Page 459 - Guildhall Coverage Book 2020-21

“I find myself simultaneously cringing and lusting after him, thinking he’s kind of sexy
and a complete moron.” explains Wood. “He’s not the best lyricist in the world, but
what he is is entirely, entirely honest – you can tell it’s exactly what this guy is actually
thinking. If we’re going to get anything out of someone rambling about their boring
life, at least you can get an insight into how people actually think, rather than just a
version of what people would like to think, or is interesting to think.”

Watching early Black Country, New Road
shows across 2019, there was a ferocity to
Wood’s performance that quickly stopped
seeming like an affectation. Dressed in a
schoolboy jumper and stood at gunpoint
stiffness, he would yelp words with a
terrifying intensity, as though urgently
disclosing state secrets whilst being
bundled away by the SAS. Just what was
going on? “Really early on I was just shit
scared, and kind of angry and confused
and simultaneously felt like I really had
some point to prove. I was very anxious
and impatient and all… hot. This was a
genuine by-product of being scared, and
talking about stupid things while you’re
singing, and feeling a bit emotionally
intense basically.”

Wood was due to return to the stage back
in November for Black Country, New
Road’s string of socially-distanced gigs,
which were – sadly, but not unsurprisingly
– pushed back, while another tour has been optimistically scheduled for February and
March this year. The group are at pains to point out that it isn’t south London guitar
bands that warrant sympathy during the pandemic. Infact, they were lucky to sign
their record deal at the start of 2020, recording their album in the weeks just before
lockdown – six days in total, a track a day, no messing.

Black Country, New Road are already looking ahead, too, towards a second album –
though you won’t be seeing any more of them on social media. “Avoiding that means
people can listen to the music for the music, not for us as people,” says Evans. “If I was
head of UNICEF, then fair enough, you could write a bit about how I’m the head of
UNICEF.” A pause. “But I’m not the head of UNICEF.”