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“I never thought we’d make it to Glastonbury”: Squid interviewed at Worthy Farm about ‘Houseplants’ and their love of Keane
Keane: balm for your Glasto comedown
Brighton post-punks Squid always wanted to go to Glastonbury, but couldn’t afford a ticket (and there are five of them in the band!) Well, four years since forming – and a year since after officially set their sights on Worthy Farm – they’ve touched down in Pilton town, playing no less than three times at Glastonbury 2019.
“I never thought it would happen,” admits drummer Ollie as Squid are interviewed in the makeshift NME studio backstage at the festival. “It’s been four years of constant kind of changing – it only really settled into what it is a year and a bit ago.”
Squid 1.0 was experimental electro jazz, but now they make voguish post-punk (you’ll undoubtedly be familiar with the fabulous ‘Houseplants’, an eccentric indie-pop banger that takes the piss out millennials filling their crap rental flats with expensive shrubbery) that’s seen them lumped in with the likes of London band Black Midi and Hull’s Life. Like most bands, they don’t like the think of themselves as belonging to any kind of scene. “It’s kind of a scene in the sense that we’re all a similar age and blowing up a little bit at the same time – that feels nice – but I feel like everyone’s quite different,” says Ollie.
Still, their upcoming new four-track EP will be even more experimental and the atonal ‘Houseplants’, which keyboard player Arthur says marked a chance of pace for Squid.
“When we first recorded it we were quite scared of it because it was quite fast and it was like nothing we’d ever recorded before,” he admits. “I didn’t listen to it for weeks. Usually when we record something usually you want to listen to the mixes to see how your parts came out but I didn’t want to listen to it at all. And then I did, a month later, on a bus, and I listen to it straight and I was so happy. It really brought a smile to my face.”
Something else that brings a smile to the Squid lads’ faces: Keane, who play the Acoustic Stage on Sunday night. The Squid lads can’t wait. Erm, why? “Musically, it’s so safe,” says Ollie. “It’s homely,” adds Arthur. Need to soothe your Glastonbury comedown? Grab your houseplants, stick on a bit of Keane, get homely. Sorted.
