However, the release of their sophomore album This Modern Glitch may overcome that wombat moment in the proudness stakes. “It’s taken a long time to get it delivered and we’re really proud of it,” he concedes. “When I can walk into a shop and it’s actually there on the shelf – I can hold it in my hand – that will be my proudest moment.”
This feeling of pride may stem from their dedication to the production of this album, in contrast to the immediacy and casualness of their debut, 2007’s The Wombats Proudly Present: A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation, which peaked at number 11 in the UK albums chart. That album was compiled of songs that the band had written over the four years that they’d been together and was recorded in a mere three weeks. “It had a very live feel to it, it was very immediate and just kind of no frills, you know. We just wanted to get enough energy down as we could,” says Haggis.
The band took a different tack on This Modern Glitch. “The songs were written over a year and a half, and we spent a lot longer on each song,” he explains. “We fought a lot more about each song and we added in different instrumentation and started playing some synthesizers… we messed around with programming and different software on computers and we just incorporated different things.”
The album was recorded in LA with the band to-ing and fro-ing between England and the ‘States over the three-month recording period. Currently based in London, the three-piece met at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts where they were exposed to sound engineering, different instruments and studio technology.
Haggis was there for one year and met lead singer and guitarist Matthew Murphy in class. But, it wasn’t until one night when ‘Murph’ rocked up at Haggis’s apartment with a mutual friend and a bottle of wine that they became friends. “That night we had a drink and then went out and we just sort of started going out together after that. Well, not like that… you know, just going out and getting slaughtered,” Haggis recalls with a laugh.
“Then we started playing some music together and did open mic things and then Tord (Øverland-Knudsen, bass guitar) came in the year after and we really started the band just for the hell of it. It was more of a hangover cure than anything to start with.”
Now, it’s Murph who does the bulk of the band’s songwriting. According to Haggis, he’ll put forward a rough song for the others to add to. The song will go through what Haggis calls ‘this Wombat process’ and come out the other side as a rocky pop song with witty lyrics and a danceable beat which, Haggis says, is the best thing about their music. “Making people have a good time is an amazing thing,” he says.
“The live shows are the main thing, I think. You know, just making music and stuff that gets people dancing and having a good time. I still can’t believe that us three can get up on stage and all these people can literally have… you know, some people will say its like the best gig that they’ve been to!”
The Wombats have a strong following who, Haggis says, are awesome fans because they’re usually positive and full of praise for the band. “We’ve even had the odd bra thrown up on stage,” he relates. “I’ve worn one on stage for the first song, actually… but it was a little bit too tight.”
A former flute player in a youth orchestra, Haggis noticed that the older guy on the drums with a goatee in that group managed to pick up all the cool chicks. So, Haggis started hanging around him and realised that the drums were way cooler than his chosen instrument. Haggis still thinks he’s uncool, which may be why this level of bra-throwing success seems unprecedented for him. “I guess it’s hard to envisage this career because no one can prepare you for it or tell you what it’s like,” he explains. “When you’re younger, you know, when I used to listen to Nirvana and the Foo Fighters and be like ‘I wanna be Dave Grohl’, you just think that he plays a few beats and that’s it.”
Not one to complain, Haggis says that although it’s hard work, being a part of The Wombats is a far more positive experience than negative, including the relentless touring. Although he misses his loved ones when on the road, naturally, he explains that the band and crew are so close knit that a tour always creates happy memories, even if their tight schedule means they never really see anywhere.
“The actual reality of a career in music is that there are quite a lot of busses and trains and planes involved and a lot of hard work. I don’t know what I expected from it all to be honest,” he adds, “but I definitely wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
