Idles on missing Gordon Brown, and sobering up: ‘Our old lyrics were not the words of a healthy man’
Outside the taxi window, Paris zooms past. Balconies with their baskets full of hydrangeas; a beige blur of boulangerie windows lined with flakey pastries; the Eiffel Tower. But before long we’ve left this postcard vision for an industrial city of concrete and metal. It’s a fitting change of scene for Idles, who as a band, don’t exactly scream escargot and macarons.
Since releasing their debut Brutalism in 2017, Idles have been on the front line of British rock. That record combined thrumming basslines and punk licks with candid lyrics on topics like austerity, toxic masculinity, mental health, and white privilege. Its blunt force rage at the state of the nation cut through the noise of complaints that rock music is dead. They’ve since earned a spot on the Mercury Prize shortlist, a Brit nomination, two No 1s, several top fives, packed-out Glastonbury sets, and many a sold-out tour, including this current one – hence Paris. “Passion is always our strongest feeling,” says Mark Bowen, the Irish guitarist and soft-spoken foil to frontman Joe Talbot. “I think that’s why we’re often confused with being angry – we’re getting out our internal rage and any kind of masculine bulls***.”
We’re backstage in a wood-panelled room where Bowen and Talbot, the band’s two primary songwriters, have sequestered themselves on a sofa an
