Interview with Bag of Cans: ‘We pride ourselves on being active and fun and Queen were at the pinnacle of that’

Norwich indie rockers Bag of Cans will release their debut full-length album next spring, offering us more of the humour we know and love whilst breaking away from conventional musical structures.

The band comprises George Baker (vocals and trumpet), Sam Watts (bass), Joe Wilson (drums), George Bryce (guitar and vocals) and Tom McGhie (guitar and vocals). Baker met Bryce playing an open mic night locally and the other three band members were originally in another band before joining the line up in 2017. ‘Our name can be any can,’ Baker said, laughing. ‘Beans, beer, just not sweetcorn as George doesn’t like tinned sweetcorn, otherwise, any can will do!’

Last month, they released their infectious single ‘Pub Money’, which they describe as their ‘shameless attempt to write an anthem for the terraces’, with football-chant style vocals alongside their now-signature squealing guitars, using a blues driver pedal, and a pounding rhythm section. It builds and picks up the pace as it goes on, reaching a brilliantly frenetic crescendo. At the song’s core is the all-too-familiar inner grappling in a pub: “I don’t want to worry, come on, pub, just take my money, honey” muses lead singer Baker in the song, before the confession “I’m a little short on money, maybe pub don’t take my money”.

‘The good thing is that you take it to George and he’s like a mad scientist with these things’

‘Tom, the guitarist was living in London and commuting back and forth to see us on weekends to write,’ Baker said. ‘I was working at a bar but trying to get more of a graduate role and the lyrics came out as my housemate came into view and said “Do you want to go to the pub?” Tom came up with the “I’m a little short on money, maybe pub don’t take my money”, they all have fantastic ideas. What Tom and I first collaborated on, we had the first verse and pre-chorus and took it to rehearsal. The good thing is that you take it to George and he’s like a mad scientist with these things (laughs). Tom used to be in a band called Robust Soul, they did a cover of ‘Hall of the Mountain King’, that whole getting faster and faster feel, which we’ve done in this song. At gigs, when we play it, it can sometimes get out of control! With the backing vocals, we had the idea of it sounding massive on the day we recorded it, like at the pub. It’s unlike any song on the album next year, it’s recorded with a mic made by our friend Robin, it makes the vocals sound crunchy. It broke at a gig, so he made us another one out of a Red Stripe can, hang on, I’ll show you.’ He disappears and comes back with the Red Stripe mic and I tell him it’s the first time I have ever seen a mic made out of a beer can and it’s brilliant.

One defining characteristic of their songs is that they are completely unpredictable; you never know where a song is going and there are always sonic surprises, from the song slowing down when you least expect it to circumventing traditional structures to create something far more interesting: ‘On our first EP, we wrote classic verse-chorus-verse songs but the more we write now, we move through ABCD structures with no repeating parts,’ Baker explained. ‘It’s more interesting for us to play. If we get bored of playing something, the audience is going to be bored, too. The other George does the rant in ‘Hair Of The Dog’. He improvises it live and does a different rant every time, whatever has irked him at work, he’ll let loose on those parts! It’s one of our favourite things, we have a sip of beer and watch George have a meltdown (laughs). He’s found it more difficult to rant of late because of how well things have been going. It’s one of my favourite songs that we’ve written.’

Alcohol also rears its head in another of their recent hilarious singles, ‘Hair of the Dog’, which kicks off with a raw riff, old school guitar tone and snappy bursts of trumpet. The cheeky, oft repeated lament “Oh, hair of dog, please save me from my life of sin” has a Genesis vibe to it and is delightfully comic. The list of things that definitely won’t help a hangover gets more outlandish as the song goes on: ‘We were sitting together in Sam’s front room after a particularly heavy night out (laughs). George had been in the bath and had overhead us writing it and then listed all the things that wouldn’t help a hangover (laughs). We’re like backing dancers when we play it live, sassily pointing the finger at the things that won’t help!’

Next year’s album will likely feature 9-10 tracks, according to Baker: ‘We’ve recorded all the songs and the album art is just being finished,’ he said. ”Pub Money’, ‘Hair of the Dog’ and ‘Spin Cycle’ will be on it. We’ll release a Christmas single on 8 December called ‘Sorry, Mum, I Was Hungover This Christmas’, then another one, ‘Hostage At The Dinner Table’ in January. We’ve got another one coming out in Feb called either ‘Milk Man’ or ‘Milk & More’, if Milk & More (a UK milk delivery firm) don’t sue us!’

‘It’s a classic 12 bar blues’

It turns out that their Christmas single was written by Bryce a couple of years ago: ‘It’s a classic 12 bar blues,’ Baker said. ‘The lyrics are very silly, all of us sing on it – Tom, myself and George. We each have our own verse, we’ve replaced all the swearing with “Christmas” (laughs). Some of the Christmas song’s lyrics include “These chocolate coins are tasting funny, I’ve been eating real money” and “Came down in the morning and my eyes were pink, she said take a Christmas shower, George, you Christmas stink!” It’s a very gentle sway song, I’m so proud of how the recording turned out. Our friend Rob Milne, he’s a fantastic jazz musician on the Norwich improv scene, he’s a fantastic clarinetist and flautist, he plays on it. I play trumpet as well.’

Interestingly, Baker started learning the trumpet when he was 7 or 8: ‘I got press ganged into it by my mum,’ he said. ‘She wanted me to be a chorister and I had to learn another instrument, so I did it to get into the choir. The learning curve, it’s a tricky one! I’ve got keys here, a bass, two guitars and the trumpet.’ Musically, he has a wide range of inspirations: ‘The Beatles, musically, especially weird Beatles, we’re drawn to that more (laughs). We joke that ‘Rocky Racoon’ is George’s favourite song! We like 90’s Britpop, the Blurs and Pulps, a lot of tongue-in-cheek indie bands.’

Another new song in the works is ‘Colchester Leisureworld’: ‘It’s got a total football fast section, we’d been listening to a lot of Woos and we thought “What if you slow it down and build on that?” We try to keep things interesting and fresh.’

‘I’d probably say him or Freddie – I want the eccentric conversations’

If he could have a pint with anyone, he picks Freddie Mercury: ‘The first one that springs to mind is Jack Black, I take a lot of inspiration from him, his character. I’d probably say him or Freddie – I want the eccentric conversations (laughs). Probably Freddie over Jack just to be able to talk to him about stage performance. We pride ourselves on being active and fun and Queen were at the pinnacle of that.’

(Photo from left to right: Tom, Sam, George Baker, George Bryce and Joe.)