The Tubs: Against The Odds

Jan 31

Jan 31 The Tubs: Against The Odds

“There was a point where every show I would go to, there would be a band playing with a name like Office Chair,” Owen Williams chuckles to me with a wry smile on his face as we discuss the wave of ironically named ‘post-punk’ bands that have saturated the music scene in recent years.

“All of this stuff that is labelled ‘post-punk’ doesn't actually sound that much like what was originally post-punk music either, it’s nowhere near as experimental or avant-garde,” George Nicholls chimes in, providing what could be the ultimate irony in all in this. That is until you consider the fact that I am talking to The Tubs, one of London's most unique, up-and-coming guitar bands. An irony, inside an irony, inside an irony, or irony cubed as I’d prefer to call it. Now, that’s a band name!

“We had so many stupid band names like The Friendly Band and The Crazy Band and eventually we somehow landed on The Tubs,” the pair explained, chronicling the origins of their own name as we chatted ahead of the release of their debut album ‘Dead Meat’, out now on Trouble in Mind Records. Despite representing a relatively new outfit under their current moniker, The Tubs were formed in the afterglow of Joanna Gruesome back in 2018 following a trip to Llawr-Betws caravan park where Williams and Nicholls set the wheels in motion for this new project.

““I think I am cynical about stuff but with the lyrics, you really need to get the balance right to get away with it””

— Owen Williams

It wasn’t until the eve of the pandemic however, that the band released their first single ‘I Don't Know How It Works’ before the wider world closed down for the next couple of years. While many artists suffered with the reality of their bizarre new circumstances, for The Tubs the pandemic proved to be a creatively fulfilling experience. In the absence of “London and work and seeing people,” they were able to “put themselves into it 100% and not think about anything else other than writing music.” The result was their ‘Names’ EP released in 2021; it became the foundation of their debut record.

Across nine tracks, the new album takes listeners on a whistle-stop tour of erotomania, groinal rashes, extreme acts of snivelling, heinous South London flat odours, and love. They do this to great effect utilising Williams’ sharp, sardonic humour alongside his bursts of earnestness that illustrate the full spectrum of romance and ruin, ever present in the human experience. A refreshing alternative to the world of convoluted metaphors that have seemingly become the status quo within the British indie scene of late. Discussing his writing style he explained, “I think I am cynical about stuff but with the lyrics, you really need to get the balance right to get away with it, you can’t talk from a place of authority, you have to also be aware of your own stupidly rather than sermonising.”

To date, the band’s releases have sounded radically different to the prevailing aesthetic of the capital. Confident guitar riffs coalesce with Williams’ versatile vocals to create a sound that is truly unique; on their debut record, they continue this trend even if not by design. “It was never the idea to make it sound different,” Williams articulates. “I think the reason it sounds somewhat unique is probably that we allowed a lot of disparate influences to come into the songs. So you will get a post-punk section and then something folky will happen.” Williams and Nicholls cite a mixture of traditional British folk and pub rock as primary influences for ‘Dead Meat’, but owing to the “open door policy” that the band employ it has allowed other things such as contemporary antipodean indie to also seep into the mix, resulting in a sound that loosely resembles The Jam fronted by young, fiery Richard Thompson.

In addition to the influences cited above, The Tubs’ unique sound could also be seen as the product of their roots. Originally hailing from Cardiff, the members were deeply embedded in a very different kind of scene before moving down to London. Bands such as Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci proved to be incredibly influential in their formative years but also the thriving hardcore scene in the Welsh capital in the mid to late 2010s had its effect on Williams and Nicholls.

““that seems to be mainly from the south and those bands look like they’re from the south and they sound like they’re from the south””

— George Nicholls

It is those kinds of regional disparities in form and style that keep things moving forward in the music industry, as Nicholls explains about being a part of the Cardiff scene. “It has stopped us falling into that kind of post-punk music that we were talking about earlier because that seems to be mainly from the south and those bands look like they’re from the south and they sound like they’re from the south.”

Stories like that of The Tubs go some way to explaining the dire effects the proposed shake-up of BBC Introducing and the continuing fall in funding for the arts might have on British music. During our chat, we discussed how these changes might affect bands like them in the future. Nicholls expressed that when they were a part of Joanna Gruesome, “we got a grant from the Welsh Arts Council to fly us over to America for the first time and from there we got loads of success out of it and it massively helped the band,” he further expanded that in the absence of that kind of funding, “If we wanted to go and play SXSW now, we wouldn’t be able to afford it but maybe then we could have applied for a grant.” With this kind of aid in creative spaces dwindling it is sometimes hard to see what keeps bands and independent artists going when everything seems stacked against them. Williams expressed that for him, “you have to really want to do it. It is something you are doing at the expense of your own finances and sanity. It isn’t that there is just no support, there are active barriers against you doing it.”

For The Tubs, their new record is the product of a long road and a tireless, individual and collective devotion to the arts. Their desire to create may border compulsion at times, with Williams for example, still playing in several bands in addition to juggling the day-to-day drudgery of life in modern Britain; the stark reality for many artists today in absence of sufficient support and funding. However, The Tubs represent a hopeful idea; against the odds, they have managed to create something truly unique and have provided a glimpse of what the next great phase of British music may look like. I finished our chat by asking the pair what they strive for as a band, Nicholls answered simply, “I just want to make something good.” With the release of ‘Dead Meat’, they’re certainly on the right track.