Gnarwolves: "We attract a certain kind of person, and it's often the feral teenagers"

"It's going to be interesting to see how Gnarwolves work in 2017," reasons vocalist Thom Weeks. He's just finished work for the day, and while his Sunday didn't come with a roast dinner, he's not complaining. After a hectic few years that saw the trio churn out three EPs and a debut album, alongside opening slots at Reading & Leeds that conjured more than a hint of magic and a seemingly never-ending desire to tour, the band stopped. They hit the snooze button and spent some time not being Gnarwolves. "Things did get bigger for a while," reflects Thom. The heart of the band has always been and always will be the idea of three mates having fun playing music together, "and that's one of the reasons we took a break. It started to feel like something else other than what we intended when we started out. You go on tour loads, and you're bound to have some bad days. Max is my brother but the three of us have changed from being mates to being this family unit, and that comes with its strains. As they do," he grins. "Family." "When we started this band, I was a young man. I'm nearly 30-years-old now, but we're a lot more sure of ourselves than we were a few years ago and a lot more sure of what we want from being in a band. Musically, I feel like we're more comfortable with the direction of the band and how it should sound and feel sonically. That's changed. We've just got a bit more self-assured. We spent a long time just thinking about the lyrics we'd written and the musical ideas, and we ended up worrying about them, as you do when you think about stuff for a long time. We're not known for overthinking how we write songs, to be honest," he adds with another smile. And while change is on the agenda and the record, ‘Outsiders' isn't Gnarwolves growing up. "It's a boring thing to say. I don't think we've matured in any other ways apart from the ways people naturally do as they grow up. We've just done a different record to the last one which is good, right? Otherwise, you're just standing in one place which is pointless." The band have always referenced the music they listen to in their own songs. This time around, it's a load of stuff from Lookout Records' 90s era mixed with the DC Hardcore scene with alternative rock "dumped on the top". ‘Channeling Brian Molko' takes the band's history of wearing their influences on their sleeves to the point where they've stuck an apology in the title, "Normally it's just an homage, but this one did start out as stealing their song. I'm a thief, but I'm an honest thief," while the near-seven minute closer ‘Shut Up' is about an argument that was all Thom's fault. "It took me so long to have the realisation that I was in the wrong and Max was in the right, so. Musically, it's a Brand New song, innit? I really like it. I enjoyed putting bits on it." Across ‘Outsiders' there's more texture, more nuance. It goes from feeling claustrophobic one moment to driving you to take on the world the next. "We approached it from a slightly different angle this time round. We spent more time thinking about crafting a song as opposed to, what bit would be sick in the pit." It's also the first time Gnarwolves have written an album as an album. "The first record was a bit hodge-podge because we didn't know how to write an album, but this one has a sonic stamp on it. All the songs sound like they're from the same record and I like that, that was deliberate. It was supposed to go on a bit of a journey, but it got a bit lost along the way. I don't think it's exactly how I would have imagined it, but I'm well chuffed about it."