After smashing their way into ‘Best Of 2022’ lists from the likes of Louder Than War, A1M Records and our own VBAH Radio, The Battery Farm got ready to take their album, FLIES, out on the road, and we HAD to bring them down to Luton to make some filthy noise.
Get to know Manchester’s working class lads before they blow up Castle Live alongside Gaylips and The GetGone on the 10th of March.
For the uninitiated, just who & what are The Battery Farm?
We are a ‘Gutter Punk’ band from Manchester whose sound has been described as ‘pulverising’, ‘ferocious’ and ‘not as fast as Cock Sparrer’. What is Gutter Punk? Summat filthy, funny, bleak, bruising and ultimately real. Hope and pain and freedom. We’re not in the Gutter looking at the stars, we’re just in the Gutter looking for a way out. Like most people, I suppose.
Your debut album FLIES is out in the wild — how has the reaction been to the record?
It’s been wonderful. Honestly, bigger than we ever could have imagined. It seems to mean something to people in a way that I find incredibly moving. FLIES is a personal piece of work, about my life, my mind and my perception of the world at large, so to have some of the feedback we’ve had about it — what it means to people, how it has helped them — is a genuinely profound thing. The album is taking us to platforms this year that are bigger than anything we’ve ever had and a large part of that is down to people propelling it forward. Be that journalists or promoters or listeners in general, it seems to have connected with people in a really meaningful way.
There are themes of class and social struggles throughout the album. How important is it to the band to have a message in the music?
I think it’s important for the songs to speak some kind of truth about our experiences. We’re living through dark, dangerous times with the odds stacked against us and so FLIES is a reaction to our experience of that. I always naturally write reactively, and write about things I care about. Everything means something even if I’m taking the piss. If it moves me in any way, I try and articulate that, which is what FLIES is, ultimately. A map of my thoughts that just happens to encompass the absolute state of things. How can you not be moved where we’re at as a nation though? As a species in general. I’ve never felt more excluded from any kind of social mobility. I’ve never felt more scared of the future. I’ve never been more aware of the level of violence in the world. I’ve never felt more cheated. We can’t not address that. FLIES is our way of trying to make sense of all this chaos.
You’re taking the album on the road. What does the tour hold in store?
Blood, sweat and tears, baby! Mainly blood. It’s our first tour so we’re trying to do summat special and plunge people headlong into the deep, dark world of this album. It’s all DIY so we’re working within our means but this tour will be ferocious and powerful and beautiful. We’ve never been better, we’ve never felt better and we’ve never been more confident. Every support on the tour is ace so every night is a banger from top to bottom. It’s gonna be an unforgettable run.
You’re based in Manchester, which obviously has a rich musical history. What’s your experience of being in a band in such a strong music scene?
Really positive. Since we started the band it’s been an inclusive, communal, friendly scene where everyone is rooting for each other to succeed. I’ve been in bands since I was 12 and that hasn’t always been the case, but over the last few years we’ve met some amazing people doing incredible work and we’re proud to call them our friends. Manchester hangs its hat on its past far too much when in reality what’s going on in the here and now is far more exciting, far more innovative and far more diverse. We love being a part of that.
Any bands we should be checking out?
