ruby Lounge on March 6th. Tickets are available below. 

Full March tour dates are as follows:

3rd - Edinburgh, Cabaret Voltaire

4th - Leeds, Cockpit

5th - Northampten, Roadmender

6th - Manchester, The Ruby Lounge

8th - Bristol, The Fleece

9th - Birmingham, HMV Institute

10th - London, Heaven

Tickets are no longer available for this event