Interview with Don’t Watch The News: ‘The songs come together like jigsaws, they develop into something familiar’

Leeds-based alt-rock band Don’t Watch The News are gearing up to release their next single ‘Your Majesty’.

The band comprises Ben Murfin (lead vocals, guitar and songwriter), Harry Lavell (guitar), Will Jagger (bass) and Bryn Davies (drums). Murfin and Lavell met in college and their ex-drummer introduced them to Jagger. They met Davies on a night out around a year ago. Of their band name, Jagger says: ‘We thought it would be a really good album title and then we thought: “Why not call the band that?”‘ The name is also a reference to the fact that none of them are fans of how bleak the news has become or how the media sometimes portrays it.

‘It would have been sick to release ‘Your Majesty’ recently,’ Lavell said. ‘We’ll release it when we can afford the production fee.’ Murfin describes the track as ‘a bit more ‘fuck you-ey, let’s start a mosh pit’ (laughs). ‘It’s got a line: “I’ve been singing the blues on a Saturday night…ain’t no respect for your majesty”, it just worked. Me, Bryn and Harry are all at uni, we were all going out and getting drunk, not that we’ve stopped or anything (laughs). People understand at uni that you want to party. It’s got that grungey riff.’

As the track goes: “I’ve been singing the blues on a Saturday. And, no, I ain’t no respect for your majesty. Keep your piece loaded in your briefcase. They’ll come for you one late summer evening.”

‘There’s immense energy from start to finish, there’s no dip’

Earlier this month, they released their single ‘Nowhere To Go’, which hooks you from the fuzzy, distorted opening riff. It’s a track designed for a big crowd, with driving drums and catchy lyrics: ‘I was messing around with that riff in May/June last year,’ Murfin said. ‘It had been in four or five demos but never worked. We’d just come off playing our first bouncing gig, I wrote it a few days after that, trying to recreate that bounce. There’s immense energy from start to finish, there’s no dip.’

While their songwriting can vary from song to song, typically they start with ‘a few lines, instrumental, almost’, according to Murfin: ‘For ‘Nowhere To Go’, I had the lyrics kicking about, I wanted to fit them around the song. When the song was written, it wasn’t about what I was living at the time.’ Jagger weighs in: ‘The first ones we wrote, they were slower. When you get together as a band, how you write changes.’

All of their songs are very-story driven, often centred around relationships and nights out, including ‘A Sunday By The Mersey’ from last year’s debut EP ‘Last Orders’, which opens with a Bond-like, cinematic intro: ‘Most of them are about going out and getting pissed (laughs), what you see at the time at uni,’ Murfin said. ‘The songs come together like jigsaws, they develop into something familiar.’

‘I bought a thirty quid acoustic guitar from a girl off Snapchat’

Davies’ turbo-charged drumming pulls every song along fiercely and he’s clearly a natural: ‘Ben writes the songs, then I get creative, add fills etc. I started playing about year 9, five years ago. In my high school, we had school music lessons and drum lessons.’ Jagger also had drum lessons: ‘I hated it, I was rubbish! I don’t know why. I started listening to Arctic Monkeys and I bought a thirty quid acoustic guitar from a girl off Snapchat and thought “I wanted to be in a band” (laughs).’ Murfin, for his part, didn’t start playing the guitar until lockdown: ‘I came across Lil Peep (guitar sample loops) and liked those guitar loops but instead of buying patches, I decided to make my own. I said to Harry one day in college: “Let’s start a band” but he didn’t believe me (laughs).’ Lavell is laughing: ‘I didn’t but he kept bringing it up!’

Davies turns out to be a fan of Royal Blood and deathcore (an extreme metal sub-genre that combines death metal with metalcore), which goes some way to explaining how he drums. Lavell cites Nirvana and Arctic Monkeys as some of his favourites and Jagger calls The Stone Roses and The Jam ‘big influences’. Murfin mentions Neil Diamond: ‘My dad played him in the car, he was a mod!’ Lavell laughs: ‘My dad used to show me Oasis and a bit of Blur and old man music like Kenny Rogers!’

Jagger is still living at home in Liverpool: ‘I want to move out desperately!,’ he said. Murfin and Lavell are studying engineering, Jagger is working at a printing factory for the moment and Davies is studying mechanical engineering.

‘He’d smash things up, he’d be my kind of guy’

If he could go for a pint with anyone, Lavell picks English singer, songwriter, rapper and guitarist, Jamie T: ‘One I look up to and I’d be most interested to sit down and talk to. I’d love to go on a bender with him and Kurt Cobain.’ Davies has heavier plans: ‘I’m a massive fan of Joey Jordison from Slipknot, it would be good to have a chat about drumming and ask what got him into it.’ Jagger goes for all the attitude: ‘Probably Keith Moon from The Who, he were absolutely mental. He’d smash things up, he’d be my kind of guy (laughs).’ Murfin, for his part, goes old school: ‘All the good ones have gone now! Otis Redding, I think that it’d be a very good conversation to have, what inspired his music – it’s very open to interpretation.’

Their dream line up would be equally boisterous: ‘Avenged Sevenfold (an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California) would be amazing,’ Davies enthused. ‘They’re one of my favourite bands (he points to a poster of them behind him) – I’m dying to see them live!’ Lavell is deep in thought: ‘It’s a hard one, innit? I want to say Jamie T but I’m also thinking Limp Biskit, they’re mad as fuck, you’d go back to their green room and get pissed (laughs).’ Murfin goes with Kurt Cobain: ‘It’s Kurt Cobain, how could you NOT want him?’ Jagger picks Joy Division: ‘Just to see them live, to bring Ian Curtis back! I’d love to see his dancing live!’

(Photo from left to right: Bryn, Will, Harry and Ben.)