An IDLES show is an exercise in tension and release. From the first monotonous notes of “Colossus,” the British band contracts and expands like candy. It's tension and release for both the band and the Hong Kong audience, a process IDLES refers to as the “energy transfer” that brings them together. IDLES like to tear themselves apart, of course, but it can't come from aggression, anger or disappointment, even if vocalist Joe Talbot explains those feelings. He has to come from love.
Love is the guiding factor not only of the next IDLES album TANGK (available February 16), but the project as a whole. speaking to Consequence At Hong Kong's Clockenflap Festival in December, Talbot and guitarist Mark Bowen found kindred spirits: “The energy we create as a band is certainly understood, because our audience and we give everything we have,” Bowen says.
According to Talbot, all his songs are love songs, and not just the songs of TANGK, not just the songs that are about romantic connection. It refers to love in the grandest and broadest way, a love that transcends labels and extends to the closest body. “Every album I've written comes from love, and it's not more or less political, it's not more or less true, it's not more or less intimate. “It's exactly what it's always been, which is me trying to connect with something much bigger than myself,” Talbot says. “Sometimes people don't look beyond the two dimensions of what they hear. They think because I'm yelling I'm angry. Or if I criticize the authorities, it is political.”
In the IDLES universe, every song, album or stage madness must be a hand extended outward. Just this year, IDLES toured the United States at the RE:Set festival (along with TANGK collaborators LCD Soundsystem), they played festivals everywhere, from Corona Capital in Guadalajara, Mexico to Australia's Splendor in the Grass and Japan's Fuji Rock Festival, and even celebrated their first Grammy nominations for 2021. TRACTOR.
With TANGK On the way, IDLES has another open-hearted offering that will connect them with fans around the world in 2024 and beyond. “Our message is love and I write about the human condition, right?” says Talbot. Consequence. “That's understandable in all languages because when we play it live, you see our energy, you feel our energy and you hear our energy.”
Read the full Q&A with IDLES' Joe Talbot and Mark Bowen below and get tickets to IDLES' 2024 tour here. Also, check out Mark Bowen's list of the 10 Rock Albums Every Fan Should Own here.
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