Lonely the Brave interview: 'The next album needs to be something special'

Guitarist Mark Trotter on the constant ‘lust’ for new music, channelling rage into records and being a reluctant proxy frontman

‘I really like the idea that there isn’t a definitive version of a song,’ Trotter says (Daniel Ackerley)

If you've been to one of Lonely The Brave's gigs, you will have noticed how their lead singer David Jakes is likely to stand near the back of the stage during the show. By now the band's guitarist, Mark Trotter, is used used to questions about it.

“I don’t care where Dave is, as long as he sings," he shrugs. "I’ll stand beside him, in front of him, underneath him, behind him, I don’t care."

At the suggestion he serves as a kind of proxy frontman, interacting with the audience in between tracks, he tries to play down his own abilities. “I try, but it’s not comfortable. It’s not a natural thing. But I get it from Dave’s point of view. I do it because someone has to. But given the choice I wouldn’t,” he says.


 
 (Ben Gibson)

As humble as Trotter is about his abilities as a showman, the band’s stage set-up works well. His enthusiasm and vigour shines through with little bits of small talk here and there, while an element of mystery is maintained around Jakes (“I’m not just blowing sunshine up his arse because he’s my mate, but he’s got one of the best voices I’ve ever heard,” Trotter says).

But after five years of relentless touring, Lonely the Brave are taking a break. For Trotter, that means he can be a dad to his two “very little people”, but it also gives the band time to regroup and think about the next record. The guitarist speaks with steely determination when he says that the next album “needs to be something special”.

Despite being dropped by their label, Trotter doesn’t seem to have let it put a dampener on his ambition. He still speaks about his music with the kind of youthful hunger that usually dissipates after a couple of albums and relentless touring. There’s still more work to be done; places to conquer.

That ambition is in abundance on Lonely the Brave’s new redux album as they set about completely reworking each song from their second record, Things Will Matter. “I really like the idea that there isn’t a definitive version of a song,” Trotter says. “It’s that age-old thing: once it’s there, it’s done, that’s it. Well it is, yeah, but there’s nothing to say we can’t just completely f*** around with it and do what we want with it afterwards.”


 Feel the noise: Lonely the Brave performing at Reading Festival 
 (Joshua Halling)

There’s always a risk when rerecording old tracks that the results could be gimmicky, but Things Will Matter (Redux) is anything but. The album is awash with mellow synths, fingerpicked guitar and processed drums that leave plenty of room to showcase the band’s best asset: Jakes’ haunting vocals. “Rattlesnakes”, perhaps the standout track on the new record, sounds like it’s been plucked straight from the final scene of an American teen drama on Netflix: Jakes’ emotive lyrics sitting on top of a beautifully simple, high-register piano riff.

On whether they experienced the dreaded 'Second Album Syndrome', Trotter says, “Yes and no. I think for different reasons. I think a lot of the time it’s the difficult second album because you’ve got to write it and that’s scary.” But the reason it was difficult for Lonely the Brave, Trotter says, is that they were dropped by Columbia Records as they were making arrangements to record the original version of their second album.

“There’s an element in that record, from all of us, of ‘OK, f*** it’. And I think you can feel that on certain tracks – not that there was ever a discussion about it, but we were pretty f***ed off.” He laughs. “And I think that shines through on some of it.”

Although it must have been difficult at the time, Trotter is more upbeat about it now. “It is what it is. Would we still have the same control over our records as we do now? I dunno … I’m not going to sit here and be bitter about it.”

Another challenge, he says, is having to deal with the constant “lust” for new music. “We’d been on tour for the last record, it would have been out eight weeks or something and people were like, ‘When’s the new record coming out?’” This doesn’t appear to be a complaint by any means, but as Trotter puts it: “It’s just difficult to keep up with.”

‘Things Will Matter (Redux)’ is out now via Hassle Records