Still sweaty from his morning ride, Joe Talbot joins the video call from his Bristol apartment.
The IDLES frontman was forced to conduct his previous interviews from a nearby café after locking himself out. “They were like ssshhhh (mimicking a milk frother) making espressos and shit, so they weren’t the best of interviews,” he admits. “I’m back at my gaff because my mate dropped the keys off.”
Despite the inconvenience, Talbot is still grinning. “I’m feeling good. I’m going to get in the sauna in a bit and then go to the studio and carry on writing album six,” he says. The 50-kilometre ride at 5.30am alludes to his continuing sobriety. It is comforting, considering dark themes of substance abuse throughout the IDLES’ discography.
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Already back in the studio, the post-punk experimentalists only released TANGK near the start of 2024. It’s their first album to be produced by longtime Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich. He previously captured the band live for his From the Basement series. “Nigel made us sound more like IDLES than most of the recordings we’ve done,” reveals Talbot.
Inviting Godrich to produce was guitarist Mark Bowen’s idea. Proving to be a masterstroke, IDLES are at their most daring and creative on TANGK. Bowen also acts as Talbot’s creative counterpart, the two being the band’s primary songwriters. “As Bowen rightfully said, Nigel often works with people when they’re taking a left turn,” says Talbot.
The left turn continued after their 2021 album Crawler, which had them veering into a more sprawling, introspective sound. “Not even that much of a left turn,” he contends. “This slight, minor left turn just means that no one can expect anything from us now. We’ve freed that up. Like, we’ve just opened up the conversation and thrown in an offensive joke, so that people are aware that we’re going to offend them.”
Crawler came as a reaction to 2020’s brash Ultra Mono. Though it was the band’s first album to top the charts, it faced criticism over its simplicity and lack of development. “We became this very defensive, self-aware entity,” admits Talbot. “With Ultra Mono, we were like ‘let’s make an album that’s the steroided-up version of what we’ve become so that we can’t do it again.’”
The tide of public opinion appeared to change, too, as accusations of virtue signalling and class appropriation were also levelled at the band. “We got to a point with Joy as an Act of Resistance, where we were under the spell of success,” says Talbot of the band’s breakthrough 2018 sophomore album.
“In the UK, success is quite a dangerous thing because everyone wants to fucking kill you,” he continues. “It’s not a nice place to be, at the top. We weren’t at the top at all, but we were going up, and that’s enough for people to fucking resent you.”
While the band has never claimed to be working class, Talbot does sing passionately about austerity. His socially conscious lyrics also cover topics of toxic masculinity, white privilege and the monarchy, among others. The band caused a stir after their recent headline performance at Glastonbury. Talbot led the crowd in a “fuck the king” chant, which was streamed live on the government-funded BBC.
Talbot often writes his lyrics at the microphone in the studio, including the “fuck the king” line in Gift Horse on TANGK. While the spontaneity creates brilliance, there are some lyrics he no longer feels comfortable singing. The band will no longer perform the Brexit protest song Great or small-town mindset critique Model Village, due to their lyrical perspective.
Whether in lyrics, crowd interactions or interviews, Talbot’s unflinching vulnerability differs him from most frontmen, especially in the punk world. “My mum was such a loving human being. So open, honest and vulnerable, it encouraged me to be the same,” he reflects. “I understand that as a currency; if you give people that sense of vulnerability, they will give it back.
His mother remains a lasting influence on him. After she was paralysed from a stroke, he was her main caregiver from when he was 16 until her death when he was 30. A key theme of IDLES’ debut album Brutalism, she died near the release in 2017 and features on the cover.
“Don’t get me wrong, I can be a real cunt still. I’ve got a savage temper sometimes, and I… take it out on the people I love the most,” he confesses. “I still struggle with vulnerability, and I still struggle with connecting to people. I push people away, but deep down, I know I’ve tried.”
With a sixth album underway, the band’s impressive output pace continues. “Bowen and I just bat off each other, and we get excited by each other’s ideas,” explains Talbot. “We push and pull in the wrong and right directions at the same time, so it creates a sense of tension and excitement. That combustible energy is what keeps us writing all the time.”
A happy and healthy Joe Talbot hopefully means plenty more IDLES to come. “I could do this forever because whenever I get up in the morning, I want to make stuff. Touring the world is incredible. There’s such an amazing feeling playing live,” he professes. “What I love is to carry on with purpose.”
For tickets to see IDLES at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl on January 21, head here.
