The last time we spoke to Birmingham boys The Clause, you couldn’t drink a pint at the pub unless you also ordered a sausage roll, and Boris Johnson was still calling the shots at No 10. It’s safe to say a lot has changed since then, and not just at Downing Street...
After catching their triumphant early set at Live at Leeds in the Park, we channelled our inner Jacob Marley on Christmas Eve, and sat down with The Clause to give them a serious quizzing about their past, present and future.
DARKUS: Hey The Clause! We actually witnessed people sprinting across the festival site to make it to your set today, singing along as they went. You pulled a huge crowd to say you had a relatively modest start time of 1pm - how does it feel to receive this sort of support so far from home?
The Clause: It’s great man! We’ve worked for a long time to get to this stage- people running across the field singing our tunes! We were a bit worried this morning thinking it could be a bit rubbish being this early on but we were pleasantly surprised- it was a good one! And this never usually happens- if you go to a festival early on in the day it’s usually super quiet.
DARKUS: Any interesting pre-show rituals to get you in the mood?
The Clause: We’re pretty boring these days, just vocal warm ups!
DARKUS: Keeping things professional!
The Clause: I can't lie, I wasn't feeling it at all before we went on stage… I’ve just come back from Italy last night and I was sitting there knackered beforehand. The rest of the boys were up at quarter to six this morning to get here, so we were sitting in the van backstage like absolute zombies. Couple of beers sorted us out though!
What was the beer of choice?
Heinken. That’s what we got given… so that’s the beer of choice!
It always seems to be Heineken on the rider at festivals…
That or red stripe - can’t be picky! To be fair, thinking about it we do usually have a little pre-show huddle before we go on stage, but it felt too weird doing it at half 12.
The last time we caught up with you in 2020, you had just dropped 'Time of Our Lives,' a gritty, rock-heavy track. Now, with your new single 'Take Me Home' taking center stage, how would you describe the evolution of your sound over the past four years?
It’s definitely more mature. That’s probably the proper word for it! We were still very wet behind the ears at that stage- still just kids really. I think we’ve grown as people and as musicians since then, refined our sound into what it is now. Removed all of that youthfulness that was getting in the way!
So how did the new single come about?
(Laughing) Well I’ve just banged on about how we’ve moved on from what we were like when we started out, but we actually wrote most of the song when I was about 17. It’s one of those that’s been sitting on a shelf and hasn’t been touched for a while. We picked it up towards the end of last year and the song just fell into place for the first time. We got into a practice room and jammed it out. That’s what we like to do really- just get together and have a jam like we’re schoolkids again!
(One of the boys interjects) I remember you showing me that in about year 10!
Sometimes you do that though with riffs you’ve had for years… they only make sense years later. You keep something in the locker and then revisit it when the time’s right.
The evolution and changing sound of rock bands as they mature is a topic which has been sparking a lot of discussion recently. It’s probably an over- used comparison but Arctic Monkeys are a classic example, transitioning from 'Whatever People Say I Am' to 'AM,' and now 'The Car.' If you could peer into the future five years from now, what direction do you think you might have taken your music in?
That’s a hard one… I reckon we’ll have a whole orchestra! The thing is, if you asked Alex Turner when he was 19 if he could ever imagine himself writing a concept album about a hotel on the moon, he’d be like “what are you on about?!” I don’t think you ever know what’s going to happen until it happens.
(other band members) I could see you coming to us with an acid house album!
There's your headline! The clause are going Acid House in 2030.
You grew up in Birmingham whilst the infamous 2010s B-town scene was in full swing. Did spending time in the city as teens during this era shape your sound at all?
Well, we met at a jaws gig when we were 16! But we actually always felt that that sort of sound wouldn't work for us, because there were already so many bands doing the same thing. We’re influenced by the sound a bit, but it wouldn't make sense to try and emulate it. We’ve always just been into what we’re into and enjoyed doing our own thing.
I also think that the sound was and still is actually bigger outside of Birmingham in some ways. We can still go and play the other end of the country and so many bands we meet will say ‘ah you’re from Brum - we love all of those bands!’ But in Birmingham I think things have simmered away. That time period was probably a bit before us too - 2013 was probably the peak and we were a bit late to the party. We were in Year 8!
Before we dive into chatting about your headline tour, let's talk about the support slots you've had in the past couple of years. Do you have a particular favourite?
I couldn’t pick one out of fear of upsetting the others! Most recently we’ve been on tour with The K’s - they’re absolutely smashing it, and that’s probably been our best tour in terms of crowd reaction. It felt like those sets were headline sets, the fans were so incredible with us across the tour. And then obviously before that we were on tour with The Reytons, who were absolutely going to the moon during that time. We’ve been really lucky to tour with a lot of not just good bands, but good people as well.
And both of those bands have super loyal fans - the sort who make a point of showing up early to support the opening acts as well.
Exactly. Lottery Winners was a big one for that as well. They made a real effort to tell their fans to get down early to catch us.
Any big lessons you’ve taken from those tours?
The craft is a huge one obviously, but also not to take yourself too seriously! You’d be surprised at how normal they all are, even though that sounds cliche. They’re doing something that feels authentic to them, and that’s one of the biggest things we’ve taken from all of the tours we’ve done.
Now you’ve got your own huge headline tour coming…
We’ve honestly been blown away by it. Tickets have flown out. It’s a pretty big tour and we’re playing some big venues. You’re always hopeful you’ll do a decent job of selling them out- and selling all of them out, that’s the goal! Mondays are the worst day of the week, because you get that dreaded ticket sale update, but we were blown away by the first update when we got it back. Sheffield in particular has been amazing, we sold out the second room in two weeks, so the Leadmill came back to us and said to have a shot at the main room, so we’re gonna give that a go!
I wonder if ticket sales in Sheffield have been boosted by your popularity whilst on tour with the Reytons, who hail from the city’s next door neighbour Rotherham?
I think it is, you know! It’s so weird because when we did our first tour back after covid in 2021, we went back to Sheffield and only sold 30 tickets, and we thought what’s happened there? But the tour after we sold out a 200 cap, so we were like ah ok, there they are haha- they’re back! So selling this out and the main room is going to be unreal.
You’re closing out the tour with a hometown set at the O2 Birmingham- do you find you feel more comfortable playing to a home crowd, or does it add some extra nerves?
It’s always nice to finish at home when you haven’t seen your friends and family in weeks. It’s basically a big communal piss up -we’ll get to see all of our mates finishing at home, so it just feels like a really nice and natural end to the tour. I think hopefully it might be a bit more relaxed than last time too- there were a few bad dreams beforehand last time about no one turning up. It’s always nervy though, we haven’t headlined in
Brum for a while, so we’re really excited to be rounding off the year there. We’re gonna go and have a big party after and get a taxi home without having to worry about being hungover in the van. Amazing.
The tour shares its name with your second EP ‘The Weekend Millionaire’, which is set for release this summer. Can you tell us any more?
The one thing we can say is that we’re about to release our best songs yet. We’ve literally just wrapped up in the studio, so it’s going to be a big couple of months for us coming up! Hopefully everyone agrees with us when the songs come out haha… you never know, we might release it and everyone's like what are they on about there? But we like them!
The Clause kick off their 15 date tour on November 8th, with their EP set for release this summer.
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Article By Maddi Fearne
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