The Simple Things In Life

Coming out this week, All Around is a hazy punch of simplified rock energy, delivered by four lads as no-frills as the music they're creating. Wightman, Cobwebbs' unhinged frontman, has just clocked off from the obligatory monotonous day job, and although sounding initially tired, he immediately buoys in mood when the mention of the album runs down the phone line. “It turned out quite well,” he informs, “I think we're all happy with it. We recorded it ourselves so we were able to take as much time as we wanted and there wasn't really any deadlines or anything like that, so it turned out how we planned. We didn't have any very specific goals, we just wanted to get those songs recorded and put them out.”

After fine-tuning their sound, getting better with their instruments and in course crafting the music that they were interested in, the four-piece felt it was the right time to release a record. On the surface, these songs might seem basic. Raw. However, repeated spins will uncover ideas stretching in a variety of different directions, all of which are heading away from one unwanted category. “I never really liked the whole 'garage' tag or being associated with that at all, because I think there's a lot of bands like that which just sound really fucking boring and don't need to exist,” he tells. “We were always interested in other music, but we've just been getting better so it's taken longer to develop. [Now], everyone knows how everyone else in the group plays. It's just easier to do what we want to do because we're not restricted by anyone's inability to play something.”

Sessions for All Around happened at band members' respective houses: lounges, bedrooms, sunrooms. Recordings would be taken from the results, with the tracks driven less by content and themes and more by feeling. “We always write the songs together, and they're more based around sounds and grooves than what I have to say in the words or anything like that,” Wightman says. “There are some songs about experiences, but all the lyrics are quite vague and they reference a number of different things at once, so they can be interpreted however you want.”

All fleeing their various crimes? “We just happened to meet under a bridge,” Wightman jests. It was only a few years ago that the Cobwebbs boys decided they should play some loud music together. However, with varied tastes and a love of “common things”, left undisclosed by the vocalist, it didn't take long for the quartet to establish a sound they were happy with.

“Simple music done well I guess,” Wightman describes it as. “There's lots of bands that do it, but just raw sounding rock'n'roll. We all listen to lots of hip hop as well, so there's a big emphasis on production, layering, things like that when we record. The album does sound like us, but we're not really interested in sounding exactly the same as we do live on the record,” he continues. “I think that was the part of the reason we wanted to do [an album], was just so we could expand our sound more and get different tones that we weren't getting live. I don't really see the point of putting an album out that sounds just like we would live – that's boring to me. It's not always a bad thing; there's plenty of bands who are excellent at doing that. But for us, the whole point of recording is to see what we can do. It's a whole different outlet.”