By Brenna Williams
The Wombats found success in the UK with its 2007 debut album, “The Wombats Present: A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation.” The band’s new album, “The Wombats Proudly Present: This Modern Glitch,” has recently received radio play in the United States. As a result of the new publicity, The Wombats found a group of dedicated fans attending the show, where the band brought its distinct combination of indie, punk rock and new wave.
“The concert was fun and the crowd was more energetic than expected,” said Erin Hindalong, senior media communications major. “I was surprised how many people were as into it as myself — usually an English band in St. Louis wouldn’t have people so into the music.”
Swedish outfit The Royal Concept and fellow Brits, Morning Parade, opened for The Wombats. Morning Parade has a hit of its own called “Headlights.” The Wombats brought its infectious energy to the discounted show. Tickets cost $1.05 each, in promotion of the radio station 105.7 The Point, which sponsored the show.
“I wanted to see The Wombats when I was abroad in London, but it was sold out instantly and was too expensive,” Hindalong said. “When I found out they were doing a show here for only a dollar, I was so excited.”
The band played hit singles from its new album, such as “Tokyo (Vampires and Werewolves)” and “Jump Into the Fog,” as well as international hits “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” and “Moving to New York.”
Here’s a Q&A with The Wombats drummer Dan Haggis about the band’s new album, touring and the band’s musical influences:
Is this your first time in St. Louis? Do you like touring America?
This is our first time here. We are really looking forward to the show. We saw The(Gateway) Arch and took some photos, and we saw a few crazy thunderstorms. It’s really exciting being so far away from home and hearing people sing your songs back at you. Everyone’s just so friendly.
Do you feel any pressure being from Liverpool and graduating from the
Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (Paul McCartney’s school)?
I don’t think so. At the school, the facilities were great and you get to meet a lot of like-minded people, but don’t think you have any more chance of succeeding than any other band. It’s a good place to learn but we had to work hard. We didn’t feel any pressure from the school; we had to put pressure on ourselves.
Who are your other musical influences?
All sorts of stuff. With the first album, we were more a three-piece punk band — really raw. On the second album, we have a lot more influences. We have a much more electronic influence like Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode. We like everything, really. Folk — we all really like Elliot Smith, and we like the punk stuff as well. We like to rock out. Other influences are The Beach Boys, Neil Young, the list goes on and on.
There was a big gap between the two albums. Was this done intentionally?
Well, we spent a lot of time on the road: two years. We wanted to explore new things and new sound, so we took our time. It took ages to get mixes and the artwork done, and the label kept delaying things. We were lucky that the label wasn’t impatient with us and allowed us to take our time. This was our second chance and we didn’t want to fuck it up because we might not get a third chance. We wanted to make sure to get it right.
Do you prefer being on the road or recording?
We tour a lot, but if we only toured we would miss being in the studio and vice versa, so it’s important to find that balance. We all have laptops with us on the road, so we can do a bit of recording here and there. We never get bored.
What’s something we don’t know about the new album?
One of our songs on the album was actually a demo recording. We took it to LA and recorded it properly, but the record label actually preferred the demo, so we just redid the drums and put it on the album.
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