With their energetic anthems and secretive, DIY shows, The Novus quickly proved themselves to be one of the most essential Birmingham acts. Connor and Euan joined me for a discussion about Krautrock, Joy Division and The Quantum Centre.
Are you currently working on anything new?
Connor (lead singer and occasional tambourine player): “It’s constant… we’re always working on stuff. There’s this thing that we recorded a few weeks ago that we haven’t properly released yet. Loads of new music and we’re just planning our next headliner.”
Euan (Drummer): “We’ve had to push the gig back a month. It’s just one of those things. According to guidelines at the moment it’s still ok. When you get mixed messages from the government, getting people to actually buy a ticket is tough. I’m the same though. When you see anyone announce a gig you constantly think ‘I really want to buy a ticket’ but I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Connor: “Yeah. At the moment our gig is completely socially distanced so a maximum of two people can sit in a 1 metre box that is two metres away from another box. It probably means that we’re going to have to do multiple shows in one day to accommodate everybody. We were meant to do a gig in April but we went into lockdown so we cancelled it… then we put this one up for September and had to postpone it so theoretically we have had to postpone our next headliner three times now.”
How has Covid-19 affected you as a band?
Connor: “It’s pushed us to move in together in July. That made everything so much easier because we couldn’t properly meet up.”
Euan: “We were planning on doing it last year but we didn’t because Connor was in London. But it’s great… there’s always something going on. We’ve all got our instruments set up around the house. I’ve got my keyboard and my drums set up in my bedroom. And then… (Looks at Connor)… err well, you don’t really have anything. But we have loads of amps in the living room just in case we ever want to play.”
How did the band meet?
Connor: “Me, Tom and Tyla all went to school together so I’ve known them since we were 11. We were in a band and then we sort of made The Novus. A few months later we played with a band that Euan was in called The Life at The Victoria. We kept in touch and few months down the line we lost our drummer as he went to uni to do medicine. The first person we asked was Euan because we’d clicked really well. Even though we’d been called The Novus before, that was really the start of it. I think we started writing more maturely as well.”
Is there a story behind Man on The Bridge?
Connor: “There is. It’s weird talking about it because that song was written over two years ago.”
Euan: “It was written before I was even in the band.”
Connor: “Yeah, just before Euan joined and we have only just released it. So it feels really weird how in our timeline, you’re two years behind. But yeah, there’s a man who dances on a bridge in Camden in his underwear and he’s absolutely ripped. He must be in his eighties and he just stands there all day, with his headphones in. If you watch the video, you will actually see him. It’s crazy… he’s there for about eight hours a day.”
Euan: “We used to see him a lot in Camden. There has been some new footage so it’s good to know he hasn’t died or anything (laughs).”
My favourite song of yours is PMF, what’s the song about?
Connor: “I think really it was the start of our more mature writing.”
Euan: “It was the first song we had all wrote together.”
Connor: “It really fits in with the times that we are in at the moment. We’re talking about dynamics and concepts of dystopia and PMF was the start of that really. It’s asking can you really be affective in change on your own or do you have to be part of a group?”
Euan: “I think you can really tell that it’s the first song we all wrote together. It’s inspired by a lot of Krautrock. When we were recording it, we were listening to a lot of NEU! And I think you can hear a lot of the influence from that. And then we just added a bit of Post-Punk.”
What are your opinions on the Birmingham music scene?
Connor: “I think it’s a really supportive scene. We’ve noticed when we’ve toured the UK that we seem to know a lot more bands in the scene. I think the only place comparable with Birmingham is Manchester. Manchester bands all know each other and Birmingham bands all know each other. I think it goes in waves – our wave were bands like Sugarthief, The Clause, Violet and Pretty Vile. There’s a new push of bands now that are coming through and supporting us and that’s what we did with our wave. Tim Senna (BBC Introducing presenter) said to us the other day ‘It’s weird to see loads of new bands that didn’t exist two years ago.’ I think the scene is getting better and I think people are more supportive of each other now. It used to feel like a competition… there was a real toxic energy with it.”
Euan: “The West Midlands is a bit of weird place really. A lot of modern music comes from London or up north. When you think of the West Midlands you think of Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. A lot of the most famous Birmingham artists are from the 70’s but there’s such a vibrant collection of new bands all coming together. Most people think ‘Well who’s came out of Birmingham’ but if you look, there’s so many great artists.”
Connor: “We keep on being compared to bands from Stourbridge because Me, Tom and Tyla are all from there. And obviously there’s band’s like Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and The Wonder Stuff who still play in Stourbridge all the time. Whenever they play Stourbridge Town Hall people always tag us in the comments asking us to play.”
Are there any bands from Birmingham you would like to give a shout-out to?
Euan: “Violet, Cage Park and The Pagans S.O.H.”
Connor: “The Clause lads are doing really well at the moment. They’ve got a lot bigger over the last 12 months. I feel gutted for them because they were planning some really big things but their last show was class.”
What’s the band’s favourite venue to play?
Connor: “In Birmingham? It would have to be The Quantum Centre. We love Mama Roux’s. In terms of where we played before, we played Supersonic in Paris and it was incredible. It’s got a balcony and it was fucking class. It was just amazing.”
Euan: “The weird thing about that venue is there’s a big fucking pillar where the mosh pit should be.”
Connor: “We were encouraged to stay in the dressing room before we went on stage. The dressing room was on the top floor so we had to go down some stairs to the balcony and some more stairs to the stage. The dressing room was bigger than The Sunflower Lounge which is absolutely crazy. There were sofas, a Pac-man machine and a foosball table. It was mental. There was Hummus, bread and wine as well.”
Euan: “I’m sure there’s another English venue but we haven’t played a gig in so long that you forget how great these places are.”
Connor: “The Amersham arms in London is very cool. And The Old Blue Last.”
How do you record your songs?
Connor: “We record with Gavin Monaghan from The Magic Garden. There’s Gavin, Liam and Joe and they’re lovely people who make your music sound huge. They work alongside you rather than with you.”
Euan: “We’ve built up such a friendship with them that whenever you go in, it just feels really comfortable. You can just throw out ideas… er, I hate when I say ‘throw out ideas’… makes me sound really pretentious. But you can just say ideas and if it’s shit they’ll tell you.”
Connor: “We just take the piss really which is an ultimate vibe. But Gavin’s equipment is just incredible. PMF was recorded on the same desk that Bowie did Space Oddity. The last track we just recorded was done on Martin Hannett’s desk which Joy Division used.”
Euan: “We were the first people in ages to use that desk. When we’d got to the studio they had just finished installing it. Recording on something Ian Curtis’ voice has been through was just baffling to us, especially as big fans of Joy Division. I think even if we amount to nothing, that’s something I can look back on and say ‘That was sick’.”
If the opportunity arose, would you sign to a major label?
Connor: “I don’t think beggars can be choosers… (Laughs). We’ve had talks with Sony before and talked to one of the heads of the label. We would sign a deal that would be beneficial to us and our team. It doesn’t have to be with Sony or Island. We love what Partisan are doing with IDLES and Fontaines D.C. There’s loads of great indie labels out there. We don’t really mind what the label is as long as the contract would be right for us.”
Which is your favourite song of yours?
Connor: “PMF is probably the favourite. I really like Darkness and it’s probably the most underrated song on our Spotify. I think it’s a really good song with some amazing harmonica parts that Gav did for us. The new stuff’s unreal. I’m not just saying that – we’ve never clicked as much as we do on the new songs. We’re sitting on five new songs and they are exactly what we want our band to sound like.”
What’s the best gig you have ever played?
Euan: “Supersonic in Paris. Either that or The Quantum Centre. We hired a stage and built everything. We got there at 9 in the morning and spent all day setting it up. I spent most of the day on scaffolding trying to help Connor rig lights up… it was absolutely terrifying. I just remember the feeling of walking onto a stage that you have built and there’s people who have come to see you… you get a really weird rush.”
Connor: “We went from about 100 Capacity venues to 400 in about 4 and a half months. We did a secret headliner at a 100 Cap venue and sold it out… we were like ‘Oh my god, this is fucking incredible.’ And then we did the 400 Cap venue and it’s insane. I don’t know another band that personally puts up their own lights. Everything was done DIY – we drove down to London to pick up a load of gear. Then we played a gig in London on that same day, woke up really early the next morning, drove back up and started setting things up.”
Euan: “There’s a YouTube channel called on the verge who recorded the whole concert and at the end of the video, there’s a time lapse of us setting up our own stage. It’s really funny though because I walk like a fucking div.”
Connor: “But then Paris was great because we were expecting 20 people and there were 300 – in a city that doesn’t speak our language and in a country we’ve never been to before. I just wish we had taken some merch! Would have made a few quid.”
Why do you perform DIY shows?
Connor: “Freedom I suppose. It’s so we’re not like (in a monotonous voice) ‘oh we’re playing the Institute, come see my band it’s 7 quid, there will be five support acts.’ As much as we don’t want to play that down to anybody that does do that… there’s nothing wrong with doing that but we’ve done it and it wasn’t working for us. So we decided to do something different and hope that it worked… if it didn’t we would of gone back to the drawing board. But it works and we love it.”
Euan: “Whenever we do a headline gig, we don’t want it to be just another gig, we want it to be a show. Say you have an idea for the show, it’s easier to go and do it yourself than go to the 02 academy and do it through their team. You’d just be limiting yourself because it’s already been built.”
Connor: “We could do a gig were we are in the middle of the room and everyone’s around the stage but at a typical 02 venue, you can’t do that. We also are planning to do video projections and pyrotechnics and at most venue it’s very strenuous to do that. If you hire a warehouse people will say ‘Ok, it’s your responsibility but you can do it’.”
Who does the song writing in the band?
Connor: “We all do it to some extent really. Individual people come up with ideas and we all put them together. Me and Euan tend to write harmonies and we all write lyrics together.”
Euan: “Tom or Tyla will write some melodic thing and I’ll write my own bits to it. Everyone bar me contributes quite a lot to the lyrics.”
Connor: “(To Euan) Yeah but your contributing more. The other day Euan went into my ‘book of depression’.”
Euan: “(Laughs) yeah, never will again, haha.”
What was the inspiration behind the song Break?
Connor: “God that was ages ago. I used to be really heavily involved in politics and Tom and Tyla used to hate it. Then all of a sudden they clicked onto it and the song just came out of the rage they had with the establishment. Why is it that we’re in the 21st century and pale, white, old men still run the country? Why is there no diversity?”
Euan: “We stopped writing about politics because at the end of the day, we realised it doesn’t really do much… well, that’s what I think. Whoever you vote in will go to the top and will do what they can to stay at the top.”
Connor: “It was at the time when we thought a song could change the world and it can but… it’s definitely one of our more immature songs. We still love playing it live though.”
What are your political opinions?
Connor: “We are all left wing. You can’t be a student in Birmingham or be in a band that tours the country for fuck all and say you’re a Tory. We’re not right wing at all.”
Where are you aiming to be in a years time?
Connor: “Hopefully being able to play a gig to more than ten people socially distancing in a room. Basically wherever the music takes us, mate. We’d love to play to people at festivals. We just really miss playing live. We’re known for our live shows in Birmingham.”
If you could open for any band who would it be?
Euan: “Nick cave.”
Connor: “Probably the Foo Fighters or Red Hot Chilli Peppers. (Euan looks a little unhappy) You’re telling me that you don’t want to open for the Chilli Peppers?!
Euan: “Foo Fighters? I wouldn’t turn it down but there’s so many better arena bands out there. (Looks at Connor) Yeah sure, Dave Grohl’s nice but anybody that’s publically nice has to have a weird side. Savages would be great. White Lies are my favourite band in the world so that would be good… it’s a bold statement but I’ve been following them since 2008 and I love all the music.”
Connor: “We’d love to support some smaller bands as well. The Murder Capital, Fontaines D.C. and IDLES would all be class.”
What’s the most exciting thing to happen to the band so far?
Connor: “We headlined the BBC Introducing stage at Camper Calling festival last year. It was our first festival. Nobody else was on at the same time as us so it started off with a few people and then all of a sudden a massive crowd just filtered in. People bought our merch afterwards and it was crazy because we had never played anything that big before. We did a couple of dates afterwards around the country, in a van. We all smelt really bad afterwards.”
Euan: “My brother Harry is a live member that plays with us and by the end of it he was basically dead. He doesn’t cope very well in the van. He went to lie down in the van and before we went on we went to wake him up… he was just white. We thought he might die.”
How do you think the internet has impacted the music industry?
Connor: “I think a lot of us would have really struggled over the last few months without it. Having said that, we keep on giving to it and it keeps on dicking us over as an industry. It’s made people realise that live streams can’t replace real gigs.”
Euan: “I did a 2000 word dissertation on how the internet has affected the music industry so I could rant about it for years. With the Internet, you’ve got more of a chance of being discovered. You don’t need a label to promote yourself at all. At the same time, there’s so much music so the profit goes down. It’s very diluted now.”
When can we expect to hear new music from you?
Connor: “Very soon. Definitely by the end of the year… late November, early December. The track we’re planning on releasing is really fucking good. I love it.”
All Photos used are credited to Max Auberon
The Novus Links
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Twitter - https://twitter.com/TheNovusBan
Instagram - https://instagram.com/thenovusband
Interview by Aidan McGuire
Insta - https://www.instagram.com/aidan._mcg/
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