It’s a different perspective and a different approach. MF: If you compare the making and releasing of Motorheart to how you were feeling around, for example, One Way Ticket To Hell… and Back, do you think your commercial expectations and artistic ambitions have changed much over the years?įP: Yeah, I think so. Obviously it was because of the pandemic, but it’s not a phrase that you see every day. There’s some things in there that sound like they almost prophesised what happened next.Īlso, there was a headline in the national newspaper here, The Sun, that said “Easter is cancelled” a year after the album came out. You know, because he’s singing about the rise of the “arseclowns” in the lyrics of ‘Easter Is Cancelled’ itself. MF: I’m sure Darkness fans will be relieved that Motorheart isn’t an album about the coronavirus lockdowns, anti-vaxxers, Donald Trump or Boris Johnson.įP: The last album, in a way, there’s an argument to say that it prophesised what was going to happen. But that’s the way he fights against it, which is what we all love about him – rather than feeling sorry for himself or becoming all introverted about it. But at the end of the day, it’s just life and a lot of it is actually just being locked up and the pandemic itself. MF: When you say Justin exorcised what he was going through at the time, are you able to elaborate?įP: Just life, you know? I suppose Easter Is Cancelled was made as the breakup was happening and I guess this is the aftermath of that. And Justin exorcised whatever he was going through at the time through a process of having fun. We didn’t want to be clever on this album, we just wanted to be instinctive.

Also, because Easter Is Cancelled was our most “thoughtful” album, with this one we wanted to be thoughtless – thoughtless and selfish and ignorant. Is the style of songwriting on this album a reaction to what you did on Easter Is Cancelled?įrankie Poullain: We just wanted to give ourselves what we needed and quite often when you give yourself what you need, you’re also giving your fans what they need. Music Feeds: Motorheart feels looser and more fun than Easter Is Cancelled. Music Feeds spoke to The Darkness’ bass player, Frankie Poullain, about staying ridiculous, writing the new album, and singer Justin Hawkins’ habit of filtering his troubles through the lens of tongue-in-cheek rock’n’roll. Essentially, if everything else turns to shit, in rock’n’roll they trust.

This belies the fact that Motorheart was written and recorded amid the uncertainty of UK’s ever-changing pandemic restrictions, but it also speaks to the band’s founding ethos.

In contrast to the tight conceptual structure of Easter Is Cancelled, Motorheart finds The Darkness operating at their loosest and most extroverted frequency. The UK band’s new album, Motorheart, is their seventh overall and it arrives just two years after their previous effort, Easter Is Cancelled. The foursome of Justin Hawkins, Dan Hawkins, Frankie Poullain and Rufus Taylor have also kept busy – aside from a five-year dormancy following their second album, 2005’s One Way Ticket To Hell… and Back, The Darkness’ release history has been impressively consistent.

New darkness album