Los Campesinos!: "People encouraged us to stop being a band.”

It’s easy to take being in a band for granted. You’re living the dream, making albums, playing shows and travelling the globe. But what happens when things get a bit sticky, and real life takes over? For long-standing indie rock heroes Los Campesinos!, the past few years saw the most frustrating period of the band’s existence, one that has only recently come to an end with the revelatory recording of their sixth album, ‘Sick Scenes’. It’s a record full of their typical exuberance but tempered by an added maturity as the band went through their darkest period and came out fighting.

For singer and lyricist Gareth Campesinos!, the fact that the album exists at all is a testament to the band’s spirit forged after a period of hardship and inactivity. “By the time this one comes out it will be over three years since ‘No Blues’,” he begins. “It was a difficult, boring time for the band. Going into ‘No Blues’ was the time where we all got proper jobs. Previously we’d all been very fortunate to be doing the band as a full-time thing. We knew that wouldn’t last forever.”

Forced to take a back seat to the realities of making a living, the band came under pressure to call it quits. “People we worked with previously encouraged us to stop being a band, said it wasn’t worth doing anymore,” explains Gareth. This negative response forced them to confront some nagging issues. “We were frustrated with how ‘No Blues’ was handled. We felt it was dusted under the carpet as soon as it came out.”