Page 457 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

“It’s very strange,” concedes Isaac Wood, 22-year-old singer and guitarist of the south
London seven-piece. “It’s this weird American guy who basically insisted he take
control of our Instagram accounts. He’ll give me a location and a time just a few hours
in advance, often somewhere very weird in the West End. We’ll meet, he’ll stuff some
documents in my hands and say OK – here’s the idea, this is going to be huge.” Their
debut album – For The First Time, released next month via Ninja Tune – was no
exception, its sleeve showing three people ascending a hill. “He was like, there’s no
discussion, this is it.”

But why would a band described by leftfield music site The Quietus as “the best in the
entire world now” defer to the vision of a stranger? “I don’t think we had a choice at
that point,” Wood claims, “he’d sort of infiltrated our lives.”

If it all sounds a bit strange, then that’s just the half of it. Along with Black Country,
New Road’s odd cocktail of genres, Isaac is renowned for his anxiety-ridden lyrical
collages which reel off zeitgeisty references: NutriBullets, black midi, Kendall Jenner,
the antidepressant Sertraline, thank u, next.

Black Country, New Road are part of an increasingly interesting crop of guitar acts
centred around Brixton’s Windmill – an old-fashioned pub venue whose commitment
to live music has seen it become crucial in the development of bands like Squid, black
midi, PVA and Goat Girl. While guitar music may be less prominent than ever in
contemporary culture, that’s not stopped record labels scramble to sign all of the
above.

Every member of Black Country, New Road was previously in a band called Nervous
Conditions, who split in 2018 due to allegations of sexual assault against the singer.
Speaking individually via Zoom calls from their various London bedrooms, the group
describe the immediate aftermath of that split as a dark time, and it was uncertain