Circa Waves interview with bassist Sam Rourke on new album

The indie-rock band who shot to fame with hits such as Stuck in my Teeth and T-Shirt Weather, have released their fifth album.

Sam says the album is the Liverpool band’s strongest record so far, and credits the coronavirus pandemic in part for helping the musicians become greater as a team.

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With a lot of the songs composed during the multiple lockdowns, they were made with the dreams of performing again, so Sam tells crowds ahead of their 2023 tour to expect a thrilling experience.

“We can’t wait,” he says. “Ever since we started the band, before Covid, we have been touring non-stop.

“That’s what we all got into this for and then Covid changed our schedules dramatically. So looking at the diary and seeing all these tour dates is incredible.

“I think it’s the performances we enjoy the most on tour. It’s such an extreme situation to find yourself in – performing on stage – you get lost in it and lose yourself in those moments.

“It’s almost like meditation. It’s so hard to describe the experience. You go on stage and feel this high level of energy from the crowd – it’s an addictive feeling.

“It’s such a high. You just want to chase it at the time.”

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The bassist along with lead vocalist and guitarist Kieran Shudall, guitarist Joe Falconer and drummer Colin Jones will be kicking off their tour at the Oxford Academy on January 23 before heading across the rest of the UK, Germany, France, America and Australia.

Sam said: “Liverpool is always a very special gig for us as it’s where we started and all our family and friends come to see us.

“Outside of that I think Japan is everyone’s favourite place to go. It’s the most fun place in the world and it’s everything you expect it is going to be.

“Starting in Oxford the people are going to have a band that are so happy and desperate to be out on stage it’s going to be the most fun experience we have this year.”

The tour will be the band’s ‘ultimate test’ to discover how well the new material has been received by fans including new hits such as ‘Do You Want To Talk’ and ‘Carry You Home’.

“We know within 10 seconds if it’s going down well - we can just feel it,” said Sam. “It’s exciting to go out there and play new songs and have them be the ones that get the biggest response.

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“Some of the older songs we used to rely on a lot now get replaced with new ones.

“I just can’t wait to take out the new songs. A lot of them were written in lockdown when we were dreaming of playing live again so a lot of them have the performance element in mind.”

The coronavirus pandemic had reportedly been tough on the band who are used to frequent live performances that were put on hold in attempts to halt the spread of the virus.

“There were ups and down,” the bassist said. “I don’t want to be all, ‘woe is me’ but it was a very difficult period where we never knew if it was going to end.

“There were moments where I was trying to figure out who I was outside of being a musician. The positive of that is it makes you address those questions.

“It forces you to stop and take a moment and question we’re getting out of it and made us much stronger as a band.”

The stronger bond the musicians formed as a result of the pandemic has created what Sam has dubbed their ‘strongest record’ yet.

“The response to the album has been amazing so far,” he said. “Fans don’t lie about what they think about the music. If they think it’s sh** they will say so which is refreshing.

“We spent months working on it and it’s really nice to have people see it in the same way we do.

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“With this album we’ve taken all the different styles we’ve experimented with and distilled it into a more precious vision.

“It’s the album we’ve been trying to make for years. We’re finally strong enough as a band to do it.”

As well as touring, the band have a few festivals lined up for this summer although Sam would not let slip some of the names the band has signed up for.

“We’re going to have so much fun,” he said. “At a festival there’s lots of people who aren’t necessarily Circa Waves fans so we have to work twice as hard to make it a good gig.

“The first four to five songs is all we have to win people over whereas at our own gig the whole room are Circa Waves fan so we have that connection – but we like the challenge of festivals.”

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This story was written by Gee Harland. She joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.

Gee covers Abingdon, Didcot, Wallingford and Wantage.

Get in touch with her by emailing: gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @geeharland