Thank you.

You're about to play like the smallest crowd maybe in years tonight, or?

Yeah, it's been a while since we've done a little one like this.

Yeah, how's that like different from the huge shows that you're used to right now with this tiny, cozy venue?

I'm looking forward to it.

Maybe there'll be, the obvious answer is that there'll be a bit more of a connection between us and the crowd.

Even just being able to see more people from the distance and just, yeah, I think it'd be nice.

What about you?

Yeah, I mean, you know, this guy, he feeds off a crowd that he's connected with.

Yeah, I'm going to learn everybody's name.

Yeah, yeah.

Let's go for that.

Can't wait to see it.

Shallow stage.

Yeah, closer.

Buckle up.

Yeah.

What can we expect?

All of that and fireworks and everything.

Yes.

Into, yeah, cool.

Good to go.

You're about to release this new record, Dakar.

I'm sure you can't get too much into the specifics before it comes out at this point, but I'd love to know in both of your minds, like, how it relates to your previous record.

Like, is there continuation?

Is it related in what kind of music way?

Yeah.

I mean, I think musically, yeah, we, as we've always tried to do, like the one that follows sort of takes a little bit something from the one before.

And there's a path that goes from the first album to this album.

It might not be like obvious and clear to everybody at first, but for us, it's definitely got a bit of that.

And it's like another extension of what we did last time.

But there's definitely, yeah, definitely a difference.

I think it seems to me possibly that when you look back after a period of time has passed, you notice more that the sound of each record sort of bleeding into the next one more than you perhaps felt like it did at the time.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I think there's definitely, it follows on from the last one, but it feels a bit more open or something.

Yeah, that's the end of that sentence, it feels a bit more open.

You've been playing a few of the new songs live already, so the fans had to get some sneak previews, so to say.

And one of the songs you've performed is called Mr. Schwartz, if I pronounced it correctly.

It refers to a poet, right?

No, it's a coincidence.

It's a misconception that's going to be the bane of your existence.

Oh, what's the story?

The real story.

You mean the name of the poet?

Yeah.

Delmore Schwartz, is that what we're talking about?

Too much of a coincidence.

I know, it's a huge coincidence.

But then another Mr. Schwartz came up, there's a, well, a Mrs. Schwartz actually came on me barometer the other day.

There's a George Saunders short story called Offloading Mrs. Schwartz, and I don't know, maybe subconsciously it's come from there or something, I've started to wonder.

But I don't think it's either.

I saw the name on the back of an Alfa Romeo underneath the taillight in a sort of, I'd love to know the name of the typeface, but I don't, but I'd sort of describe it as a like, 90s surfer, and it said Del Schwartz on the back of this.

So we had a song called that for a while that didn't make the record.

And that led to Mr. Schwartz.

And then it came to the song.

Yeah.

So, yeah.

But no, it's a coincidence.

Yeah.

But it also actually leads to something of an Arctic Monkey's mystery, because before the song titles were, for the cover were made public, the fans found a playlist on Spotify named Del Schwartz that they think is yours.

Can you confirm or deny that?

What's on it?

A lot of French music.

The titles are very hard for me to pronounce.

It's very obscure.

No idea.

No, it's not.

No?

I thought someone was like coughing as a clue of what to say there.

Oh, is this a sign?

What can we say?

No, it's not that.

Del.

Is that you, Del?

The fans were obsessed with it, but...

Unless it was his Alfa Romeo, that never occurred to me.

No.

I think that's probably like, some time travel would have to be involved.

Yeah, but that's why the font looks like it was.

Okay.

Love to have that clear.

Thank you so much.

Oh, there's a playlist as well.

Shit, I forgot about that.

I mean, I don't know anything about that.

There's a playlist, yeah.

And I was wondering, because the third track of the album, Sculptures of Anything Goes, immediately stood out to me, because it's quite dark, almost ominous.

And I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit of the process behind that song, because it's so...

Yeah, that's kind of a bit of a different...

We haven't really been to that place, I don't think, before, sonically, quite.

I mean, to me, that does remind me a little bit of some of the...

Well, of some of the desert-ier side of the AM record from 2013.

It feels like there's still a bit of that dust in there, but it's...

Yeah, that came...

Jamie, the guitar player, got a Moog synthesizer, and put a drum machine through it, and made that sound.

And we wrote a song based off that, really, is the succinct answer.

Yeah, so that sound was like the starting point for the rest of you to get into that vibe, or what is that song for you?

Well, yeah, then it sort of...

It started there, it became a million other things.

And then there were multiple different versions, and ended up kind of back where it started.

But, you know...

Having had a handcuff.

For you, Matt, what's that song?

What does it feel like?

We've been trying to play it as well, which has been fun, to like, a version of it live.

Yeah, we were just trying to play it just now, actually.

Yeah, it's great.

It's a fun one to do.

Yeah.

Were you about to put that one in the set list?

What kind of...

It's tempting.

I don't know if it's quite there, but we'll see.

Anything could happen.

Feels like one of them afternoons.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

True.

Love to see it.

And you recorded the car mostly in a butly priory, a large religious house in the countryside, if I'm correct?

Yeah, it is.

What made you want to go there instead of like, a big fancy studio?

I can't really remember.

I think we liked the idea of just going somewhere and just being there, first of all.

And this was like a place that we could just live there, stay there, and set everything up we needed and just, you know, not be bothered by anyone.

Have the place to ourselves.

What kind of place is it inside?

What does it have for you?

It's not a studio.

I mean, I like studios.

I don't know.

Love studios.

But by the end of it, it felt like we did enough there and made it feel enough like a studio.

It didn't feel strange after those couple of days.

Yeah, it's kind of a big open room.

And I suppose you've got a bit of that sound.

It felt like that was the bit of it where we captured sort of the raw material.

And then we took it on to, you know, went back to La Frette again, where we did the last record, did the vocals and some overdubs there.

And then like, did the strings and mixed in London.

But it was like all kind of got the main, got all the band stuff in this room, in the countryside, in England in the summer, which I think we were quite...

I think that's the first time we'd made a record in the summer in England since like the first time we did one or something.

So that was kind of a, I don't know, sort of back to that approach or something.

Maybe that appealed.

Yeah.

What did those days look like?

It sounds kind of romantic in a way.

Yeah.

A lot of it was based around the football, World Cup we're on, right?

Euro 20?

Yeah, I forget the time.

Oh, there we are.

I don't know what time is anymore.

So yeah, there was, you know, a little bit of camaraderie around that.

We had go for walks, that kind of thing.

It's nice.

Yeah.

And do you remember like for both of you at the moment when you felt like it clicked, it was complete, the entire record, it's finished, it's done.

It's perfect.

I'm still waiting.

Where was it?

Yeah, perhaps waiting on that one.

But I don't know if I could, I don't think there's been that.

No, I think it took us a lot longer to get to the end point of this one than any of the others.

I suppose because we had a bit more time as well.

Yeah, probably just more spread out as well.

So it was hard to be like, now it's done, because it was just done in sections almost.

And maybe the longer you let it go on, the more you want to let yourself make adjustments.

Yeah, I think, yeah, perhaps it got a bit silly at the end in that respect.

But yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, we tried.

And how is it for you as musicians to, you know, hear the record, like if it's too easy to go into like the car.

But most of the musicians that I talk to are like, I know when the album is or the song is finished, when I played on my crappy car radio and what's that atmosphere or what's that location for you to hear the songs, the album and find like, yeah, this is good.

The car is always a good test, isn't it?

Yeah, that's probably still the case for me.

Remember like AM we used to, we were like listening to a lot of the car and that was all.

Remember that being like, oh, let's make this one.

Sound good in cars.

Yeah.

It needs to knock or something.

Yeah, we used to hear a lot about that.

But I find remarkably, I don't know if I have listened to this one in a car.

Yeah, I have.

Go figure.

Yeah, maybe you're going to have to wait until you can put needle to groove, aren't you?

Before you finish, before you're finished with this one.

Yeah, are you?

Yeah, I think it's going to be that for you.

Yeah, I wonder if they've pressed any up yet.

That's probably going to be that.

Burst into tears.

That's that moment, right?

Yeah.

That's that moment.

And you just did the soundcheck.

Crackle.

So emotional.

You just did the soundcheck and I was wondering like, what new song are you most excited to perform tonight?

We hadn't fully decided which ones we're going to do.

But I think we did, like we said, we did try sculptures just then.

And that was like, that was good.

That was fun.

It just depends.

Because we've got, it's a shorter period of time that we're playing for as well.

So we've got to really like, get this right.

Yeah.

And not fuck it up.

What about you?

Mirrorball.

That sounded good just then as well.

Is there a mirrorball?

Not today, no.

I'm sorry.

Sad.

Change it to they used to be a mirrorball.

Yeah.

So final question, you just announced your biggest show in the Netherlands ever.

Be playing the Ziggo Dome in May next year.

Everyone's going wild because it's at 5.05, like the 5th of May.

It's a couple of days before my birthday, just in case anybody was wondering.

Yeah.

Good to mention.

And fans are going already crazy online, of course.

But it's like 18 years after your first ever show in Amsterdam, Paradiso.

Paradiso, yeah.