Written by Charlie Sweeney
Ahead of their upcoming UK tour, I spoke to Squid lead singer (and drummer) Ollie Judge about performing, their new tour, new music, and Picture House Social.
Hey Ollie! How are you?
Hi man! Yeah, I am good, although I did just eat a toastie way too quickly. Bare with!
*laughs* no worries! So obviously the last time I spoke with you, it was just before O Monolith got released. Since then, how have you felt about the general reaction? Have you been happy with the reaction on tour?
Yeah I mean, we were all a bit nervous before the record came out. We didn’t really know how to it would be received , but it seems to have done really well, and people seem to like it, which is always positive. And yeah, it’s just, kind of like, nice to play these gigs and play these songs to people. And as we have been playing the songs for a while now it means that the crowd knows the songs and they’re familiar with it. It’s nice to see elation in some people’s eyes, instead of confusion.
or abject horror?
*laughs* yes exactly! And the tour has just been really great. It was really fun. So yeah, I feel like we kind of got in the zone with the setlist that we’re doing, and we are doing lots of improvising which is fun. I think a big things about this tour as well is that there was not a single stinker. Usually you get one or two nights where something is just off or doesn’t go well, but this one was genuinely great.
Was there a particular date which stood out as being really good, either from the audience side or even just from your side as a performer, where you felt you just played great?
Milan was really fun. That was our first headline show in Italy as well.
That’s just sounds so cool.
Yeah, yeah it was. It was fashion week there as well. So there was models everywhere. Well, not at our shows. Only sweating men. But it was so fun. And Utrecht was really fun as well. It was quite a strange tour really, like we were going to lots of place for the first time so it was like, one day you are playing a big concert hall, and then the next day you’re playing in a, like kind of a small club. Which is really nice, actually, because we’re kind of a bit past that point in terms of where we play, when it comes to the UK.
Does part of you miss that, sometimes? Like playing those small venues? Obviously it is great that you’re successful enough where you don’t have too play them anymore, but there is something great about small venues.
Yeah, yeah definitely. I think- I don’t know what it is, to be honest. Maybe, just like, the walls being kind of closer in on people makes the crowd a bit more feral, which I quite enjoy sometimes.
Would Squid ever do a small venue tour in the UK? Or is it just not economical?
Yeah, yeah I think I probably would. We’d have to downsize our, like, stupid… prog set up a little bit *laughs*, it would be a bit stressful. But yeah, I’d love to do that.
Is there any small venues you’d particularly want to play again? Or anywhere you hadn’t been before?
I really liked the, the picture house? Picture house place in Sheffield?
Picture House Social?
Yeah! They’ve turned it into a curling place haven’t they? We played there in like 2019 and I really, really enjoyed it there, it was great. It felt kind of grim in a really nice way. Then there this great venue in Bristol called The Cube that I’ve always thought was great, I played there like last year? I think. It’s kind of like a nice place to go and try stuff out. Obviously The Windmill as well. Haven’t been there in bloody ages, actually.
So obviously the second album is done now, you’ve got past the big, mystified, turning point, the big hurdle, for most bands. Where do you go from here? Are you gonna push forward with a third album? Or are you going to take a break?
I mean, we spent a few months at the start of the year, writing some new music. Which is really fun, because the whole, literally, the whole of last year we were just playing gigs and I think, by the end of the year, we were all kind of fed up with playing gigs, and we wanted to do some writing. Which, I think, is just a natural thing. You kind of get sick playing gigs, and then you want to write and record, and then you get sick of writing and recording, and want to play gigs. Yeah, it’s just a cycle really. I don’t know when we’re gonna do anything with the stuff we wrote, but it’s kind of on the back burner. And its, yeah, it’s just really fun, and it feels like a nice continuation of the stuff we’ve done so far. Feels like a natural step forward, instead of kind of like a forced stylistic change or something.
When you are writing new stuff, do you try and actively avoid sounding like what people expect of you? Especially now, with the label ‘post-punk’ going around so much in the UK music scene, label which comes with so many expectations but also is so meaningless. Do you try and avoid sounding like that post-punk label?
Yeah, I think definitely, I think that’s always been in the back of our minds a little bit. We kind of even unconsciously know what’s going on around you, from being at festivals, and seeing other bands and stuff. So I think, based on that, we try and tread some different ground. I think the only formula we kind of go for is like not using traditional song structures. That kind of frees us up to make, kind of weirder, and more experimental music.
Where did that formula come from?
I don’t know. I think, maybe, we’re all just a bit restless, and kind of, like, if you have a song with like six different sections in, and not one of those sections gets repeated throughout the song, you’re gonna get less sick of playing that song live, I guess. I don’t really know. I think the whole verse-chorus-verse-chorus thing has been done a million times before, and I think we just are quite restless people.
Do you guys really love the chance to be improvisational then?
Yeah definitely. At one gig, in Denmark, the first support, Clarissa Connelly, she was ill, she lost her voice. So we just had to find random supports for the whole for the whole thing. But we literally couldn’t find a single support, so Laurie, Arthur and Anton just did a kind of 40 minute improv thing, which is really fun. It’s nice to watch your band. Yeah. I’ve never done that before. Laurie, like, got a mic and and asked this guy a question, he was in the front row, and he, liked, sampled it and used it in the set *laughs* it was so funny. I think it’s on SoundCloud somewhere.
*laughs* That is just brilliant! Now, before you go, I wondered if you could just tell me a bit more about the video for The Blades? I am convinced it is the most mental music video I have seen recently!
Yes, it was directed by this guy called Kasper Haggstrom. Who, yeah, he did a video for Kelly Lee Owen’s that we’re really obsessed with. It’s got Michael Sheen in it. In the video, it’s just him with a toaster in his kitchen and it’s just endless bits of toast that just keep on coming out. Doesn’t stop. It goes on for like six minutes and it’s kind of really boring but really funny. Yeah, we wanted to work with the guy who directed this, and he came up with an idea for it and everything and then he like pulled out. About six months later, we saw that Radiohead had used the idea and he’d like, like moved over the pitch for our video to Radiohead, and I don’t blame him at all. I’d love to, as a music video director, make a video for Radiohead. But the stars the stars finally aligned on this record! And we have never done a done a video with actors before, but we had Charlotte Ritchie in this one, and she was great!
Thanks for chatting with me today, Ollie!
No worries man, have a good day!
You too!
Squid are currently touring the UK. You can still get tickets to some locations here.
Jarred Up 
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