Credit: Far Out / Suzanne Plunkett / Alamy

Matt Helders reveals Arctic Monkeys had “no expectations” for debut album

Fri 6 October 2023 17:20, UK

Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders has reflected upon their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not and admitted they had “no expectations” for the record.

Since its release in 2006, the chart-topping album has sold over a million copies in the United Kingdom and Arctic Monkeys also won the Mercury Prize for their efforts. The LP had a zeitgeist effect on popular culture, which the band didn’t see coming when they wrote the songs as teenagers in Sheffield.

Reminiscing about the album with MOJO, Helders explained he was slightly unaware about the buzz surrounding the band because of his busy schedule. He admitted: “It’s only when I look back at all the stuff around the first album now that it seems crazy. We were always on tour or recording so there wasn’t time to sit around and think about what was happening.”

He continued: “For me, when I started noticing things were taking off, was the first time we did a gig and people knew the words to all our songs because our demos had been out there. That was a weird one. I don’t think people realise, looking from the outside, how many gigs we played to zero people. The first time we got played on Radio 1 we were buzzing. We listened to it in our manager’s car and then went and played a gig and there were six people in the audience.”

Helders also told the publication: “We were just focused on what we were doing and had no expectations of what that album would become. It was hard to comprehend what it meant. We were all on tour and together and it felt like the whole country was buzzing about this thing. None of us expected it.”

Rather than celebrate their seismic success, Arctic Monkeys quickly returned to the studio to work on Favourite Worst Nightmare, which Helders claims was important.

He explained: “Even if we never made an album that was as successful as that ever again, we needed to leave it where it was and move on. We could have made the same thing again or toured that album for three years, but for us it was more exciting to try something new.”

In other Arctic Monkeys news, while on tour in North America, they recently premiered ‘Hello You’ from The Car while in Vancouver. During their encore at the Pacific Coliseum in the Canadian city, the Sheffield group debuted the track, which was the only song they had yet to perform live from the new record.

Arctic Monkeys have now almost concluded their tour in support of The Car. They are set to play two shows in Mexico City on October 6th and 7th before three dates at the 3Arena in Dublin and one performance at The SSE Arena in Belfast later this month.

Listen to their debut album below.