ONE OF the most exciting acts on the roster for this year’s Reading Festival is Irish outfit The Murder Capital.
Hot on the heels of their sophomore album, Gigi’s Recovery, the band is tipped to play the Radio 1 Dance stage on Friday when one of the biggest festivals in the UK returns during the August bank holiday, following a string of huge festival appearances earlier this year.
With just one month to go, frontman James McGovern says that it will be “One of the band’s biggest summer festivals yet,” ahead of their latest tour, which starts in October.
“Performing is different, but definitely equal to all of the recording, and it’s where you learn what your songs are about.
“Live shows are just where I prefer to be in general.”
He explains that “the unpredictability of a live show helps what punk creators do– I don’t think we’re a punk band, and we don’t really care for genres in that sense–I leave that to the journalists.
“It’s logically quite easy to do that to create a pattern, which can be helpful– and the iconography of certain genres have been huge cultural standpoints and inform social change.
“Post-punk, for the last five or six years in the UK at least, has been a present and fervent movement, and it’s great to be a part of that.”
He admits, however, that it is more of a personal expression in the case of The Murder Capital, rather than an intention to contribute to any particular scene or genre.
“What you listen to, whatever you consume, naturally affects your art in some way or another, but the intention for us isn’t about contributing in that grander sense– it’s an immediate expression, and very personal for us.”
In fact, James says, “There’s so many different things you can get caught up thinking about in that creative process… it’s BS, frankly.”
Their upcoming tour features dates in Berlin, Copenhagen, Oslo, Cologne, and Bordeaux before a gig in Dublin.
“It’s probably our biggest tour to date, although there may have been a few rivaling it before.
“If you have your head in the right place, you get used to spending more time in airport security than you do on stage.
“But you still feel like a dope for spending a fiver on the fast track.”
Following their recent American tour, the band performed at Coachella, one of the biggest festivals in the world.
Despite this, he says it’s: “Like any other festival– it’s very well run, and it’s cool with those big stages, but just with a smattering of the rich and famous.”
They’re also fresh from an appearance at Glastonbury, but their appearance at Reading will be another first.”There’s definitely a sense that at British festivals music runs through it, but they’re like chalk and cheese compared to American festivals.
“We have seen a bit too much in terms of being festival-goers– we aren’t really heading off and pitching a tent in our time off.
“But we love The Killers, especially their early albums, so we’re definitely looking forward to sharing the bill, but there’s too many to name.”
He says that the hallowed ground that many festival stages is not much of a consideration pre-show: “There’s a level of that spirit which we like to embody in the moment.
“But it’s more about turning up and bringing everything that The Murder Captial is to the show.
“I don’t like to make too much of a meal of it before the show is over, and then afterwards we can dwell on it.
“Until then, it’s all about bringing the best possible show we can bring.”
The Murder Capital are performing on the Radio 1 Dance Stage at Reading Festival on Friday, August 25, before their headline tour kicks off in October.
Full details and tickets are available via: themurdercapital.com/tour
Reading Festival returns in August, running from Friday-Sunday, August 25-27, with The Killers, Billie Eilish, Sam Fender, Foals, Loyle Carner, and The 1975 set to perform.
Information and tickets to Reading Festival are available via: readingfestival.com/tickets/
