Interview with The Sherlocks. As we are catching the band in the middle of their UK tour, the band’s singer Kiaran Crook kindly agreed to chat with us and answer a couple of questions.
Formed by Kiaran Crook (vocals, guitar), his brother Brandon Crook (drums), Alex Procter (guitar), and Trent Jackson (bass), the quartet from South Yorkshire has released People Like Me and You this summer. The band, which has seen half of its members leave during the COVID-19 pandemic, came back in 2021 with World I Understand and seems unstoppable since. It’s in Islington Assembly Hall, a beautiful venue first built in the 30s, that we are meeting with them.
Unis Son: You’re playing here tonight, what does this place mean to you? How does this feel playing here?
Kiaran Crook: To be fair, I’ve never played here, but it’s always a sign of a good venue when you’ve heard a lot about it before. I’ve heard a few people saying ‘Oh that’s a good venue’ and I think it’s been on our radar for a while now. After sound checking, we are looking forward to it. So it’s a nice venue with a balcony. I don’t know when it was built, but it looks pretty cool.
US: And, on that note, where would be your dream venue?
KC: That’s a good question. Still, after all these years of being asked that, I’ve never managed to come up with a definitive answer for it. Dream venue… everybody says Wembley or whatever… I don’t know! Maybe just a big field, probably somewhere that means something to us. Maybe somewhere like Hillsborough, Sheffield Wednesday’s ground. Or a big field in Sheffield that holds a good few thousand… Headline in Tramlines, Sheffield festival. Yes, headline Hillsborough Park. That’d be a really big thing for us.
US: Do you have any band or any tracks that you’re listening to on repeat?
KC: Um, what I am listening to? I’m listening to a lot of Halloween music at the minute. Ghostbusters! Yeah, we’re just listening to Halloween playlists at the minute. Properly getting into it this year. Smashing Pumpkins too.
US: Great! Anything in French?
KC: (laughs) No, not really.
US: People Like Me and You is your fourth album. Does it feel like your fourth album?
KC: In a way, it does. I think we tried a lot of things, but we’re still enjoying it as much as we ever were… It is a pretty mad thing to think you have four albums under your belt. But, when you start to make a record, you still feel like it’s your first or second, really. You never feel like you’ve mastered it, we definitively haven’t. But yeah, does it feel like our fourth, probably no, it doesn’t. It just feels like one of the firsts, really.
US: So it still feels fresh?
KC: Very fresh, yeah.
US: It sounds a bit more intimate and serious in some places. Can you tell us about the process behind it?
KC: Yeah, we started the same way as we always do: just kicking the songs around and ideas. Usually, it starts with me on an acoustic guitar or electric, even on a piano sometimes, a keyboard. When we had enough ideas, they weren’t fully fleshed-out songs, we just said let’s go into the studio! We knew roughly how we wanted them, but there were lyrics and stuff to finish, changing some guitar riffs, and stuff. We sort of finished the album in the studio really, a lot of lyrics, and a lot of ideas were born in the studio. Before that they weren’t even fleshed-out songs, they were just ideas that we had. But it felt like a good time to get into the studio after the third album. So, we rushed in (laughs).
US: Oh yeah, the 3rd and 4th albums are so close to one another.
KC: Yeah, we had our momentum. So, we said, ‘Let’s just go back in the studio’!
US: And are you already thinking about the next one?
KC: Oh yes!
US: Can you tell us more about it?
KC: I’m not sure when it’s gonna be out. We probably gonna start recording it soon. The songs are pretty much ready to rock’n’roll. Once we come off tour, we’ve got the UK then the European tour, so probably just after Christmas, we will start to knock songs around in this practice room and see what we’ve got, see what people like, and then start recording in the next year. And then, I’m not sure when it’ll come out. Whenever we get told it’s ready.
US: There have been a lot of changes in the world, in the band, and with COVID… Do you feel like it is true for your live performances?
KC: Same as this [fourth] album, I think we definitively feel refreshed. Almost reborn, without sounding cringe… I think it takes something like a change, or something serious like COVID, for music to stop, and to be able to do it again, for you to realize how much you’re enjoying it. So, coming back, obviously, we came back with the third album, and now this fourth one, we just feel super up for it all the time now. It sort of gave us a kick up the backside.
US: It’s been around ten years that you’re playing now, do you have anything planned for celebrating that? Or this fourth album is this kind of celebration?
KC: Yeah, we are still in the honeymoon phase with the fourth album. But it would be nice to do something for, even this first album. Well, that came out in 2017 I think. So who knows, maybe around 2027, if we are all still alive, we might do something special. Maybe a big gig, who knows!
US: Now, what is your earliest memory of music?
KC: I’m not sure… I used to watch a lot of music channels all the time, so probably something like that.
Brandon Crook (who was working beside us): Probably the soundtrack to Matilda!
KC: Probably, yeah, probably that! (laughs)
We thank the band again for the lovely time chatting with them! They are still on tour and will stop in Paris, at the Supersonic, the 20th November. More info here.
