Far Out Meets: The Lathums’ plans for world domination and learning from Brandon Flowers
The Lathums‘ rise is a tale I’ve been personally invested in for a few years. Our first introduction was in-between lockdowns in 2020 at their studio in Wigan for the band’s first feature. Back then, they’d only released a smattering of singles and their debut album, How Beautiful Life Can Be, was still 12 months away. The record landed at number one upon its release, and their star began to lift off. Now, they look on-course to secure a second chart-topping LP with From Nothing To A Little Bit More.
As it stands, the four-piece are ahead of Slowthai and Mimi Webb in the midweek chart. While another number-one album would be a proud achievement for The Lathums, they want their career to be defined by the strength of their songs rather than chart statistics. However, if they are successful in the battle, this achievement will place them in an exclusive club of British bands alongside esteemed artists such as The Beatles and Arctic Monkeys as double chart toppers.
In the north of England particularly, The Lathums have built up an immensely loyal army of fans devoted to the cause. As a result, this summer, they’ll play the largest show of their career at Castlefield Bowl in Manchester, acting as a fitting venue for yet another pedestal-grabbing plotline in their journey. The band’s story is the stuff of musical folklore; the four members met as teenagers at college, bonded over their shared love of music, and began playing shows in local pubs before superstardom beckoned.
Over the last six months, I’ve been granted a glimpse behind the curtain, seeing The Lathums in action last year at their sold-out show at Hull University and access to the band at a recent pub show in the same city at the intimate Polar Bear. Following their performance at the latter, they took time to have a beer with their fans and speak to them at great length. This wasn’t a PR stunt for extra likes and perhaps half a column inch here and there; this was a band connecting with their fanbase the only way they knew how.
For The Lathums, the pub tour was a way to reestablish their roots and swap the glitzy tour bus for a dingy van. Seeing the whites in the eyes of fans makes for a different proposition to playing vast outdoor spaces, but this is important for frontman Alex Moore, guitarist Scott Conception, drummer Ryan Durrans, and bassist Matty Murphy.
“It was just like the old days, just plug in and play. There weren’t any pressures that come with putting on a big show, and it was just about connecting with people on an easier level and speaking with them after shows,” Moore says of the run after returning from tour.
Last summer was a special time for The Lathums. The group enjoyed a full festival season that included main-stage appearances at Reading + Leeds and a jaunt across Europe supporting The Killers. On one occasion on tour, Moore was invited on-stage by the American superstars to duet on The Lathums’ ‘How Beautiful Life Can Be’. With Brandon Flowers professing his love for the band in interviews and clearly admiring their songcraft, the group’s stock is rising once more.
The experience of watching The Killers each night was a privilege they didn’t take for granted. Not only did it teach The Lathums how to be an arena act, but they also learned how to behave off-stage too. “The first show was Milan, and before the show, Brandon (Flowers) came into our dressing room, and he was just being really nice to us, proper sound,” Moore tells Far Out. “As young lads, we’ve heard this man’s music all our lives, and for him to take the time to learn our song, speak to us all on a personal level, just showed he’s a gentleman even though he’s a superstar.”
Life has been exceptionally hectic for The Lathums and hasn’t stopped over the last 18 months. As soon as touring for the first album concluded, they were in the studio working on the follow-up with producer Jim Abiss in Cambridgeshire. Their work on the record was only completed the day before their European summer tour began, which segued into festival season.
Abiss, whose production credits include the debut album by Arctic Monkeys, was a coup for The Lathums. However, the recording process was complicated for the band, although this had nothing to do with their choice of producer, and they see the experience as a learning curve.
“It was just working in the week, and we’d have the weekends off then drive back up to Cambridge,” guitarist Scott Conception says of their regimented approach for making album number two. “It was a bit mad, but you learn from these experiences, and it never gets boring. You learn what you like, what you don’t want like, and we’ve learnt a lot of things which will hopefully make album three better,” Moore adds.
In a later conversation, Moore elaborated on the experience of recording From Nothing To A Little Bit More and solemnly said: “I think we could have planned it a bit better so we could have gone off in our own place. We weren’t away from anything, and we were just away from what we knew. By the time you get settled and find the right places, you have to drive back home for three and a half hours.”
He added: “We made our first album in Liverpool, so it’s only five minutes away from where we live. We knew Parr Street Studios, we knew James Skelly and Chris Taylor, and it was in an area that allowed us to be very creative and not have any other things on our mind, so I think residential is the way to go.”
While many bands have struggled to create a second collection of unique and formidable songs, that wasn’t an issue for The Lathums. “I’m constantly writing and have been since I was 16,” the 23-year-old says. “There’s always a backlog of songs, but I have to wait until we can release them through proper methods. It’s the same stories as album one, and it’ll probably be the same story for God knows how many records because there are too many songs and not enough time, unfortunately.”
Despite the band not taking to the area while they worked on the album, Abiss successfully got an evolutionary tune out of The Lathums on From Nothing To A Little Bit More. Nobody can question their unique sound, and if the Wigan four-piece continues on this trajectory, they’ll be headlining British festivals within the next five years.
Ultimately, the biggest stage is where The Lathums want to play, but unlike many bands’ faux humility, they aren’t afraid to admit it. “I want to take this all the way until I’m dead old,” Moore says of his ambition for the group. When I ask him about his future aspirations for the group, he confidently replies, “I believe we are going to do stadiums. That’s how to spread your message to the biggest group of people possible, and that’s what we want to do.”
The Lathums’ songs typically tackle universal issues in their music, providing a platform to express themselves and connect with their listeners. On their second album, Moore’s lyricism is profound as he guides the audience through the stages of a relationship from the early highs on ‘Lucky Bean’ to ‘Turmoil’, which deals with the inevitable end of the tale.
“Even with album one, you can see that my lyrics are very personal and derive from personal experiences,” Moore says. “That’s just my inspiration. It’s natural for me to tackle these subjects because nobody knows you better than yourself. There’s no bullshit because I’m just writing completely honestly from the heart, and it’s just everything I feel and think.”
As long as Moore continues to write at a prolific pace, the group’s stature will only grow further. While their output is not reinventing the definition of music, the demand for a band that tackles ordinary subjects with bundles of soul will never die. The Lathums are determined to etch their name into British musical history and are armed with songs to support their belief. Only time will tell, but the foghorn call of arenas feels inevitable for The Lathums.
From Nothing To A Little Bit More is out now via Island Records. To buy the album or tickets to their tour, visit here.
