Carl Barat & The Jackals: ‘We’re chasing a heavier sound to The Libertines’

Watch our video interview with Barat's other group of upstarts

Carl Barat & The Jackals have opened up about their love of rock and how they’re ‘chasing a heavier sound than The Libertines’. Watch our video interview with the band above.

Today sees the band release their new EP, ‘The Harder They Fall’ – the follow-up to their acclaimed 2015 debut album ‘Let It Reign‘.

“The new music’s heavier,” Barat told NME. “That’s the thing about The Jackals, to do the heavier stuff that I can’t do with my other bands because they wouldn’t have it.

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Asked if he harked back to his teenage love of metal, Barat said: “A little bit. There’s a lot of grey areas of metal that we won’t go into – Black Flag territory, Pantera, that sort of thing. Maybe a tiny bit of Megadeth.”

Guitarist Billy Tessio added: “We’ve all got different tastes in music as it is. It’s a bit of a weird genre, really – there’s so much in there. It’s not just that heavy sort of sound, it’s all over the place really.

“We’re not actually doing an album – not at this stage,” Barat told NME. “We’ll be doing a series of EPs. We’d love to do an LP, but in terms of the turn-around we’ve got to get out on the road, keep new music coming, and it keeps us in a space of writing and playing so we don’t have to separate the two.

“Rather than go through the cycle, it’s better to have everything where we’re always playing gigs, we’re always making videos, we’re always writing. It keeps it interesting and it plays into the short attention span of the world at the moment, and I’ve always had a short attention span as well.”

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Asked about what energy they bring to songs by The Libertines when they play them live, Barat replied: “I think The Libertines songs that we play, I daresay that with the exception of one are songs that The Jackals are very fond of. It just moves the gig along nicely. The crowd are up for it.”

Billy continued: “We stick to The Libs’ sound – we don’t tamper too much.”

Carl Barat & The Jackals will head out on tour this week in support of the ‘Harder They Fall’ EP – see their full touring itinerary so far for 2017 below.

May
26 – King Tuts, Glasgow
27 – Sound City, Liverpool
28 – Margate Wonderland, Margate
30 – Thekla, Bristol

June
1 – Brudendell Social Club, Leeds
2 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
3 – Dingwalls (Camden Rocks Festival), London
24 – Glastonbury Festival

July
6 – The Venue, Derby
7 – KU Bar, Stockton On Tees
8 – Godiva Festival, Coventry

September
1 – Wilkestock, Hertfordshire
16 – Beyond The Tracks, Birmingham

 

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