Interview: British quartet Lawson return with new Perspective

While the British Invasion of the earlier 2010’s might have largely been about a certain well-coiffed X-Factor-hatched boyband, many of us remember Lawson, the Liverpool pop rock four-piece who stood out from the wave of clean-cut crooners. The band took Asia by storm in 2013 with chart-topping debut album Chapman Square, followed by full house showcases across the region. Just last month they came back with Perspective, a heavier, synth-driven followup album featuring singles like “Money”, “Roads” and “Where My Love Goes”. With this long-awaited return, we sat down with Andy, Adam, Ryan and Joel to catch up, talk new music and shed light on, well, new perspectives.

Why did you decide to call this album Perspective?

Andy: We decided to call the album Perspective as we thought it was a very fitting name. Considering, for me personally, a lot of stuff I’ve been through over the last few years. A few health scares and just from experience and amazing thing on the road. Certain things change in perspective on life and the way you look at things. You see things differently, you appreciate things more; you know you take things for granted. So we really thought Perspective was a great title for this album and everything it stands for.

Do you see this album as a bigger step from your previous album and EPs?

Adam: I think our new album is definitely a progression from our debut album Chapman Square, which came out four years ago now. That’s quite a while. We’ve matured as people over these four years and the music has definitely matured as well. It’s not a million miles away from the debut but it’s definitely kind of a step in the direction we want to be heading and it’s definitely a more mature sound.

We’ve seen the beautiful music video for “Where My Love Goes”, which was released in March. Tell us about the day you shot it.

Andy: The “Where My Love Goes” music video is really emotional for me personally as in it I proposed to my future wife, current fiancée. This sounds so strange! It was really nerve-racking and my girlfriend Joey had absolutely no idea what was happening so we had to keep it a secret all day, even weeks before that. There was a lot of nervous energy on the day – a lot of adrenaline but an incredible feeling. It’s something that, hopefully, I’ll never have to do it again in my life.

What was the most fun song to record for this album?

Joel: I think the most fun song we recorded, funnily enough, was a song called “Only Water”. I don’t know whether it was because the song was so serious that we had to have a bit of comic relief in there to make us feel more comfortable with it. I don’t know, but that was a funny one to record. At the same time it had its moments of just… I remember Adam tweeting on his phone like, “Something amazing has just happened in the studio”. It really felt like we just made the most emotional and sincere song we’ve ever recorded. So that was really memorable. There were loads of different ones, loads of different points when we were there.

Adam: “Rio” was also a lot of fun.

Ryan: “Rio” was great.

What are your most favourite songs to play live so far and why?

Ryan: I think my personal favourite song to play live – don’t know about the boys – is from the new album. I know we’ve not played them all live yet but so far we’ve played “Roads”, “Lion’s Den”, “Used To Be Us”, and “We Are The Fire”. To be honest, I think “Used To Be Us” is a lot of fun to play live. It’s just so amphemic and comes from a very rock background. There’s just a lot of space, especially for Joel on the guitar and myself. It’s a very open song that you can kind of play with a lot live. So personally, I’d probably say that one, but we’ve yet to play [all the songs] live so we’ll have to wait and see on the tour.

What does it take to be in the music industry today?

Adam: To be in this industry in 2016, you’ve got to keep your eye on everything because the game is changing all the time and it’s quite hard to keep up with. We all still see ourselves as quite a new band. We’ve only been going for 6 or 7 years and our first album came out 4 years ago, but the way the music industry has changed from when we released our debut in 2012. The industry is just so huge that we can barely keep up with it now.

Ryan: You’ve got to have work ethic and you’ve got to want it more than everybody else.

Adam: We were so lucky when we came out. We got such a great fan base and, obviously, they’ve been so loyal to us and they’ve kept coming to see us live and always supported the music. And because we spend a lot of time with them, it feels very loyal and so we kind of feel safe when we put music out, there’s going be people there who will always want to hear it. But I think, if you’re a new band coming out now in 2016, I don’t know which way you’d go and how you kind of get those fans now. It’s such a different industry. It’s a scary place out there but it’s what we love doing and it is what we all try and do for the rest of our lives.

What do you seek to explore or achieve in the future?

Joel: I think next year our main priority will be getting more music out again. We’d left it for so long between Chapman Square and Perspective, and we really don’t want to do that again. We already got songs we want to put down into the studio and get working on. So, yeah, just get straight back to the studio and get music out there again.

Anything you’d like to say to your fans in Asia?

Andy: We just wanna say thank you so much for all the support. I know it’s been a while since we have been out there but fingers crossed we can come back very soon and see all of you guys and play some new songs off of our brand new album Perspective. Thank you so much for the continued support. See you soon!

Stream or purchase Lawson’s new album Perspective on iTunes today.