Viagra Boys at Reading Festival 2024 on new music, inspiring Kings of Leon and beefing with The Hives
At Reading 2024, Viagra Boys caught up with NME backstage to discuss their upcoming new material, frontman Sebastian Murphy’s love of country music and how they inspired KOL’s latest album ‘Can We Please Have Fun’
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00:00Hello, you're watching NME, I'm Jordan Bassett, and we're here with Sebastian and Benke from
00:09the magnificent Viagra Boys.
00:11Hello.
00:12How are you doing guys?
00:13Hello, hello.
00:14Nice to see you.
00:16So, you're headlining the Festival Republic stage later tonight, and I'm wondering if
00:21when you called your band Viagra Boys nearly 10 years ago now, you thought you'd one day
00:26be headlining festival stages.
00:29Yeah, I don't know, I don't think so, no.
00:34Did the name ever cause you any kind of problems?
00:37Yeah, yeah, I think there's been some problems sending emails and everything gets sent to
00:42spam and, but it's also been good, like, we have a lot of older fans find out about us
00:49through strange Googling and stuff like that, so yeah.
00:55That's why there's so many, like, 65-year-old fans out there, you know.
00:58Did you ever consider any other names over the years?
01:03Yeah, we did, but they were worse.
01:06They would have led to more problems.
01:11Did you know that Kings of Leon said that their last album, Can We Please Have Fun?,
01:17was partly inspired by Viagra Boys?
01:19What?
01:20Did you know that?
01:21No.
01:22I heard it from my very own ears.
01:24No way.
01:25That's insane.
01:26Is the feeling mutual?
01:27Are you fans of the Kings?
01:31I listened to them growing up a little bit, I mean, but yeah, when I was 13, 14, I think
01:38they were getting huge on the radio and stuff like that, but no, I didn't know they were
01:43still making music, so yeah.
01:46But that's cool.
01:47That's awesome.
01:48I can't believe that, to be honest.
01:51I want to hear their new album, it sounds like Viagra Boys.
01:56Right.
01:57Yeah.
01:58Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na.
01:59Yeah.
02:00And you recently feuded with The Hives, who called you...
02:04Fuck those guys.
02:05Yeah.
02:06Well, they called you Punk Rock Losers, and you called them in return Corporate Suit Rock.
02:12What's all that about?
02:15I don't know.
02:16They're just...
02:17I don't know.
02:18I don't want to keep going.
02:20The beef is squashed.
02:21The beef is squashed.
02:22So you squashed it at your...
02:23You did a gig in Stockholm.
02:24Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:25Good.
02:26Well, I'm glad.
02:27Your second album, Welfare Jazz, was kind of country-ish, and you did the John Prine
02:31cover with Amy Taylor from Amelin and the Sniffers.
02:35Country music's all the rage these days.
02:37Yeah, it is, right?
02:38Lana's doing a country album.
02:40That's why we're not doing it anymore.
02:43Post Malone did one.
02:44How does it feel to be ahead of the curve a little bit there?
02:48Amazing.
02:49Yeah.
02:50On a serious note, do you think that that was something in the ether that you kind of
02:55picked out, or was it just what you were feeling at the time?
02:58I think it was just I've always been a huge country fan, and I listen to country every
03:05day.
03:06Wow.
03:07I think it's just...
03:08I wanted to incorporate it into our music before, and then now it's kind of like I've
03:12been there, done that, and we'll see.
03:14Might come back someday, but yeah.
03:20You spent a lot of the last album, Sebastian, inhabiting the persona of a right-wing conspiracist,
03:28and I wonder what does that do to a person's psyche?
03:33It's impossible to not be inhabited by it when it's all over the place everywhere.
03:42I don't know.
03:43I think it makes you stronger, or more depressed, or less...
03:47I don't know.
03:48I mean, we live in a wild, wild world, and I think you should just take it as it is.
03:58I don't know.
03:59Did you kind of exercise any anxiety you may have had about that happening in the world,
04:08in making that record?
04:10Maybe.
04:11Hopefully.
04:12Yeah.
04:13Yeah.
04:14That record was made very quickly.
04:15You told me that it was recorded in six days.
04:19Not really.
04:20No.
04:21No.
04:22It was a fib.
04:23It was a porky.
04:24Yeah.
04:25I must have been lying.
04:26Trying to flex, but no, definitely not.
04:30I think there was a lot of back and forth, but everything changed substantially along
04:37the way.
04:38Yeah.
04:39So, I mean, the whole process was probably over a year, so yeah.
04:43Jason Williamson, obviously, for Mods, was on that record.
04:46Do you guys feel a sort of kindred spirit in him, maybe?
04:49Yeah.
04:50Yeah, he's my spirit animal.
04:51Why?
04:52My British spirit animal.
04:54Well, why so?
04:55What do you respond to?
04:56He's very wise, and yeah, I just look up to him a lot, and yeah, I love what he's done
05:04with his music and his life, and I love how articulate he is, and how angry he is, and
05:12yeah.
05:13Yeah, I just love the guy, and yeah, I love them both.
05:17Sebastian, you were working as a tattoo artist, and during COVID, I know you were a tattoo
05:21artist before that as well.
05:22Is that something that's continued?
05:23Do you still do that?
05:25I was tattooing for, now it would be 15 years, but I haven't tattooed for the last two and
05:32a half years, maybe.
05:33Just been trying to focus on music and my hobbies.
05:36Awesome.
05:37Yeah.
05:38What's the weirdest thing you've ever tattooed on someone?
05:42I don't know.
05:43I think most tattoos are weird, if you think about it.
05:48What's the point?
05:49I don't know.
05:50Well, you guys have got some good ones to tell.
05:53Yeah.
05:54Okay, so the last record didn't take six days, but it's been a couple of years, so I'm wondering
06:00if you guys are working on new material at the moment?
06:02Yeah, we are.
06:03Yeah.
06:04What can you tell us about it?
06:10It's going to be really good.
06:11Yeah.
06:12I'm hooked.
06:13Tell me more.
06:14Okay, so you guys have done country, there were electronic elements.
06:17I think this is a little bit of everything, hopefully, yeah.
06:22Kind of see where it ends up, but yeah, I mean, we kind of just, I think there's a little
06:27bit of all sorts of genres in there, hopefully, excluding maybe R&B and stuff like that.
06:34But yeah, there's a lot of rock.
06:38There's a lot of rock in our new album.
06:41Yeah.
06:42Yeah, I mean, you've done country, there were electronic elements on the last record.
06:46Do you feel that, well, I certainly feel that the Viagra Boys sound can't really be pinned
06:51down to one thing.
06:52There were certain core elements, of course, but it kind of feels like it could go anywhere.
06:56Yeah.
06:57Do you feel like-
06:58That's kind of the vibe we want to, we want people to not really expect what's coming.
07:06And who knows, maybe it does sound exactly like it has before, but in my head, it doesn't.
07:12So yeah, hopefully, there's a bit more new sounds in there, and we've definitely taken
07:19different approaches to songwriting.
07:22And yeah.
07:23In what way?
07:24What kind of new approaches have you been taking?
07:29Like the older stuff, but, you know, a little bit better, I would say.
07:33A little bit better, okay, okay.
07:36Yeah.
07:37A little bit, yeah.
07:38I would say that.
07:39So are we talking about like a new album that has taken some form now?
07:43Yeah.
07:44Yeah.
07:45Yeah.
07:46Yeah.
07:47Okay.
07:48When can we maybe expect this record?
07:49I can't say, I don't think, but maybe in, maybe next year, yeah.
07:52Next year.
07:53Awesome.
07:54Well, you just did say.
07:55That's brilliant.
07:56That's a scoop.
07:57We got the scoop.
07:58Thanks very much, Viagra Boys.