Meet Sad Boys Club Ahead of Their Show at The Bodega

Hi Jacob! First of all, how are you? How is life treating you at the moment?
Feeling good! Feeling very positive. The sun is creeping out a little bit from time to time. About to go to Europe for ten days with my best mates. There’s a lot to be grateful for!

Are you guys doing anything to prepare? Any nerves or excitement?
We’re rehearsing, but now that you’re asking the question it feels like we’re woefully unprepared. We’ve been out to Europe a few times and it’s always been a kind of game-changing experience for us. Not to sound like a fuckboy off Hinge or something, but I just love travelling, it just broadens my mind massively.

You just meet people that you wouldn’t otherwise meet, and you make friends, and you just step into another world for a little bit. Especially because we’re not doing an extensive nine-month tour, and we’ve got this kind of six-week period where we’re playing a lot of shows, you form this little bubble where you get away from the everyday. Performing is the thing that I love the most and it’s been a while because we’ve been building up to this tour. Just really excited, just want to get going.

What can you tell us about the upcoming album? Which songs are you’re looking forward to fans hearing?
The song I’m most excited for people to hear is a song called Cemetery Song which is simultaneously the most euphoric and probably depressing track on the record. It’s really weird when trying to talk about creative process, sometimes it’s hard when trying to pinpoint where the origins of an idea came from, at other times you’ll know exactly what the process was for getting there.

It just seemed to give birth to itself. It felt like something that came from outside of ourselves, it almost seemed to transcend our own talents. We hold it incredibly dear. It’s a song about my brother who was going through a difficult period. Pedro and I, who write the songs together, were tapping into this idea of the liminality that music offers you in the best of moments, where it rises you above everything that’s around you.

Pedro brought this instrumental that had this wonderful string section that seemed to tap into something profound for me, and the words just sort of came out. It felt like they had been needing to for a long time. It was the easiest song to write on the record. There’s something different about it that I’m looking forward to seeing if people relate to.

I really love what you said about it becoming something more than yourself. It sounds abstract, but it’s that feeling where you’re creating something that is so much bigger than yourself.
Yeah, I mean it is abstract, and the mystery in all of that is one of the things that makes it so addictive. That pursuit for those moments, and that frustration when that’s not coming. You know, I’ve written several incredibly bad pieces of music from trying to force that feeling.

Different creatives talk about the process in slightly different ways, and one of the common themes that I often read is about is that some people consider themselves to be the creative catalyst, where they bring the ideas to the fore, whilst other people consider themselves to be the receptors for ideas that are already out there, and you just have to sort of open yourself to that.

I still haven’t really worked out which one I am. I seem to dance between the two. You’re right though, it’s totally abstract and it has this ethereal quality as the words just seem to take shape in front of you. It takes on its own autonomy.

So, would you say that Cemetery Song is your favourite on the record?
Probably yes, it’s the one I’m most proud of. There are different tracks for different moments, I think. There’s a song called Coffee Shop which was the most fun to write. As with anything, it tends to attach itself to the memories of the time of creation.

Cemetery Song is about a very difficult time in my life, so I don’t necessarily go back and listen to it all that often, whereas Coffee Shop is really us just enjoying one another’s company, having a good time, just shooting the shit.

Honestly, I think that’s the strength of the record for me. It's more varied than I originally wanted it to be when we started. I thought I was going to go out and make this conceptual record, that it would be like Ok Computer, and it would have these beautifully woven themes.

What it turned out to be was a kaleidoscope of vignettes and impressions of friendship as a four piece, and our lives growing from early twenties to mid-twenties, and everything that is encapsulated within that. So, I suppose I don’t really have a favourite song on the record, it very much depends on my mood.

You talked a bit there about the feelings and moments that inspired the album. Is there an overall message or image that you’d want listeners to take away from it?
We’re not a band with an agenda. The band reflects life in its highs and lows. There isn’t really a message to it, more of a question, like “what the fuck is going on here?”. I guess the message that we’ve taken from it is that “you’re doing all right”. In our private lives, we’re trying to work out what it means to be a good person, so I suppose there’s elements of that question in there. Friendship too. Goodness and friendship.

I think that’s the thing about music that unites us so deeply. Especially as an audience of musical performance, there’s this sense that we’re all in this together.
I totally agree, that’s why the live shows are the most important bit for me. It’s odd writing a record where a lot of the questions are like “fuck am I alone in this?”, which is why I’m excited to get out and see if people find the same humour and heartbreak in what we’ve experienced.

Speaking of, what does a day on tour look like for Sad Boys Club?
For the most part, it’s really boring. I don’t really have to do that much because I just show up and sing. The boys set up the gear, I hang around looking a little bit moody. For me, the whole day is anxiety inducing, I don’t really speak to anyone, can’t really eat, which means that afterwards we have to stop off at McDonald’s and get an unholy amount of nuggets.

And I have this thing, I can’t really explain it. Right before I go onstage, I sort of just fall asleep. I don’t know why. It’s always been my reaction. I get extremely tired. Basically, just a total, total, clusterfuck. Chris also gets incredibly nervous. Pedro is by far the coolest, he just laps it up. He signs autographs, takes photos with the numerous fans waiting for us. He’s the proper Rockstar. Poor Tom is too busy to worry about anything.

What’s been your favourite track of 2023 so far?
God, okay. Let me think. I’m very biased so I think the new Peace record, the band I manage, it is the best thing out at the moment, in the world. I love the new Black Country, New Road, they’re just always fucking genius.

And lastly, your recent single is called Delicious… so what's your favourite takeaway?
Sushi. I’m a big sushi guy. I went to Japan a few years ago and just haven’t looked back since. I just fucking love it. The boys get a bit annoyed at it, because I just want raw fish all the time, like it’s a bit fucking weird. The others have a far more sophisticated palette. I’m really not interested in anything but raw fish.

Sad Boys Club will take the stage at The Bodega on 11 May as part of their headliner tour

@sadboysclb