Meet unpeople, the technicolour rockers heading for the big leagues
With a colourful and creative aesthetic only matched by their huge tunes, unpeople
By Nick Reilly
When unpeople formed three years ago, the partner of guitarist Luke Caley delivered an almighty pearl of wisdom.
“She said, ‘I’ve spent a countless amount of hours and minutes and seconds hearing you guys pouring everything into your music and your art, and then you’re just gonna package it up like you don’t care’,” admits Caley.
That realisation helped land the band in the place they are today, where an excellent album full of arena-primed rock is only amplified by the band’s colourful aesthetic. If rock and heavy music fans are perhaps stereotyped for their love of dark clothing, then the consistently colourful ensemble of this four-piece becomes something vivid and altogether more exciting.
It’s true of their name too, taken from an old-fashioned term used to refer to everyone other than the political elite. In other words, everyone is welcome to join the unpeople party.
“It’s why we love music so much. You can get 80,000 people in a field, all with their arms around each other,” they admit. “Some of these people, if you got into it, have completely opposing views, but in that moment you share human to human connection.” Now, that all-embracing mantra is primed to send this band to the big leagues.
Read our interview with the duo and listen to their music via our Play Next playlist on Spotify below.
The album’s out tomorrow! Excited?
Em Lodge (bassist): It’s excitement, a little bit of nerves, but just because it’s been such a long buildup at this point and we’ve really, really taken our time with it, but made it exactly how we want it to be. So yeah, mostly excitement for sure.
Richie Rayner (drums): I feel it’s like when you’ve bought a really nice Christmas present and you’ve got it all wrapped up and it’s under the tree and you can’t wait to give it to someone. Open it!
Luke Caley (guitarist): I love the chance that they won’t like it when you give it to them as well. We don’t mind that bit. We’ve kept the receipt.
What’s the story of the debut album, We Are unpeople, and what did you want to achieve?
Luke: Everything with this band has come together so organically. Me and Jake always talk about when we were first sat in my bedroom with two guitars, there was never any preconception of what unpeople was or wasn’t going to sound like. We’ve known each other for so long, we know we’ve got this chemistry, and we still really like each other, so we sat down and decided to see what happens. The EP was such an organic process, and we’re really humbled by how well that was received.
It was very much a case of us doing our own authentic expression of what happens when we all get together and write music and that seemed to resonate with people. So we didn’t want to mess with that. The album was just very much a continuation of that with all of the lessons that we’d learned already along the way. Although we’ve ticked off some real life goals already in this band, we’ve only been together for three years, so there’s so many things you quickly learn, even if it’s everyone’s flaws and how to deal with them.
For the uninitiated, how do you describe unpeople? There’s a real contrast between your technicolor aesthetic and the heaviness of the actual music.
Jake Crawford (singer): A lot of that came down to reflecting on previous bands and previous projects and honing in on how we can improve and make it much more of an all-encompassing thing. In terms of making it colourful, every other band that I’ve been in personally has never really given much of a crap about how they presented themselves. So when it came to this project, we were like, ‘Should we actually give it a good go and try and juxtapose those things’ It turns out you can make heavy music and wear some nice clothes. It’s nice to look nice sometimes.
Richie: We’re finding ways to express ourselves all over the place. So when it came to creating this album, it wasn’t that we were trying to be something, that’s just what we are, and then that ended up being the product. Sometimes we’re as surprised as what comes out as everyone else. I guess that’s the product of what happens when you put us in this environment or give us these ingredients.
Em: Our shows are so fun to play, and fun to watch as well. So why not just wear some super bright colours? I personally love that. Before each show we’re like, ‘Guys, what colour should we do today?’. Nine times out of ten there’s always a reason why we are wearing that colour on stage. It’s just a fun extra element.
You supported Metallica, whose fans are, for the most part, not known for wearing bright colours. Dig they dig it?
Luke: I remember right at the very start of this band, my partner Bethany, who’s extremely involved in the whole visual side of this band, said, ‘Have you even thought about how you’re going to present this?’ Especially me and Jake, we’ve known each other for so long, and we just come from a background of wanting to wear a shirt and jeans, and that’s it. She planted that seed and then said, ‘I’ve spent a countless amount of hours and minutes and seconds hearing you guys pouring everything into your music and your art, and then you’re just gonna package it up like you don’t care’.
She likened it to having the best invention in the world, but if your shop window doesn’t let people know it’s there or make them want to have a look inside, then no-one’s going to discover it.
Jake and Luke, what was the genesis of this long-running friendship you’ve spoken of?
Jake: Luke was in a band called Press To Meco, which I ended up joining also. I was in a band called Dakota, and we toured together around the middle of 2015. It’s been a long old ride but we immediately connected over our mutual adoration of AC/DC, and then that was it. It was the Step Brothers moment. “Did we just become best friends?!”
You’ve briefly touched on it before, but what does unpeople mean as a name, and can you tell us about your ethos of welcoming everyone in to enjoy this band?
Luke: I think the reason we resonated so much with the term unpeople was that it just felt captured so much of our ethos, not only as a band but as individuals. We spend a lot of time sharing frustrations of seeing the world shout at each other, but actually if you zoom out a bit and realise that, if there was one common enemy coming in to take on the world, all of a sudden we’re all on the same team.
It’s just recognising the breakdown in seeing other people for humans, as opposed to being like, ‘You’re wearing this colour and that doesn’t agree with me, or I’m wearing this colour, so that means I immediately don’t agree with you’.
That’s of course with the caveat that we understand how nuanced and incredibly complicated everything is, and it’s not just a simple as, ‘Let’s all hold hands for five minutes and everyone’s going to be happy’. Underneath that, there’s a human and perhaps if you were in their shoes for a while or, you’d have more of an understanding why they think and feel the way they do.
I think it was previously used as a political term for everyone other than the political elite too. It’s the empathy side of it that really resonates with us, because at its core, we believe that equality, unity and empathy is the first place to start with a lot of that stuff.
And music helps with that too…
Luke: Look, shouting at each other, leading with a “fuck you” is only going to lead to one of one outcomes. Do you know what I mean? It’s why we love music so much. You can get 80,000 people in a field, all with their arms around each other. Some of these people, if you got into it, have completely opposing views, but in that moment you share human to human connection.
Jake, I noticed the massive XTC mural in your background…
Jake: I am a bit of an XTC super fan. I’m not gonna lie. I actually used to play in the UK’s premier XTC tribute band for a little while, which was some of the hardest and most rewarding gigs I’ve done.
And finally, going back to Metallica. Did those stalwarts give you any advice when you supported them?
Jake: Myself and Richie, we were lucky enough to be able to get some family members over for that show, and after the show we went back to the dressing room and tried to take in what the fuck had just happened. Me and Richie decided to leave and go and find some of our family members and as we were walking out of the artist area, I think we’d had a wine. We were about to leave through the gate to go back into the arena and about 100 yards away, I could just see the silhouette of James Hetfield smoking a cigar, and we made a bee line and explained we’d supported them. He was the most down to earth cool dude. I first heard …And Justice For All when I was seven years old, so Metallica are legitimately one of my favourite bands of all time, one of the reasons why I do what I do. I first saw them at Download 2004, so it was 20 years and 5 days from me first seeing Metallica to opening for them. A dream come true.
Luke: I’d like to add that I was with Jake and Richie just before that, and when they said they were going to go to the dressing room, I chose to go and get ice cream. They said they’d met James Hetfield, and I was like, ‘Yeah, but this is delicious!’