The Music

“This album is an attempt to be vulnerable to our audience and to encourage vulnerability; a brave naked smile in this shitty new world. We have stripped back the songs and lyrics to our bare flesh to allow each other to breathe, to celebrate our differences, and act as an ode to communities and the individuals that forge them. Because without our community, we’d be nothing.”

“Lyrically, I draw mostly on fear and anger – about politics, family and friends. We want our music to evoke passion, but we can’t force meaning. As long as people know we give a shit, that’s a start.”

Biography

Idles has their roots in the Bat-Cave Night Club in Bristol, ran by singer Joe Talbot and bassist Adam Devonshire, who met while at university in Exeter, eventually deciding to start a band. According to Talbot, “It took us a long time to get productive because we didn’t know what the fuck we were doing at all, we were fucking terrible for a long time.” The band’s first release was the WELCOME EP in 2012. By 2014 the band comprised Talbot, Devonshire, guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan, and drummer Jon Beavis.

They released a second EP, MEAT AND META, an EP of remixes, in 2015, and then started writing songs for their debut album.

After the 2016 singles ‘Well Done’ and ‘Divide & Conquer’, the band’s first album, BRUTALISM, was released in March 2017 to critical acclaim. DIY magazine, gave it 4 stars, calling it “An exhilarating escape along frenzied rhythms and powerhouse rhythms with a ferocious commentary for guidance…as vital as it is volatile.” The Line of Best Fit website gave it 9/10, calling Idles “one of the most exciting British bands right now“. It got 8/10 from PopMatters, with Ian King calling it “bracing, caustic, and relentless“. Uncut gave it a similarly positive review, calling it “A rare rock record with the rage, urgency, wit and shattering of complacency usually found in grime.”

Talbot’s mother died after a long illness while the band was working on the album, and is pictured on the cover, along with a sculpture by Talbot and his father. Her death gave Talbot and the band a new focus.

They toured to support BRUTALISM, and supported The Maccabees on the London shows of their farewell tour, as well as supporting the Foo Fighters for the O2 Arena’s 10th Birthday. Followed by several festivalappearances throughout Europe, and began working on their second album, Joy as an Act of Resistance, which is due to release on the 31st of August 2018.

Often described as post-punk, Talbot rejects the label, saying in June of 2017 - “We’re not a post punk band. I guess we have that motorik, engine-like drive in the rhythm section that some post punk bands have but we have plenty of songs that aren’t like that at all.”