To say I was scared of this interview would be an understatement. Over the years, Jason Williamson has built quite a reputation through his work with Sleaford Mods. And not always the most flattering one. On the band’s new album, The Demise of Planet X, however, he seems to be coming to terms with that.
And, as usual, he turned out to be an absolutely lovely bloke in person. We chatted about his feuds with various artists, collaborations with others, AI, and the making of the band’s latest album, among other things.
Sleaford Mods will play Warsaw’s Stodoła on November 1. Make sure to read the interview to get ready for the show!
[MOŻESZ TO TEŻ PRZECZYTAĆ PO POLSKU]
So I have to start the interview with something that caught my attention on the new album, and I think it caught the attention of a lot of people. It’s of course the song The Good Life and the fact that you are coming to terms with slagging other bands off. When did you decide that enough is enough?
Well, you know, I still do it, but it’s interesting why I do it, you know what I mean? And particularly with certain bands in the past, it’s like, why was I doing that really? I think that was because I was jealous, you know, envious. And so after I came to that conclusion, it was like: “Why am I getting jealous and envious?” And so I started to look into that, because I would react to it so vehemently bad that I would become obsessive. And so that’s not a natural reaction to have. No. Sure, you can be annoyed with bands. Bands can annoy you, you can pass comment, but you forget about it, you know what I mean? You move on. But I just wouldn’t. I wouldn’t move on. So it was like, why am I doing this? You know, that’s what The Good Life is about. It’s like, it’s about trying to find the reasons why, and then kind of moving away from them, you know what I mean?
You’ve made amends with some of these bands, particularly Idles, right? Was it hard?
No, not really. I just emailed them and that was it. I think, you know, I felt a bit stupid, as you would. You know, I gave Joe Talbot in particular a lot of bad criticism. And, you know, that’s not right. It was very questionable after a while. So, you know, as much as other people would probably disagree with that, I was like: “No, enough’s enough”. You know, they’re not the problem. You know, he certainly isn’t the problem. Idles aren’t the problem. Just because I don’t like their aesthetic, because I’m not a fan, you know, because I might find them this or that, does that mean that they’re inherently evil people? And the way I was becoming obsessed with that kind of displayed that kind of behaviour.
I think that a lot of that rivalry and beefs and stuff is deeply rooted in contemporary british culture. Blur vs Oasis etc. What do you think about it? Do you think that you maybe fell into that at some point?
Yeah, I mean, don’t get me wrong, I still believe in it in some degree, but I don’t think that obsessively attacking one person in particular is healthy and it goes beyond criticism. And that goes beyond the british tradition of, you know, in music anyway, of slagging people off, you know what I mean? I think these days now, social media and everything else, people just can’t be bothered. If someone tries to attack me, I just ignore it. What’s the point? What’s the fucking point in going back at you? Say it to my face, you know? And of course people don’t. So I don’t really give out criticisms anymore because of that really. I mean, if I do, it’s very fleeting, and if the person wants to take me up on it, I’m quite happy to do that.
Yeah, and I think at some point people started to expect that from you. That’s another thing you are talking about on the new album. People having expectations about your life and behaviour and even criticising you, because you’re living well.
Yeah, I think that again was really weird. You know, people sort of making comments about your house or your car. What the fuck are you doing that for? That’s almost like, you know, they’re sort of like walking around, spying on my domestic situation. It’s like people feel that they’ve got the right to do that, and you haven’t got the right to do that. You know, I put myself into the public domain, but so what? You ain’t got the right to do that.
You’ve managed to bring an impressive team of featuring artists on the new album. How did it work out?
Yeah, you know, it wasn’t planned that way. It was just whatever we needed to make the song complete. Some of those ideas I would sing myself, but it just didn’t work. So it was like: “Okay, we need to bring someone in”. And that is what we did with Elitist G.O.A.T. particularly and The Good Life. Also No Touch with Sue Tompkins and Snowy and Liam Bailey as well. These were all components that we felt needed to happen within the song.
How did you convince Gwendoline Christie, who wasn’t a musician before, to collaborate?
Gwendoline had been talking with me on Instagram for quite a while, and she wanted to do something. I suggested a video. She was not interested really in a video. It was more so being on a song. So I fashioned a verse for her and I told her how to kind of perform it, which she was totally cool with. And she just went with it, you know. She did it in 2 takes. It was quite something. Bam.
The new album is like your most varied to date. Was the process behind it any different than before?
Yes, in the sense of Andrew produced more, because he normally does a lot of the engineering as well as a lot of the producing. But why don’t we just get the producer to engineer that we pay in the studio every day to engineer, and me and you would do the production side of things, you know what I mean?And that’s how we did it. It was quite miraculous really. It really did turn things around for us. I think the songs are a lot bigger because of that. So, you know, it’d be interesting to see where we go, you know, next year when we start recording the new album.
You’ve recorded that album in 3 studios. I know JT Soar in Notttingham is your home place. But then there’s Abbey Road and Invada. Did the particular places influence the music you’ve made here?
Yeah, of course. Well, just in the sense of doing it somewhere differently, you know. It was just nice to have a different surrounding, and we would stay in these places for up to a week. You know, we did a week in Abbey Road and then we did a week at Invada, and then we went back to Invada for about another 2 or 3 days, and we spent another day back at Abbey Road as well. So, you know, it really did switch it up for us. It was quite the thing.
There’s a lot of history, especially in Abbey Road, right? Did you feel good there? Like, wasn’t it a little bit out of place?
Yeah, it is out of place, totally. But it’s such a beautiful area. They made us feel very welcome, you know. It was a really good week. It was quite an eye-opener, to be honest. We were doing lots of working from the ground up with the songs in the sense of creating the music with actual instruments rather than just relying on Andrew’s beats. He was realising some of the rough guitar ideas I’d send him over on voice notes and he’d bring them to life in a completely different way, which is really interesting.
What inspires you the most right now in the musical sense?
Death metal.
Oh, cool! So I guess the next album is going to have some of that?
I don’t know if it works for Sleaford, but death metal and black metal are definitely on my radar at the minute, without a doubt. But we’ll see, you never know.
Yeah, of course. On this new album, you are singing a lot about global politics, like war, genocide, etc. Of course, you were a young lad in the ’80s, but do you see any similarities between ’80s and current times?
Yeah, yes, some. You know, there’s just no hope in this country. There’s very little direction. There’s no industry. What is there? And I think, you know, there’s something of a technological revolution, isn’t there? Particularly with AI and the internet. So the way industry is now shaped is digitally almost. So it’s a strange one really. But yeah, of course there’s lots of wars, there’s a threat of nuclear war, there’s, you know, hostilities between Russia and god knows who else and blah, blah, blah. So yes, there are some comparisons with that.
I guess you’re not a big fan of AI, are you?
I don’t mind it. I use it, but I’m not really convinced about it as a tool for music. You’ve got to train AI, and if it doesn’t know anything, then it’s just gonna come up with a pile of shit. You can train it and eventually I would imagine it can get to a point where it can do things for you that you spend twice as much time doing yourself. But also, I’m not really interested, you know. I still think it’s in its infancy, publicly anywayt’s,. It’s still very broad, isn’t it? So it’s not really for me at the minute.
On November 1st, you’re coming to Warsaw, where I come from, to headline a show. Your music, your lyrics, I think your whole self is of course deeply rooted in Great Britain. Do you feel that performing in continental Europe or anywhere outside the UK, the understanding and connection with your music is different?
There is a difference, but I think the understanding is the same as it is in England. I think some people have problems with the language perhaps, but I think the general energy of Sleaford Mods is very universal. You know, it’s something that a lot of people can understand.
What’s next for Sleaford Mods? You said that a new album is coming.
Yeah, hopefully a new album next year that we’ll get done or the year after, who knows? Yet next year might be another year off. It might not be. I think we’re doing a few gigs next year. I think there’ll be a slow rollout of studio time, and then we’ll see what happens after that.
Sure. Any idea of, you know, how it will sound?
No, not at all, really. Like Sleaford Mods, I guess. But there’s 3 or 4 demos I’m working on currently, and I keep looking at from time to time and they’re really interesting. So it’ll be quite interesting to see how it plays out.
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