FEATURE: Spotlight: Crawlers — Music Musings & Such

FEATURE:

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Em Marcovecchio fort DORK

Crawlers

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TIPPED by the likes of…

NME and DIY as part of their wave of 2023 artists who are going to hit hard, I couldn’t well ignore the majesty and sheer dominance of Crawlers. The Liverpool band released the incredible mixtape, Loud Without Noise, last year. They are one of the most promising bands I have heard in years. I think they are also one of the most important bands around. Everybody needs to tune into them. It is no wonder they are being tipped as an act to watch his year. I love their sound. It is cool that they name-check Queens of the Stone Age as an influence. No that you can hear that clearly on their sleeves, but they do channel elements of the Josh Homme-led band. In actuality, Crawlers are a hugely original band primed for festival headline slots. I am going to source some interviews with the band from last year. Getting into the minds and hearts of many music websites, The Forty-Five featured a compassionate young Rock band whose powerful message in their coming-of-age music was hitting the masses and singling them out as an amazing force:

“As a band, we’re constantly trying to strive [to create] a safe space,” Crawlers’ singer Holly Minto says firmly. That’s an attitude that’s key to everything the Merseyside band does – from their live shows to their compassionate, captivating rock songs – and why they’re quickly becoming the new band to believe in right now.

Although they’re still relative newcomers – Minto co-founded the group with guitarist Amy Woodall and bassist Liv Kettle in late 2018, cementing their line-up with drummer Harry Breen in 2021 – they’ve swiftly scored a legion of loyal fans thanks to their commitment to tackling the issues affecting themselves and their peers in their music. Whether they’re singing about social justice on 2021’s blisteringly urgent ‘Statues’ or the sexualisation of female-presenting people on the dark stomp of ‘Monroe’, they don’t claim to have all the answers but invite you to join them on their journey to figuring it – and themselves – out.

‘Fuck Me (I Didn’t Know How To Say)’, their electrifying and important new single, is no different. Over searing rock riffs, it broaches the sensitive but perennially timely subject of consent and sexual assault in a way that makes you look at the topic from a new angle and makes your own experiences feel seen. “You deserve better so I gave you my body,” Minto whispers on the track, later adding: “The kisses that led to sex were close enough.”

The song’s chorus tackles not knowing how to tell a sexual partner what you want – or don’t want – and the pressure that can come from intimate situations. “I said it was fine in your defence,” Minto acknowledges. “But I didn’t know how to say I don’t want you to touch me.” They’re lyrics that highlight some of the complexities of consent and the fact that it’s not always black and white.

With such a nuanced issue, it can be hard to know how to improve education and awareness around it, but she suggests consent being taught in schools “not just in a sexual way” as a step in the right direction. “‘No means no’ applies in every kind of circumstance and respecting your boundaries from a young age is what it’s about,” she explains. “Teaching that and what that means from a young age is so important. It’s still very hard to teach those things because there are such blurred lines, but I’m hoping that as we grow, that becomes more of a considered thing.”

‘Fuck Me’ will not only spark conversation around that topic but will also raise awareness for charities working in that area. The band are partnering with Brook, an organisation that offers sexual health, education and wellbeing services to young people across the UK, and will be fundraising for them via merch and other avenues. “Doing a single with such a hard topic, we’re gonna do it as sensitively as possible and make sure that now we have a label [Crawlers are signed to Polydor] and financial support, we do it in a way that’s safe for our listeners,” Minto says.

Beyond that, Crawlers will be spending 2022 sharing yet more inventive and inspiring music with the world. Where ‘Fuck Me’ takes influence from hip-hop beats, their upcoming tracks delve even deeper into their “no rules” approach to mixing genres. “We’ve got a pop song in drop C tuning, very pulled back acoustic songs with trumpet swells [in the vein of] Neutral Milk Hotel,” Minto lists off. “We’ve also been playing around with influences like The Cure, Bauhaus and Fleetwood Mac, which we’ve not really explored before. It’s nice to not feel boxed in – it’s gonna confuse some listeners but we’re actually making what we like and that’s a great place to be.”

That assessment of their position right now feels largely applicable to the world in general as the band continue their ascent. Life might be a struggle with countless trials to get through but, with Crawlers around to help us all on the way, it’s an infinitely better journey to be on”.

I love the interview with NOTION. Crawlers discussed their creative process, the new mixtape/project, Loud Without Noise, and who they would like to collaborate with. I think that, as they are taking off right now, the band are going to be commanding some big support slots and traveling around the world. I think that they are the band this year that will dominate and get recognition and love in America and beyond. They are a sensational and hugely exciting proposition:

“Hey, your debut mixtape is out this Friday, firstly congrats! Can you give me a quick intro to the project for fans who might not have come across Crawlers yet?

Amy Woodall: So Crawlers are a band from the northwest, we make alternative rock music. We’re just about to put out a new mixtape, there are a lot of different genres in it, but that’s the purpose of a mixtape!

Harry Breen: It’s the last opportunity where we can dabble in whatever genre we want before we have an album out, which will probably be a little bit more concise. But at the moment, we’re sort of doing whatever we want.

How long was this mixtape in the making?

AW: We recorded it all over two months ago. But some of the songs have been written for a few years now. “Hang Me Like Jesus” was actually written two, or three years ago. Whereas “I Don’t Want It” was written in a week, then we recorded it and two weeks later it was on Spotify.

HB: We’ve been sitting on the majority of them for a while now, so it’s about time that they started coming out. We spent a lot of time trying to get the mixes right, to the point where people started getting frustrated with us, but it ended up sounding good in the end.

PHOTO CREDIT: Morrigan Rawson

Would you say you’re quite speedy with the production side?

AW: It just depends song by song really. Sometimes, we have a really clear vision and other times we don’t and we have to work a bit harder.

Yeah, that makes sense. Throughout the project you explore themes of sex, love and drugs and make a point of the importance of gaining autonomy over your body, sexuality and emotions. Why is it important to you to spread this message.

AW: I think a lot of our lyrics are really personal, and mostly our own experience. So you know, of course, we’re going to write music that is from our lives.

HB: I think with any kind of music or art, you have to dig down to your own personal feelings in order to provide something unique. You can obviously still have generic lyrics or generic conventions of the music, but if you want it to stand out, it has to come from deep down. Everyone has their own story to tell.

One of the main things about Crawlers is that you’re determined to create a safe space for misrepresented groups. Can you explore why this is important to you and how you wish to use your platform to help spread the message of the importance of safe spaces?

HB: It’s always been an important thing, literally from our first day, we’ve always made sure that people knew our gigs are safe spaces. Especially when most of the people that come to our shows are around 14 years old, it could well be their first ever gig and we don’t want them to have a bad impression of what a gig entails. We want them to feel like they’re welcome, and that not all gigs are raucous, sweaty, or heavy. We’ve got a proper community going on and we just want to incite that message that you can always come to our gigs, and you will be safe, and you will be comfortable, and you don’t have to worry about anything. We don’t want people to think that they can’t enjoy a live show.

Lastly, what’s next for Crawlers?

HB: So we’ve got this mixtape coming out, and once that’s done, the next year I guess we’ll just be prepping for the album songwriting. We want to make sure that our debut album blows up and that everyone knows us. That’s what we’re aiming for. We want to spend a lot of time in the new year songwriting and recording to make sure it’s perfect within the first few months. Then we just want to do everything that’s necessary to make sure it reaches the right people and the right ears”.

I will end with DIY’s interview from December. I have gained a lot of guidance from them, as their Class of 2023 names are incredible. Even the Liverpool four-piece are quite new and still taking their earliest steps, they have a huge army of fans and millions of streams. It is like they are an already-established band that have been playing huge venues for years. It bodes very well for the amazing Crawlers:

“And while their music admittedly does sit nicely alongside the current renaissance of emo - after their stint supporting My Chemical Romance in Warrington this May, they “had a lot of elder emos” coming to shows, says Liv - it’s also their ability to open up conversations around the very present concerns of young people that’s become an appeal. Their openness isn’t just resigned to their songs; the band also use their social platforms - most often, TikTok - to discuss everything from identifying as queer, experiencing panic attacks and misogynistic industry rumours, through to highlighting outfits fans have chosen to wear to their gigs.

Hoping to use all of their outlets to create a community of their own (“a scene we never had,” Liv says. “It’s really, really special to us that more and more people are finding it and can carve out their own little space in it”), their message of acceptance and overcoming trauma is one that seems to be truly resonating with those listening. “We’ve been meeting fans a lot recently, and hearing how many of them connect to our songs because of what they’re about,” Holly says. “[We] write about what we’re feeling, whether that’s an observation or whether that’s something we’re going through all the time, and [having] people who relate and carry their own stories with our songs is the most important thing.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles

With their crowds growing bigger with every show (“Over the summer, we’ve noticed different people are starting to pay attention to us,” Liv comments), it seems little wonder that Crawlers’ list of objective outside achievements is beginning to increase too. And while, of course, few bands ever release something with the hope of charting well, there was a certain level of satisfaction that came with their mixtape’s success.

“It was pretty mad,” Amy admits. “We make the music for ourselves, but when we were told that it could chart, we were like, ‘Well, if we’re gonna go for it, then we’ll really go for it’.” It paid off, not only landing them the aforementioned Rock & Metal Chart top spot, but also reaching Number 22 in the Official Albums Chart too. “We didn’t realise it was Number One in Rock & Metal until later in the evening,” laughs drummer Harry Breen. “Someone texted me and I was like, ‘…guys, apparently, we’re actually Number One! What the fuck?!” To celebrate the achievement, his mum has promised to get a tattoo. “She didn’t specify whether it had to be the Official Chart,” he jokes, “and this said Number One so… that’s good enough!”

Harry’s mum wasn’t the only woman keeping a watchful gaze over the record’s success, either. On release week, the band took to their TikTok channel to share a special ritual, in which they lit candles around a printed photo of Charli XCX and chanted the chorus of her iconic single ‘Vroom Vroom’ while holding hands, in an attempt to summon the chart spirits. “She actually commented on our TikTok!” exclaims Holly. “I was so ill yesterday and I couldn’t play the show. I had no voice, and I was in the middle of Subway just checking my notifications, and I saw that she’d commented: ‘I’ve done this ritual before - it defo works’. She is our motivation for getting up in the morning, no joke! So seeing that, I was like, ‘What is going on in my life right now? Like, what the fuck?’”

An act of higher power, or just all of the band’s hard work starting to pay off, it seemed to do the trick. Now, with their debut album on the horizon - “We’re working on [it] currently and can’t say more than that,” Holly tells us - let’s hope Chaz is keeping a guardian eye on Crawlers for the foreseeable future too”.

Go and acquaint yourself with the sensational Crawlers. Both heavy and compassionate, they are a band who put their heart and soul into every song. Projecting powerful messages that will resonate with a lot of their fanbase, I know what an impact they have made to people already. After releasing a successful and amazing mixtape last year, they will look ahead to dates, festivals and maybe an album. I think the mixtape title, Loud Without Noise, is apt. Not needing to be raucous or too explosive to be powerful and heard, Crawlers are definitely here…