Coping With Fame & Phobias

"I’m just in London spending some time writing again. It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to do it, so. We only finished touring about two weeks ago; we’ve just done Europe,” Major explains. “We were busy for a very long time. We were doing some of the biggest headline shows we’ve ever done in Holland and Belgium and France and things, so yeah, it’s nice.”

"As a new artist, you just release your music and you’re ready, and there’s so much stuff that comes along if you’re successful... You kind of push yourself to the limit"

Since releasing their debut full-length record If You Wait in 2013, the band have been non-stop touring all around the world. They came to Australia for the first time at the end of 2013, and were meant to be touring again in mid-2014 as part of Splendour In The Grass, but given how quickly the band’s rise to success came about, the pressure became a little too much. “We wrote the album for 18 months effectively, and then suddenly it was in demand, so we had to suddenly cope with that. I think you learn so much about what you’re capable of as an artist when you’re touring so much. We only found that there’s no way to prepare yourself for a first album tour. As a new artist, you just release your music and you’re ready, and there’s so much stuff that comes along if you’re successful... You kind of push yourself to the limit, and we just said yes to everything because we wanted to do everything, and then we just hit the limit and we had to fall back for a bit, basically having to postpone.”

Major agrees that their particular style of music is an odd one for Australians to be lapping up as they have; their success here has provided a huge learning curve for the band, in particular vocalist Hannah Reid. “She’s always nervous, but she’s cool. Over time she’s definitely gained more experience in dealing with it. I think she’s had to force herself to deal with what is really a phobia for her, although she’s never really been able to get used to something and then that’s it. Considering the first time we played a 300-cap venue, that was the biggest thing ever for her, and she was always worried about conquering those demons, where now she’s playing in front of 10,000 people. Last time we came to Australia, we were bigger there than we were in the UK at the time... so I think we feel like we’re a little more prepared now.”

The band haven’t hinted at when a new record’s on the way, but you can’t blame them – they’re simply enjoying the downtime. “There are certain times where things come along and you see them as momentous, like the festival appearances we get, and there are times when you feel like you surpass these moments, but we never really sit around thinking about goals, we just want to make music and wherever it takes us is obviously awesome.”