Silence hangs heavy within the vast, imposing confines of Liverpool Cathedral. Each clacking footstep on the marble floor feels like sacrilege as it echoes through the sacred space, the towering neo-gothic architecture seemingly scolding us for interrupting the peace. Once the silence has settled once more, Loathe guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe cranes back his neck. “I wonder which brick was the last one they placed,” he ponders in a hushed voice, scrutinising the walls with fascination.
By his side, frontman Kadeem France diligently joins the hunt. Given that the cathedral took well over 70 years to be constructed, the final fixture could be anywhere – it could be an element in the intricate vaulted ceiling, a pane in the stained glass windows. As the pair joke about the unfortunate possibility of the poor builder slipping off the roof after laying down the last piece, Erik points out the most important thing: “Well, at least they finished it.”
It’s a sentiment that feels especially appropriate considering Loathe’s own creative endeavours. Their second album, 2020’s I Let It In And It Took Everything, positioned the band in the vanguard of modern metal. They took a sharp left-turn with the following year’s surprise-released ambient album The Things They Believe, indicating a restless creative streak. And then? Nothing.
We’ve not stopped working on this record, because we had to get it right
Kadeem France
The last five years have been a long wait for a record that, at times, seemed like it would never arrive. In 2022, the band cancelled a UK and European tour to “complete the recording process”, but it proved to be a false dawn. Three years later, a new single, the knotty, prog-facing Gifted Every Strength, raised hopes, only for things to go silent on the release front once again.
But what Erik admits has been “a long and tedious process” is finally over. Loathe’s fourth album, A Stranger To You, is finally here.
“We’ve not stopped working on this record, because we had to get it right,” says Kadeem as we leave the cathedral and into the blazing sun, heading towards the leafy cathedral graveyard, a beloved smoking and hangout spot throughout the band’s adolescence. “It’s been a cycle of writing songs, throwing them out and trying a different approach. It’s easy to shit out a half-decent song, but, if you don’t believe in it, it means nothing.”
(Image credit: Steve Gullick)
Tellingly, the first words Kadeem whispers on A Stranger To You are: “Back to life”. They come at the start of Block Of Flats, a cement-block slab of industrial-edged noise.
Except Block Of Flats isn’t even the album’s opening song. That honour falls to piano-led piece Entrance, which features a spoken word passage courtesy of UK hip hop/R&B artist Bucki Sugar. How many other bands would herald their big comeback by letting someone else do it for them?
But then confounding expectations is the Loathe way. Anyone expecting the new album to be a re-run of I Let It In… will be in for a surprise. While its DNA remains fundamentally the same, the band have expanded their boundaries way beyond where they were before.
Loathe clearly haven’t been twiddling their thumbs in the years since they last put out an album. A Stranger To You sounds like the result of a lot of effort and thought: not just ‘how do we make a record?’, but ‘how do we make a record that’s significantly different to everything else out there?’.
If we tried to make something ‘palatable’, it would be sacrificing our intentions
Erik Bickerstaffe
A Stranger To You shifts effortless between styles and genres. Where Block Of Flats represents Loathe at their densest, Harder To Pretend is decked out with plush, velvety jazz interiors. Elsewhere, Fangs could be the soundtrack to a noirish speakeasy, The Ladder busts out an acoustic guitar to soundtrack a tale of broken hearts, and Gemini’s distorted electro is the musical equivalent of being sat with your head in your hands in the toilet of a hardcore techno club. Sonically, it may seem like they all exist in different worlds, but each is recognisably a Loathe song.
The sheer breadth of guests on the album is a measure of Loathe’s ambitions, too. The album also features collaboration with Code Orange’s Jami Morgan and Eric ‘Shade’ Balderose (in their guise as NOWHERE2RUN), UK post-hardcore buzz band Static Dress, New Zealand singer-songwriter Jordan Rakei and London musician, composer and artist Mansur Brown. This is a long, long way from I Let It In… part two.
“If we tried to make something ‘palatable’ and expected, it would be sacrificing our intentions,” Erik says. “If we can change someone’s perspective about music, that’s a job well done.”
(Image credit: Steve Gullick)
A short while later, and we’re sitting on a hill, admiring the grandeur of the cathedral from a distance. Kadeem grew up here in Liverpool, in the working class area of Toxteth, while Erik is originally from St Helens, 10 miles away.
Absent today are bassist Feisal El-Khazragi and drummer Sean Radcliffe, though three of the four of them are represented on the album’s artfully abstract cover, which features a sun pendant belonging to Kadeem, a ring owned by Erik, and Feisal’s bracelet, all designed to act as a representation of each of them. The only hold-out is Sean.
“He didn’t like the idea, so he didn’t want anything on it,” says Kadeem. “Which is the most perfect representation of him.”
Given the amount of praise that was heaped on them in the wake of I Let It In And It Took Everything, you could forgive the members of Loathe for having a bit of an ego about them. But that’s not the case.
“In this band, we all individually have our own struggles with imposter syndrome,” admits Kadeem, who manages to be both charming and shy at the same time. “Not all the time, obviously. Y’know, we can be…” “Confident?” interjects Erik ironically, after a pregnant pause. Kadeem sheepishly admits he’s gotten a little more assured over the years. “But you’ve got to be confident,” Erik says. “Even if it’s naive, you’ve got to think you’re the shit.”
Kadeem jokingly puffs out his chest. “I try to project myself a bit more now. I don’t know if that’s ever a bit much, though…” “I don’t think you ever go over the line,” says Erik, reassuringly.
Listening to them speak, it’s clear that a mutually supportive bond exists between the two of them, with Kadeem’s disarming humility and Erik’s unwavering self-assurance simultaneously balancing and complementing each other. It’s something that has kept them level-headed, even when interest in the band has been at its most intense.
“We’re hardly rockstars that wake up first thing in the morning and snort cocaine and fly around on private jets!” says Kadeem, who met Erik at Liverpool’s Hub festival in 2011, when they were both 14 years old. “I mean, we’re still working from Erik’s shed in his back garden.”
I mean, we’re still working from Erik’s shed in his back garden
Kadeem France
That self-contained, DIY aspect has helped get Loathe to where they are today. “You’re just as excited about music as when I first met you,” Kadeem says. “That’s what drew me to you. You went from being a real music boy to… a real music man.”
Erik snorts with laughter, but Kadeem continues. “Even back then, Erik made [Attack Attack!’s] Stick Stickly in under a minute on [digital music software] FL Studios, and I was amazed,” the singer recalls. “Did I?” says Erik. As Kadeem nods in confirmation, the even the guitarist looks impressed at his own achievements as a 14-year-old.
Of course, there’s been a lot of growth since then. “When I was younger, I felt very angry at the world,” Erik admits. “I had a ‘fuck everyone’ attitude, and a lot of music would be me putting all this resentment out there. I’ve definitely been more self-centred in the past. I was a bit selfish. As I’m getting older, I’m becoming more of a human in the world.”
Erik gestures towards his bandmate. “Kadeem’s always had an innate maternal nature, though – he’s very family-oriented, very considerate of everyone,” he says. “It’s an inspiration for me, in that sense.”
The relationship between the two of them has undoubtedly helped Loathe get through the new album’s lengthy gestation period. “This album is an accumulation of everything that has happened to us over the last six years,” Erik notes.
What exactly he’s talking about is unclear. Frustratingly, if there’s any drama involved, the pair aren’t giving it up. Instead, any struggles appear to be entirely creative.
“I think we were conscious of not wanting to fuck this record up, so there was this extreme sense of second guessing everything,” Erik admits, while Kadeem recalls the “overwhelming pressure” they felt after dropping Gifted Every Strength last year. They began to wonder if they should start to take onboard what fans wanted out of them, rather than just doing what they wanted. Erik says it was their friend, Static Dress frontman Olli Appleyard, who gave them the best bit of advice.
“Olli said to me: ‘You just need to live with the fact that it’ll take some people a year or two to understand. You’re thinking ahead, and people will catch up.’”
(Image credit: Steve Gullick)
The day is progressing and we’re getting hungry. We decide to go for sushi. As we wander through the streets to find a restaurant, Kadeem and Erik point out various places of interest, such as the bar where Kadeem once accidentally set his hair on fire.
“I was working there and had to light all the candles,” he says. “On the CCTV you could see the flames all over my head!” Along the way, we bump into Loathe’s original bassist, Shayne Smith, who is keen to join us when he hears that sushi is on the menu. Shayne stepped away from the band in 2018, but he says he’s proud of his musical “brothers” for doing so well.
We arrive at the restaurant and settle in for an intimidatingly generous serving of sushi. Sake is ordered, and Kadeem ensures Hammer’s glass is kept topped up.
“We should start asking for sake on our rider,” he says. “We used to be too scared to ask for pistachios,” says Shayne, erupting with laughter.
Loathe have got a bit more confident with their dressing room requests these days. Their rider requires venues to supply them with a framed picture of Liverpool football legend Steven Gerrard.
As we eat, talk drifts back to the new album. A Stranger In Me is undoubtedly the product of a band in perpetual forward motion, but it’s potentially also not what people expect from them. Are they worried its sheer stylistic breadth might put people off?
“I really want people to go in and process this album from start to finish,” says Erik. “It’s like a recipe. If you just pick out the ginger and eat it on its own, you might hate it. But if you put it all together – like sushi – it changes everything. It’s the same with genres – you might think you hate a certain sound, but, once you’ve tried it as part of a bigger piece, you might love it.”
He knows he doesn’t need to justify what Loathe have done with A Stranger To You. The time and effort were worth it – it’s an album that underlines their uniqueness and willingness to push forwards on their own terms and no one else’s. Loathe, just like Liverpool cathedral and its 70-year gestation period, are proof that great things come to those who wait.
A Stranger To You is out now on Sharptone
