It’s been five years since ’90s shoegazers-turned-indie-pop-experimentalists, The Boo Radleys, reformed without original songwriter and guitarist, Martin Carr.
Since then, singer/guitarist, Sice Rowbottom; Tim Brown (bass, keys, guitar) and Rob Cieka (drums and percussion) have made two albums: 2022’s Keep On With Falling and 2023’s Eight, and now they’re back with a third, In Spite of Everything, which is the best of the three.
It features the band’s touring guitarist, Louis Smith, giving the record more of a full-band sound, and a heavier and harder edge than the two albums that came before it. There are full-on, infectious indie-rock-meets-synth-pop bangers like ‘Living Is Easy’ and ‘Bring Them Back Again’, the spacey ballad, ‘Hey, I Know,’ and a nod to the band’s noisy, shoegaze roots with ‘Wasn’t I Enough?’, with its wall of guitar feedback.
Some of the songs, like ‘Living Is Easy,’ and the heartbreaking and stark ‘Song For Natalie’, address grief and loss – in 2024, Tim Brown’s eldest son died – but as frontman Sice, who, in his day job, works as a chartered psychologist, explains to Say It With Garage Flowers, in an exclusive interview, the record is about hope as well as sadness.
“The songs that were very personal to Tim, I left alone, but some of my stuff was influenced by Tim’s loss as well – lyrically, we agreed that there would be a balance of sadness and hope,” he tells us. “That’s how we’ve dealt with it – there has to be something that you live for.”
Q&A
This is your third album since the band reformed, and your ninth in total. How did you approach the new record?
Sice: It was more organic than the others – when we [first] came back, we had more of an intention: ‘This song is going to be like this, and this song is going to be a bit like that…’
We didn’t intend to make this album – it was only down to the loss of Tim’s son. He fell into music as solace and I fell into it alongside him, and we started producing songs. It was then that we realised that this was a bit more shoegaze or electronic… It didn’t have the intentionality that some of our albums have had – the songs just fell out, they were complete and there wasn’t a lot of discussion about what the songs were. The songs that were very personal to Tim, I left alone, but some of my stuff was influenced by Tim’s loss as well – lyrically, we agreed that there would be a balance of sadness and hope. That’s how we’ve dealt with it – there has to be something that you live for.
There’s darkness and there’s light on the record…
The light comes with a song like ‘King Budgie’, which is about the joy of having a budgie. A friend of mine has one and it’s just about how you can have a moment to connect with those kinds of things.
‘Bring Them Back Again’ was written about two of my favourite films [Jean de Florette and its sequel Manon des Sources], so there are things that are actually worth living for, and music is a big part of that. It’s also about friendships. You can’t have love without loss.
Rob wrote the lyrics for one of the tracks, ‘Through the Crack in the Window,’ which he hadn’t done before, so were still experimenting with ways of writing – I came up with the melody and passed it on to Tim. It was fully collaborative.
Your live guitarist, Louis Smith, plays on this album, so it feels more like a full-band record…
It does. Louis has now got used to us – what we do and how we do things, and our musical tastes on the road. We talk about music all the time, so, when we send him stuff, he knows instinctively what he’s going to do. He’s done some amazing stuff.
This album reminds me more of C’mon Kids, when we stripped it back and had no extra musicians, like trumpet players, on it. We were definitely motivated towards it being a band album, and Louis’ inclusion does make it feel like that.
Where did you make the record?
We did some of it at Tim’s studio in Northern Ireland, Rob recorded the drums in Manchester, I did some stuff in my own little home studio, and Louis has a studio too. We did physically all get together in Tim’s studio to finish the record off, but we wouldn’t be able to make an album if we were all in the same room. All the time that Tim has available when he’s not working, we spend touring – we’ve all got other stuff to do.
‘We agreed that there would be a balance of sadness and hope. That’s how we’ve dealt with it – there has to be something that you live for’
The album doesn’t mess around. It starts with a big tune, ‘Affected / Rejected’, a full-on, funky rocker with Beach Boys harmonies, organ, electronics and dirty guitar. You’re not taking any prisoners…
It’s straight in… I wanted that. As we’re on our own, one of the tendencies is that we tend to be a little bit downbeat, but I wanted to write something with a riff that really kicked in – something that was a bit glam and full on.
I think this album has a harder edge to it than the two previous records. When we’ve talked in the past, you’ve said that you like sweet, clean sounds, whereas when Martin was in the band, he always wanted to make things dirtier and harder, but this time you’ve embraced that too…
Yeah. Maybe because that was Martin’s thing, with the last two records we decided to stick to more of what we were about, but this time we realised we enjoyed the harder edge and frugging out.
The first single from the album was the bouncy Solarcide, with jittery guitars and squelchy synth. It was written about the cult, The Order of the Solar Temple…
I saw a fascinating documentary about it on BBC iPlayer – it was shocking. There were groups of up to 40 people committing suicide as part of a cult – some of it was voluntary, but some of it was forced. What’s terrifying is all these things are about money, and there are people who force those decisions on others who are vulnerable. I watched the documentary and was furious about it, so the song came pouring out.
‘Hey, I Know’ is beautiful – a spacey ballad – but there’s an anger to it, lyrically. You sing: ‘You? You’re taking the piss, and, incidentally, you’re talking shite,’ and later on, ‘Blah, fucking blah!’ Is that one of your songs?
It is. Lyrically, it’s probably about my dad, as well as narcissistic personalities – those people who talk at you a lot. I meet a lot of them, and they can cause a lot of damage. The poster child is Trump – that person who is talking bollocks but is so full of their own importance.
‘Living Is Easy’ addresses Tim’s grief. In the song’s lyrics, he reflects on all the major news events that have left their mark on him over the years and the helplessness he sometimes felt to change anything, but the last verse was written about the loss of his son…
It’s a touching song, and it goes from the global to the very personal. It’s a very reflective song, which is not really like Tim – he’s not outwardly a reflective person, but in those quiet moments, he shows his vulnerability.
Musically, it’s an infectious and shimmering, indie-rock-synth-pop banger, but, like a lot of the Boos’ songs, there’s a sadness lurking beneath the shiny pop exterior…
I’ve always liked that, but not many people do it. The Beautiful South used to – sweet pop tunes but with an edge to them. I like something that sounds sweet, but then you listen to it more closely and you think, ‘oh, that’s interesting…’
‘Bring Them Back Again’ is another banger. It reminds me of New Order, with its throbbing sequencer line and Hooky-like bass…
That was a good collaborative one. Originally, it was a lot slower and had more of a Prince ‘Kiss’ vibe, but I couldn’t get it to work, so I said to Tim, ‘OK – just go Giorgio Moroder…’ So, he went, ‘How about this?’ and sent it back, and suddenly it was like, ‘Boom! That’s good.’ My daughter, Elsie, is on backing vocals.
You wrote that song about two of your favourite films: Jean de Florette and its sequel Manon des Sources. I’m ashamed to say that I haven’t seen either of them…
Oh, wow! It’s a Sunday afternoon pleasure. Watch them back-to-back, because they’re connected. They’re beautiful films.
‘Wasn’t I Enough?’ is very noisy. It’s one of those things that people who liked us in our Everything’s Alright Forever phase will like’
‘Song For Natalie’ is the album’s darkest and saddest moment – it addresses Tim’s grief, and it’s a heartbreaker…
It is – it’s heartbreaking and unbelievably raw. Tim sings the line in the middle, ‘When I think of you, my heart breaks…’ I said to him, ‘You have to sing that – I can’t do it.’ He’s not hugely confident, but he did it. There’s not a lot that can be said about it other than it shows how music can make that connection to deep emotions and translate that pain without having to talk about it. It’s a tough song and it’s not one I find easy to listen to. It’s very personal.
‘Wasn’t I Enough?’ feels like a nod to your noisier and heavier early days, with loud guitars and feedback…
Yeah – it’s very noisy and I think it’s one of those things that people who liked us in our Everything’s Alright Forever phase will like. It’s Tim’s wife’s favourite song on the album – she loves that ‘shoegaze’ period. I started the song off – it was fairly acoustic – and I wasn’t sure where to go, so Tim did the whole noisy guitars thing.
You’re touring the UK in May this year, and there are some UK and European dates in October / November too. What can we expect?
We’re very aware that when people come and see us, they want to hear a lot of stuff from the ‘90s, so we probably won’t do anything off the last two albums, but they’ll be a fair chunk of the new album, as well as the old stuff – we’re mixing it up and our repertoire is growing.
We did shows where we played the whole of Giant Steps and we’ve done the Wake Up! and C’mon Kids tour, so we’ve got a lot to choose from. We’re chucking stuff in and chucking stuff out, but we’re going to end up with what we hope people are going to like.
In Spite of Everything is released on May 1 (Boostr Records). There is an in-store performance and signing session at Rough Trade East, London, on that day. Click here for info.
https://slinky.to/InSpiteOfEverything
https://thebooradleys.bandcamp.com/album/in-spite-of-everything
For 2026 tour dates, click here.
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