Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson discusses his “age crisis”
Sleaford Mods found success in the music industry when they were far more advanced in years than some of their contemporaries, and the dance-punk outfit recently explained their experience with ageism in an interview with The Guardian.
Singer Jason Williamson, 52, told the publication that when live music returned, he had something of a “crisis”. He said, “The thing of, ‘I’m too old to do this now’, when we started playing live again, I had a bit of a crisis about. All our contemporaries are 25 years younger, most of them, and you get quite a lot of ageism. But what can I say to them? I was doing the same thing 20 years ago.”
Instrumentalist Andrew Fearn, 51, also weighed in on the discussion. He said, “You can question yourself and that’s important, but more important is the reality. Like Kate Bush, her latest is probably even better than her early stuff. It’s good, I think, to be around still. You’re sending out a great message to people in their 30s and 40s to say, ‘You’re never too old for creativity’.”
Fearn added, “Also, I remember when I was nobody and was constantly making music and putting it out on social media, and it wouldn’t even get one ‘like’… That’s a lot tougher. The only thing to stop you making music is depression, not wanting to get out of bed.”
Also, in the interview, the band opened up about their voting preferences. “Voting Labour is the only option,” Fearn said, while Williamson was slightly more sceptical, adding, “Obviously, Labour would be better than the Conservative party. And I can quite confidently say that, because [the Tories] have just lost their minds.”
Williamson added, “But I have a problem with Labour because it’s quite centrist, so you get Keir Starmer saying something reasonable, and you think, OK, but then he starts rattling on about the royal family. He’s got his affiliations with the infrastructure of traditionalist England, with the aristocracy. He’s a bit of a bootlicker.” Check out our interview with Sleaford Mods here.
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