IMAGES: ALBERT JAGGER

1.⁠ ⁠For someone that is yet to discover yo Sweet Unrest, how would you describe your music?

We’re starting a new genre called Gritpop. You heard it here first. We take inspiration from Britpop, Grunge, Poetry and Punk. I’d describe our sound as aggressive apathy. It’s tension. We like to skirt around sensitive topics and then blurt out the choruses in a fit of pent up passion.

2.⁠ ⁠What inspires you as an artist?

When you’re in a state of longing, not quite happy with what you currently have for whatever reason. I think I literally realised this today. When you’re with someone you love, or your life feels complete in some way, I’ve found you often don’t feel like creating. It’s as though we only make art as a form of self-created beauty to fill some kind of void or to self-medicate. When you find yourself in that state, it’s fertile ground and you’re fair game for the muse. She’ll pay you a visit, reach down your throat and pull something out, often all in one piece, and often very quickly. 

3.⁠ ⁠What is your process for preparing to perform live? Do you have any Diva demands?

We’ll all say Biggie Smalls 3 times in the mirror, neck 2 litres of Pepsi Max and re-pledge our allegiance to Jack’s secret cult (it’s not easy to join, so don’t bother asking).

4.⁠ ⁠Where do you feel you fit into the music landscape?

There are two answers to this. On the one hand, we’re carving out a new genre. With our unique brand of aggressive apathy, we play with melody and intonation to lather an otherwise common turn of phrase with a tongue-in-cheek irony. Original riffs and chord progressions physically make your heart beat faster and pull the dusty breath out of your throat. On the other hand, this is what good Rock n Roll always has been – we’re just cutting out all the homogenised and boring bullshit that modern pop music has become wedded to in its efforts to appease the masses and become the best selling product. Good music will never be made with this attitude. And those that matter to us know that. We’re not for the masses. The masses are idiots. We’re not gonna dilute pure and brilliant and raw Rock n Roll because we’ll turn people off. That’s not our job, and it never will be. 

5: What are your favourite musical genres, and are there any you dislike?

There are genres we’re probably more drawn to, but we’re careful not to count out any genre in particular, because fundamentally, a genre is just a language. It’s just one way of speaking your truth. We’re all the most comfortable expressing ourselves in our native tongue. What really matters is what’s being said in that language. Think of all the brilliant works of literature you haven’t read because they’re in another language. To answer your question, though, we’re most drawn to classic Rock n Roll, Britpop, Jazz and Blues and 60s Psychedelia.

LEON

TOM

LEON

6.⁠ ⁠Is there a story behind the name of the band?

It comes from Jack’s favourite poet, Keats. He wrote a brilliant poem called Bright Star. It’s taken from these lines:

 Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever—or else swoon to death. Coincidentally, it also sums up our sound rather well.

7 What would you say is your greatest strength as an Artist?

Honestly, the band works really well as a unit. Marlo and I write together effortlessly, and each inspires the other to play in a way we never have before. But that alone isn’t enough for a great band. Dan has this mind-reading ability to know what beat we need, and will often completely revolutionise a song with the drumming alone. Tom instinctively knows what licks and embellishments will dress the arrangement perfectly, and Leon’s borderline jazzy baselines add a whole other dimension to the low end, not to mention the brilliant arrangement decisions he’ll make. That’s not to say we agree all the time; often we’ll surprise each other and even disagree, thankfully, it feels like we all have a shared vision that’s impossible to articulate with words, but is articulated perfectly when we all play together. This means any disagreements, when you look a little deeper, are ultimately fighting for the same cause. We’re not just a band because we want to be a band. We’re a band because this project is intrinsically adventurous and therefore a band is exactly what Sweet Unrest needs to be. 

 8.⁠ ⁠What would you say is your greatest weakness as an Artist?

We can be quite myopic when it comes to a vision. Pretty much always, we’ll just have a concept for a song, and run that to its natural conclusion quickly. It seems that a more useful creative approach is often trying two or more ideas, in terms of lyrics or arrangement, or structure, and sometimes the fourth solution will be far more interesting than the first. We can fall victim to just doing the first thing that comes into our heads sometimes, because we’re so keen to move onto the next project. I fear we can also sometimes overwork a song, or overproduce it, and there are times we’ve preferred the demo to the final master. 

JACK

DAN

 9. What can fans expect from your new single Rob Me Blind, on August 30th?

Where Waste My Time was a dense arrangement, this is far more stripped back. In this way, it really lays the songwriting bare, which we feel suits the track. It skirts around various styles. It was described by our mastering engineer as Babyshambles meets Housemartins which is actually remarkably perceptive. But it stays true to the classic Sweet Unrest style of an introspective and almost jocund start, only to quickly descend into a distorted chaos as the intensity of emotion builds to breaking point throughout the song.

10.⁠ ⁠What music artist would you say has influenced your work?

The Stooges, Yardbirds, Libertines, White Stripes, The Doors, Smashing Pumpkins. So many more but off the top of my head I know we all like them.

11.⁠ ⁠Who would you most like to collaborate with artistically?

Fontaines, Lemon Twigs, quite like Alvvays, Lovely Eggs, NewDad and Lemon Garden recently, too. Oh, and we love a bit of Dream Wife.

12.⁠ ⁠What was your worst performance?

Probably at 93 Feet East a couple of months back. We didn’t have a proper sound check and everything went wrong that you could imagine. We ended up having to mic up the acoustic guitar because we couldn’t get a signal, then that just kept feeding back, Tom broke a string, and the rest. If it’s in a small venue this kind of thing doesn’t matter, and we just have a laugh, but we tend to feel pressure in a bigger venue and we’re less able to take those things in our stride.

13: What was the most difficult obstacle you have ever faced and how did you overcome it?

Probably the early days when we were struggling to get gigs. Dan, Marlo and I were playing in a coffee shop in Fulham for a good 2/3 months, while the manager kept telling us to “keep it down” – it was honestly like something out of Flight of the Concords. Eventually a mate gave us a gig at the Fox and Firkin, and we made a point of filming it well. Thankfully, a promoter stumbled across the video on Instagram and gave us our first proper gigs. 

14: What is your creative process when making music. Do you work with others or is there just you?

Well, one way it happens is that I (Jack) will have a song on acoustic that needs to be properly arranged or embellished and I’ll take that to Marlo and the rest of the band who will add what they think it needs. Together we’ll figure out the rest. Or the other way it happens is Marlo will have an instrumental for a song and maybe a melody or a couple of lyrics he’s set on and I’ll finish off the lyrics and might add a lick or two. Sometimes Marlo and I actually write together too, Waste My Time was written that way. Dan will always tie it together with the drums. What’s interesting is that a song will often reveal more of itself the more you play it – it’s like it’s marinating in your subconscious or something. So these days, we try not to record a song too early in case a better way of playing it arises from rehearsals or live shows. 

15 Where do you see your musical career in 10 years?

I see us as a household name, with a load of undeniably timeless and brilliant songs under our belt. We want to make music that makes people cry, that makes them look forward and look back fondly. Basically anything that tugs on the heart strings and seems to hold a special place in all of our hearts. I think we all know the kinds of songs we’re talking about. We want to leave something brilliant behind that generations down the line will cherish. Importantly, though, I also see us always evolving and adapting to reflect how we are changing and how the world is changing. Sweet Unrest isn’t the kind of project we’ll just ditch. It’s like our lungs. It’s a part of us and it always will be. In many ways, it’s our lifeline, an extension of our experience that we use to make sense of it, and by virtue of that, something we thoroughly need. It’ll only go when we go.