We recently had a blast chatting with the guys from Barking Poets, the melodic punk rock trio straight out of London! We dove deep into their recent ripper of a single, “Pure Blood,” talking about how they cook up their songs, what their main influences are, and pretty much everything else. Time to crank it up and hear what this powerful trio had to say!
Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. How have you been?
We’ve been pretty good, surviving London life as usual. We just got done with the HRH Punk festival in Leicester a couple of weeks ago, that was a lot of fun. Our latest single “Pure Blood” has been out now for a couple of weeks and is being very well received, at the moment we are writing and demoing new songs for our debut full length album to be released next year. That is our main focus now.
Your previous single “Change Our Ways” was an energetic punk rock anthem, but “Pure Blood” has a noticeably darker, more reflective tone. Was shifting to this vibe a conscious decision, or did the mood of the music dictate the direction?
It was a conscious decision for sure. I’ve always loved those bass driven, mid-tempo songs with big choruses, we didn’t have that kind of song in the Barking Poets catalogue so it was interesting to see if we could pull it off, still make it sound like Barking Poets. I think we did a great job along with Paul Tipler in the studio. The lyrics came after, they needed to be quite dark, gloomy to suit the atmospheric sound of the recording. I don’t think lyrics about Carebears or Teletubbies would have worked too well……or maybe they would?
Let’s talk about the lyrics for “Pure Blood.” What’s the core story or feeling driving this song? What themes were you exploring when writing the words?
It’s written about the Pandemic period of 2020-2022. If you replace the lyric “party” (in the first line of verse 1) with “pandemic” then the song’s meaning opens up in a more direct light. It’s a reflective look back at the damage done by the head scratching decisions of “leaders” and I use that term very loosely.
The track features a powerful, rising chorus. What was the dynamic in the studio when you were composing that specific section? Did you have a sense that you were creating a massive moment?
We knew we wanted the chorus to sound huge. We had worked on the song in rehearsals and did a home recording demo so it was about getting the song as close to what the demo sounded as possible. Paul Tipler comes from that world of indie/alternative so he got it straight away. We tend to work very fast in the studio, we don’t overthink things.
We hear a subtle change in your sound on this track, venturing into a more indie rock territory. What inspired you to explore this sonic direction compared to your earlier work?
I’ve always been a lover of most guitar music, if it’s metal, punk, indie, country, I’ll dig it if it’s honest, a band playing together and has great songwriting dynamics and lyrics. I heard a song by the U.S. band Brand New called Sic Transit Gloria for the first time in years, it blew me away. It has a very cool bass driven verse and a huge shouty chorus. It inspired me to try to write something in that ballpark for Barking Poets which was a challenge because we hadn’t done anything like that before.
The new sound is drawing comparisons to bands like Brand New, Alkaline Trio, and The Stranglers. Are those artists you actively listen to, and how do they inform the DNA of the song?
Yes, for sure. I have loved Alkaline Trio and Brand New for years now and I’ve really started to get into The Stranglers in the past couple of years. “Always the Sun” is such a perfect song. Like any artist, your subconscious absorbs absolutely every piece of music you have ever heard so when you go to write, those influences of what you have been listening to more regularly cannot help but form part of the DNA of every song that you write. Pure Blood is no different.
Beyond the usual suspects, what artists or bands are you currently spinning that might surprise your fans? Who’s influencing the sound of Barking Poets right now?
I’ve been listening to the new Kathleen Edwards album a lot recently. Neil has been listening to Terrence Trent D’arby and is going to see him live soon so they may be a bit of a surprise. Regarding influencing Barking Poets at the moment, The Hives, Wavves and Alkaline Trio’s new albums have all made an impact. We’re definitely leaning into short, loud, fast no-nonsense songs on our new album.
Could you walk us through the general process of how a Barking Poets song typically comes to life? Does it start with a guitar riff, a beat, or a lyrical idea?
In Barking Poets we have 2 main songwriters (Conor H and Neil). We’ll tend to write completely separately. We’re both similar in that we will usually write a song melody on guitar, a verse, chorus and maybe a middle eight, bridge or breakdown. Then once the structure is done, we’ll add the lyrics afterwards. We’ll then do a home made demo of the song before sharing it to see what the general consensus is. If we all like it, we’ll work on it in the rehearsal room where we will all add our individual parts to it musically. We do have one brand new song that the three of us all chipped in on and that was fun, Conor T came up with a bass melody, Neil added a guitar part and vocal melody then Conor H added some lyrics and the overriding theme of the song.
Specifically for “Pure Blood,” what was the first element that kicked off the composition of the song? You worked again with renowned producer Paul Tipler. What unique perspective or sound does he bring to the table that makes him the right fit for your band?
Once I had the clear idea of the kind of song I wanted to write, the first element was the drum track as the foundation. Once I had that down, I put a one string simple bass track on top, already it was sounding fantastic. The rest came quickly after. Paul Tipler was ideal for this track in particular, he’s worked with so many amazing indie/alternative bands like Idlewild, Placebo, Reuben so he totally got what we wanted to do. He’s a great taskmaster, he’s all about the band being tight, knowing their parts, being competent at what you’re playing and not putting too much studio effects or trickery on. The more organic, the better.
Considering the brooding, anxiety-driven nature of the song, what was the general atmosphere like during the recording sessions at Unit 13 studios this summer?
I would love to say it was a tense, anxiety driven atmosphere, with late night alcohol/drug fuelled sessions but alas, it was all very straight forward, sober and drama free. The drums were done on a weekday afternoon then the bass/guitars and vocals on a separate weekday in the summer. Terribly professional unfortunately. We’re waiting for our Los Angeles adventures to activate our inner debauched rock stars!
You shot a video for “Pure Blood” in Greenwich featuring a masked crusader with a briefcase. What’s the narrative thread of the video, and how does it connect visually to the meaning of the track?
We have done so many “band performance” videos so it seemed like a good opportunity to do something different. I can’t even remember where the idea came from, I have a luchador wrestling mask in my apartment and thought visually it would look cool to use in a video. The narrative is loosely, a mysterious figure who works in the City of London, possibly in the financial sector who has done a dodgy deal or has stolen cash during a heist or deal gone wrong perhaps? It’s white collar crime. A metaphor for all the billions of dollars made by politicians & grifters during the covid pandemic. We certainly raised a few eyebrows from passers by while we were shooting.
Neil, since you directed and edited the video, how did the visual ideas develop?
We’d wanted to do a video of someone perpetually running for a while, although originally it was going to be me singing the song while running, either in the dark in the open, or through the Greenwich Tunnel – we really liked the tunnel idea though, and once me and Conor scouted it out, we realised it would work really well, as long as we could get there when there weren’t many people around. Which led to two musicians having to get up early in the morning, so we were a bit out of our element! Conor came up with our besuited & masked hero and the suitcase full of money, to symbolise corruption, and away we went. I’ve found with a lot of the videos, it comes together in the edit (the Change Our Ways video with the animated dogs changed a lot from our original concept there) depending on what the footage comes out like. With this one though, it stayed pretty true to our original concept.
The visual style is very cinematic. Were there any specific films or directors you had in mind while you were planning the shots for the video?
We definitely wanted really stark black and white, ‘cos we really like the photographic and video style of Anton Corbijn, who did all those classic Depeche Mode, U2 & Tom Waits photos back in the 80s and 90s. And the running thing was inspired by a couple of things, like Radiohead’s Karma Police video, Crowded House’s Locked Out, and gritty black & white espionage movies like the Third Man or The Ipcress File. It was great how quickly it came together. I’m really looking forward to doing more conceptual videos in the future, instead of just performance ones now…
How does “Pure Blood” translate live? How are you finding ways to incorporate this intensity alongside your more upbeat power-punk anthems in your setlist?
We have never played it live before and I’m not sure we will get a chance to. Most set lengths we play are 30mins to 45mins so it’s difficult to fit quite a long, mid tempo song like Pure Blood in there. It also really needs two guitarists to really give it justice live, maybe down the line we may add another guitarist and pop it in the set sometime next year. It would be fun to play for sure!
With all those strong singles out, are you sitting on more new music? What’s the plan for the near future? Any possible extended plays or a full album, or are you just focusing on touring?
Yes, we have about 8 or 9 brand new songs ready to go onto our debut full length album. We are still writing and demoing more songs so we’re a bit of a song factory at the moment. A full length 12 track album is our main focus and goal at the moment, hopefully we can get it finished in the first part of next year. We are currently booking shows and reaching out to festivals for 2026 so next year is shaping up to be our busiest year yet.
Thank you for your time. Anything you would like to say to our readers at the end of this interview?
If you have made it to the end of this interview, thanks! We really really appreciate anyone taking the time out of their day to listen, watch, read about Barking Poets. Stay tuned for our debut full length album next year and come see us live when we roll into your town. Thanks to you Djordje for the continued support!
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