One of the more unique bands in modern music is set to perform at one of the desert’s most iconic venues.
Squid, a band from the United Kingdom, has poured ample musical expression and artistic flair into their relatively small body of work. Drummer and lead vocalist Ollie Judge delivers narrating, howling, yelping vocals, providing a perfect layer in support of a cacophonous, rapidly shifting soundscape. For example, “Swing (in a Dream)” is glitchy synth with a stuttered groove, and “G.S.K” provides a solid, driving beat while trippy sounds and sax promote sonic chaos.
The band is set to perform at Pappy and Harriet’s on Wednesday, May 7.
I saw the band in 2021, on their first U.S. tour, and there were a few logistical issues. For example, I tried to buy a T-shirt, but the merch saleswoman explained that, since the band is from overseas, they could not accept debit cards, and were only taking cash. During a recent Zoom interview with Judge, he said that touring in the United States has become easier with more experience.
“I think we were all a bit shocked when we came over to the States for the first time,” Judge said. “Obviously, the language is the same, so we were like, ‘Oh, great, this will be easy,’ but it’s actually really, really different. There are things you’ve got to get used to, and one thing was that we parked in front of a fire hydrant and got fined loads of money. It’s definitely easier (now), just because we’re a bit more familiar with the States—and I think it gets easier when you have a little bit more money to spend on touring as well. That first tour was pretty dicey. We were just driving in a little van, doing 15-hour drives and stuff like that. I think we were very ill prepared. Now we’ve got a little bus that we can sleep in, and a driver.”
The band quickly grew from selling out 250-capacity rooms to packing 1,000-plus-capacity rooms between U.S. tours.
“The last tour we did was incredible,” Judge said. “We had no idea how it was selling or anything like that, and most of the shows felt sold out, or almost sold out. It’s just crazy. The audience is definitely younger, and in the States, there’s a hunger for the kind of music that we make amongst younger people. It always baffles me. It’s such a big country, and people are listening to us. It’s amazing.”
Squid in February released Cowards, their third LP, featuring another big sonic advancement. While strange synths are still present, the album explores a softer side of Squid, with more subdued and occasionally monotone vocals from Judge; less manic and intense drums; slower tempos; and haunting melodies. Across their short discography of three albums, one EP and some singles, Squid already feels removed from earlier works.
“It’s pretty tricky writing set lists, and it only gets harder the more music you release,” Judge said. “Some songs we’ve really put to bed, and I don’t think any of us are interested in playing them. I think it’s because we’ve evolved so much since putting out our first proper single, and it all kicked off quite quickly with that stuff. The Town Centre EP (from 2019), even though that got kind of popular, we were still really finding our feet, and I think it just sounds like a completely different band compared to who we are now. … We’re always trying to look forward, and not look backward too much.”
During the press run in 2023 for O Monolith, the band’s second album, the band members said their third record was already completed and nearing release. After touring with the release of Cowards, the band will finally be able to take some rest from writing, recording and performing.
“Part of the reason for doing the record Cowards so quickly after O Monolith was because we thought, if we get it done now, we can have a whole summer not constantly touring, and then (promote the album) it after that,” said Judge. “It was a strategic plan to do it so quickly, but it was hard work trying to promote and finish O Monolith while writing and recording Cowards. I think maybe we took on a little bit too much, and I think for the first time, we are just really, really happy with Cowards as a record, and we thought, ‘We don’t need to do anything else just yet. We can just sit in this record for a little bit.’”
The calmer aspects of Cowards are apparent right away, illustrated by the musically sparse “Blood on the Boulders,” the falsetto singing on “Cro-Magnon Man” and the slow-jazz jam of “Cowards.” The record is far more subdued than the challenging O Monolith, which featured time signature changes, sonic insanity and high-energy rock.
“I personally found O Monolith a really tricky record to write and record,” Judge said. “I think there were seeds being sown on O Monolith for what was to come next, but (the calmer music on Cowards) came from feeling a little bit more relaxed. Apart from promoting and putting out O Monolith, we didn’t really have much else going on, so we were pretty focused and relaxed. It was nice working in secret, and no one knew that we were writing and recording this record. It felt like there wasn’t any noise from anyone else filtering in, and I think you can definitely hear that in that record.”
Not only was O Monolith a tricky record to write and record; portions have proven difficult to perform.
“I struggled with O Monolith, mainly from a live perspective, because it was so hard to play those songs and sing at the same time,” Judge said. “There’s still one track of O Monolith that we’ve never played live, because I just can’t do it. Going into Cowards, I kind of put my foot down and said, ‘We have to write more songs in 4/4, because I want to be able to play these songs for people.’ For everyone in the band, it was nice to have some songs (on Cowards) with some more breathing room, and more space in between the instruments and stuff.”
The songs from Cowards have been received well in a live setting, but the band is still getting used to no longer seeing mosh pits in their crowds.
“It’s funny, because the whole time we’ve been a band, we’ve been used to just constant mosh pits,” Judge said. “It’s just funny that (mosh pits have) become an indicator of people enjoying things. We look out into the crowd, and there’s a mosh pit, and we think, ‘OK, this is good,’ but with the new tracks, there’s not so much of that, so it’s harder to gauge people.”
Squid will perform at 9:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 7, at Pappy and Harriet’s Pioneertown Road, at 53688 Pioneertown Road, in Pioneertown. Tickets are $25 plus fees. For more information, visit pappyandharriets.com.
