When PRESS TO MECO scrambled offstage after their swan song set on the Wednesday of 2000trees 2023, Upcote Farm could barely mourn the death of a festival fan favourite. Rising from the dead like Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday, UNPEOPLE – featuring the former band’s Jake Crawford and Luke Caley, alongside bassist Meg Mash and drummer Richard Rayner – played only their second show just a day later. Turns out ripping off band aids don’t hurt half as much as you remember.
“As soon as we knew PRESS TO MECO wasn’t gonna happen anymore, it was quite literally us sending each other a message like ‘well, I’m not done, are you?’, and it was like ‘nope’ and within a few days we were together with our guitars,” says Luke, who’s sure as shooting there was no option other than to carry on, or as Jake suggests, “we’ll do this now because we don’t really know how to do anything else.”
Whether you’re splitting up with a partner or calling it quits on a 9 to 5 you just can’t deal with anymore, it usually takes a while to heal those wounds. For Jake and Luke, they were moving on to UNPEOPLE the same day they decided to down tools as PRESS TO MECO.
“There was no gap, it may have even been the same day where we came away from the meeting knowing PRESS TO MECO was going to be no more,” steadfastly confirms Jake, “there’s some riffs that were knocking around that were gonna be PRESS TO MECO ideas, and we gnawed them to pieces and made them into something not unrecognisable, but a new twist on it, and here we are.”
Going Numb, a dreamy indie-pop banger of a car that crashes into a cliff of hellacious screams, was one of the first to arrive that helped them form their Goldilocks bowl of alternative porridge: not too aggressive, not too accessible, just bangers from top to bottom. Whilst that one sticks in their minds because “it sounds like XTC”, they’re not so sure how to sum up their sound.
“I think Luke always puts it really well when he says it sounds like us writing songs together,” laughs Jake, “of course this is what it sounds like; it sounds like heavy alternative rock music which is what we’re all broadly into.”
It truly is difficult to pigeonhole UNPEOPLE. Whilst Luke’s brandishing an AC/DC t-shirt, they’re name dropping indie darlings like the PIXIES and EVERYTHING EVERYTHING, whilst taking pride in being on bills as diverse as Kendal Calling and Bloodstock. “We’re the heaviest band at Kendal Calling and the lightest rock band at Bloodstock, and I’m all about that,” beams Jake, who’s going Jekyll and Hyde between the two. “I want to shake my booty to the SUGABABES, and then see something absolutely disgusting at Bloodstock.”
Beyond that, they’ve treated PRESS TO MECO like an inventor and their prototype, upgrading their sound with arena rock-sized choruses and honey-soaked harmonies unlocked by Meg. “Meg’s voice is like having a whole new colour on your colour palette,” says Luke, who’s used to three men singing in similar registers in PRESS TO MECO. “With Meg’s voice, it’s so cute and girly, as soon as I heard it on the demo, my ears pricked up cause it feels like the heaviest PIXIES you’ve ever heard. You’ve gone from having three colours to having four or five, and I like to think we paint with all of them.”
UNPEOPLE aren’t just painting soundscapes to sling across mosh pits to, they’re dabbing dots of detail into the lyrics to help paint listeners minds with broader strokes. “There’s always a running thread running through it that no one has any idea what they’re doing ever, so just try your damndest to get through it as positively as possible,” posits Jake, before Luke adds, “I think that’s why myself and Jake really gravitated to and connected with the term UNPEOPLE because it encompasses so much of the stuff that me and Jake stay up till four in the morning freaking ourselves out about.”
The name of the band, and the debut EP they’ve launched upon us, is itself a highly political punch-in-the-gut. UNPEOPLE, for the uninitiated, is a group of people regarded as politically unimportant, and it’s what they hope truly brings fans together for.
“The more we looked into it the more we felt it was so inclusive, like everyone at some point in their life, regardless of where you’re from, your background, how you grew up, where you are now; at some point in your life you’ve been made to feel like you don’t matter to someone or to an entity of some sort and I think Jake and I really connected with how human that felt,” says Luke. “You can’t ignore that that’s a human emotion, and it ties in perfectly with the fact we’ve got no real choice in this, the lights turn on one day and you’re just along for the ride.”
No matter where life’s roller coaster takes you, no matter the loop-the-loops it puts you through, UNPEOPLE are there to collectively welcome you whenever, wherever. Like Jake says, everyone’s welcome, “all we could ever personally hope for is that young, cool, intelligent people dig it, and even if you’re a thicko, I hope you dig it.”
If this was a wrestling ring, you’d be hard pushed to call anyone but UNPEOPLE the people’s champion. They’re ready to grind like The Rock did to win the titles they deserve. They’ve no airs and graces, they just want to do the do. “We’re just gonna be a band, we’re gonna do the things that a band does,” states Luke. “We’re going to play some more festivals, fill up the diary with shows, then we’re going to write and then we’re going to do more music and release that music and we’ll play more shows and then we’ll play more festivals, and then we’ll write and that’s the plan”.
That’s not to say there’s not an end goal. Like their kindred spirit Jesus, they’ve got lofty ambitions for their endgame.
“If me and Jake can meet Angus Young, we can just stop and if our management hears this, they’re probably going to actively keep us away from Angus Young, but we will find a way,” says Luke, before Jake signs off on their mission statement. “We just need to keep speaking it into the universe, get it manifested, and then before you know it, we’ll be drinking peanut butter milkshakes with Angus Young.”
unpeople is out now via SharpTone Records.
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