You can do quite a bit in 10 years: practice to be a physician, decide up and drop numerous new hobbies, or lastly make it by that stack of books gathering mud in your nightstand. Within the case of London Grammar, although, they’ve gone from youngsters making music alongside their college research to one of many UK’s most beloved acts; a band who’ve simply kicked off a huge area tour of Europe and the UK, together with an upcoming present at London’s colossal O2.
With their distinct mix of trip-hop, indie and digital music – all bolstered by frontwoman Hannah Reid’s sonorous vocals – the trio have constructed a loyal fanbase through the years. Rising as a buzzy band to look at in 2013 with their first EP ‘Steel & Mud’ after which debut album ‘If You Wait’, they charmed audiences with era-defining songs like ‘Losing My Younger Years’ and ‘Hey Now’. An additional two data adopted – 2017’s steadier ‘Fact Is a Lovely Factor’, which acquired combined opinions from critics, and 2021’s jubilant ‘Californian Soil’, a document on which NME famous “London Grammar are revitalised” – alongside reveals internationally.
In some methods, although, the band really feel like their newest document, September’s ‘The Best Love’, is the top of a chapter – and the beginning of a brand new one. “This album, to me, this entire course of [of making it] even, is us simply really letting go in a means,” says multi-instrumentalist Dan Rothman, calling in from London Grammar’s studio in Ladbroke Grove. “There’s a sense of it; it exists between the three of us. I can’t clarify…”
Rothman’s bandmate Dot Main, sitting beside him, helps sum it up: “It looks like a rebirth.”
“It does!” Rothman agrees. “It’s the top of an period of our lives. It’s just like the dying of our youth…”
“I might love for us to vanish completely behind the music” – Hannah Reid
It might be a rebirth, however ‘The Best Love’ nonetheless embraces every little thing listeners love concerning the band’s music: hovering melodies (‘You & I’, ‘Abnormal Life’), house-flecked euphoria (‘Home’, ‘Rescue’), and blissful, slow-burning pageant anthems (‘Into Gold’). That’s to not say that there haven’t been main shifts whereas creating the document, each actually and metaphorically.
“That is the primary album [where] we’ve ever had our personal area,” Main displays, referring to the brand new London Grammar HQ, the band’s aforementioned studio in West London. “That’s an enormous shift, actually.” Beforehand, the band would write demos, then go right into a “large business studio” for a couple of weeks, understanding they needed to wrap the document in that set period of time. Having their very own area, nevertheless, means “you may go and work on one thing for a couple of days, and it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t find yourself being proper,” Main explains. “There’s numerous similarities to our first album once we began doing numerous stuff on laptops as a result of we didn’t have our personal area.”
Reflecting on what’s modified for ‘The Best Love’ leads us to the keystones of London Grammar. One factor that’s nonetheless central 10 years in is their friendship – certainly, a band couldn’t have this sort of longevity with out it. They’ve the sort of close-knit household dynamic that solely a decade of working collectively, shared experiences and bunking on tour buses collectively can foster.
The group have supported one another by highs and lows, from tough conditions navigating the thorny panorama of the music business, the brutal schedule of touring and being a working band, to Reid’s expertise of rampant music business misogyny, a subject coated all through the band’s music, however notably on earlier document ‘Californian Soil’. As she mirrored to NME round that document’s launch: “If I’m strong-minded, I’m being actually ‘tough’, or I’m being a ‘bitch’…whereas for the boys they’ve simply received ‘integrity’ over what they do. It may be a extremely, actually tiny factor – however when you have it on daily basis, and it turns into a thousand moments, it may possibly really change who you’re.”
When requested how the group outline success, Main tells his bandmates: “I actually really feel like success is how I – how we – really feel about one another. After I take into consideration the place we’re, our friendships, and the love I’ve for these two, that’s how I really feel what success is.”
This revelation is met with smiles from his bandmates. “Aw, Dot!” Reid exclaims, whereas Rothman provides: “That’s extraordinarily candy.”
“After I take into consideration the place we’re, our friendships, and the love I’ve for these two, that’s how I really feel what success is” – Dot Main
“That’s genuinely how I really feel,” Main continues. “To be at this level of our lives… not many artists are in a position to get there. We’ve all the time mentioned from the start we needed to have longevity, and I feel the truth if you get there’s: ‘What’s going to that appear like?’ And really, what it seems like now’s fairly fucking nice.”
Rothman agrees: “After we performed Glastonbury this yr, there was one thing about that present that encapsulated for all of us what success is in a means as a result of, immediately, it felt like we have been on stage, wanting again at our lives, wanting again on the work that we’ve accomplished, and also you’re enjoying these songs that they’ve grown over time.”
He turns his consideration to the band’s second album, ‘Fact Is a Lovely Factor’, a document he notes folks “have been very crucial of”. It’s a self-deprecating assertion, maybe, however after the dizzying success of the band’s debut, the melancholy follow-up acquired a disparate assortment of opinions. “[Now,] our followers like it greater than the remainder of it,” he laughs. “They suppose the brand new stuff is horrible in comparison with the second album! That legacy side of it, that actually pursuits me in the meanwhile…”
Reid interrupts with fun: “Aw Dan, you suppose you’re in your deathbed!”
“No, really, I really feel the alternative!” Rothman responds. “It’s extra I can see the long run and the previous, that to me is the success half. The physique of labor, that’s what’s so pretty.”
Whatever their standing within the business’s hierarchy, there’s a brand new confidence within the ‘The Best Love’ that may’t be denied, one which’s within the bones of the document. Take ‘Home’, the document’s floor-filling opener, the place Reid sings about setting boundaries: “That is my place, my home, my guidelines”. Having the ability to make these types of selections comes with the peace of mind that solely life expertise and maturity can convey.
Trying to the long run, the band are eager to train some new boundaries and put your complete deal with the music. Reid says: “I might love for us to vanish completely behind the music, and to nonetheless make what we think about is nice music, and I hope that our followers will nonetheless be there.” Beforehand, London Grammar have recommended this album could possibly be the final time the band seems of their music movies, revelling in the truth that whereas they’re enjoying London’s 20,000-capacity O2, they will nonetheless stroll down the road with out being swarmed by followers.
In a time when artists’ personalities are sometimes used as advertising methods, why do they really feel comfy pulling again? “I feel as a result of we hold attempting, and it simply doesn’t work,” Reid explains. “I actually have tried so many instances to be in music movies, to look good, and I simply don’t suppose it really works.” She lets out an exasperated giggle. “So I’m over it now. Carried out. By no means once more.”
“There was one thing about Glastonbury 2024 that encapsulated for all of us what success is” – Dan Rothman
Sooner or later, if followers need to see the band members’ faces, they may solely have the choice at their stay reveals, which develop steadily larger. The aforementioned O2 present is their greatest headline date thus far, and the nerves are creeping up on Reid because it attracts nearer. “I’m in denial, so I’m simply going to not say something,” she shares. “A little bit tiddle on the O2,” Main provides jokingly.
With a decade behind them, there’s nonetheless loads of pleasure for the trio’s future, too. Proper now, on the cusp of an finish and a brand new starting, London Grammar are getting into their second decade as a band with new confidence – and one of many greatest reveals of their careers. Right here’s to the following 10 years.
London Grammar’s ‘The Best Love’ is out now by way of Ministry Of Sound Recordings. The band are on tour now
