KIDS IN GLASS HOUSES are back with ‘Pink Flamingo’, an album that feels both familiar and fresh as they rediscover their love for making music together. Check out our latest Upset cover story.
Words: Josh Williams.
In 2014, the world mourned when Welsh rockers Kids in Glass Houses announced a farewell tour. Fans had lost an era-defining band, and at those ‘last shows’, there were many, many tears shed. Come Halloween, Kids in Glass Houses were officially no more. Until that is, they reunited at Slam Dunk last year to celebrate 15 years since their debut album ‘Smart Casual’, followed by a tour later in the year, where they played the album front to back along with some old favourites thrown in.
Yet, the world had no idea that new music was coming until a coy Instagram post after their hometown Cardiff show last year showed the band holding a sign “Brb… making a new album!” Those in the room had no idea what was on the sign, which was “just trolling”, according to frontman Aled Philips. “That was one of our manager’s master plans!”.
Now announcing their fifth album ‘Pink Flamingo’ as well as new single ‘Theme From Pink Flamingo’ and some tour dates for later in the year, we caught up with Aled along with guitarist (and now producer) Iain Mahanty to get the goss on the band’s new music.
“I never stopped writing; we never stopped writing individually,” Aled explains. “There was a point before Slam Dunk where I wrote a song, and without asking anyone, in my head, I was like, ‘This might be a Kids In Glass Houses song’. I was pre-empting it a little bit.”
Iain continues, “Just being back together was feeling really good, and we were all enjoying it so much. It was subconsciously floating around, and then I think [bassist] Shay started planting seeds in the pub. Maybe, subconsciously, there’s always been an idea that this would happen again. Knowingly or unknowingly, it’s always been on the table.”
‘Theme From Pink Flamingo’ (a certified banger, for the record), according to Aled, “captures the spirit of the album pretty well. It borrows bits from our first four records; it’s kind of a musical business card – like, there you go. We wanted to do something fresh and not just be like, ‘Hey! We’re back! Remember when we did stuff like this?’ It was really important to us that we push ourselves creatively, and there is a sort of DNA to our music that we didn’t want to lose.”
“It’s impossible for it not to sound like us when we write it,” Iain adds. “It’s something that will naturally shine through. I feel like when we first finished writing it, I was just like, ‘I feel like this is what I want people to hear first’.”
“It was really important to us that we push ourselves creatively”
Aled Philips
When pressed about when the album was written, Aled says, “It’s kind of a weird one. The majority of the album was written since last May. There were a few songs floating about that everyone was excited about that we’ve just been chipping away at. Maybe 60 or 50% of the album has happened since last May, but there are songs that are on the album that were written almost nine years ago. It’s kind of a document of a lot of my life since the band ended.”
The album title, ‘Pink Flamingo’, is a very tongue-in-cheek self-referential one for those in the know, as the eponymous pink flamingo is one of the iconic symbols of the band. Aled explains, “It was always what I was gonna call this album. I named the album before the album was an album, and before I managed to convince anyone to make an album. It’s just kind of been there forever. It was the second T-shirt we ever made! My girlfriend asks me all the time, ‘What does it mean?’ It just represents our band.
“At the time, we had these 80s Americana motel visuals, but the thing was, there’s a spirit of returning to that headspace of writing an album like it’s our first album again. I’m not saying it’s another ‘Smart Casual’ by any means, but putting this together and getting back together felt like I felt in 2007. It’s just a cheeky nod to the origins of our band and what we initially set out to do, which was just to make pop music good. That was how it felt making this record.”
Considering it’s been over a decade since the band’s last record, 2013’s ‘Peace’, things have changed for everyone in the band. Aled and Iain no longer live in Cardiff, while Shay, Joel [guitarist], and Phil [drummer] all have families now to go alongside the day jobs. As for how it’s been fitting this in around all of their lives, it’s “been challenging” Aled says. “I’m not gonna lie – we were maybe sort of naïve or a little bit optimistic about how easy it would be because we were so excited about it. But we do have families, full-time jobs, and dogs, so it’s obviously a more difficult situation when you’re in a band. It’s not a secret that bands don’t make a lot of money these days, so when you’re in that situation, it’s also really fucking stressful because you’re constantly worrying about how to pay the rent and stuff. In one regard, we’ve at least got a stability that allows us to have creative freedom.” At this point, Iain chimes in, “We’re tired but very privileged. I think we really are.”
“We’re very much in the finish-the-album mode!”
Aled Philips
The band is at 2000trees next month with some small warm-up dates beforehand to road test some new stuff, but there are no nerves from Aled. “I don’t think I am nervous about that. To be honest, I’ve not given it much thought. We’re very much in the finish-the-album mode! Obviously, we’re gonna play ‘Theme…’. Whenever we’ve played it in a room together, it’s just felt fucking awesome. If we’re on stage playing a new song and we’re all loving it, that feeds through to the crowd.”
The band are also off on tour in November, but Aled hasn’t thought about that yet. “There’s so much to do! I’ve still got some vocals to do, and there’s a lot of artwork to do. At the moment, there are so many spinning plates, but I’m trying not to overwhelm myself. We just want people to come to our shows and have fun again. We’re gonna play new stuff, and some old stuff, but I’m parking that until early autumn”.
As for being back together, Iain says, “It’s been great. When we first got back together for those Slam Dunk rehearsals, that first run-through when we kicked into ‘Fisticuffs’, the room felt electric. We all looked at each other, smiling, and it felt really cheesy but really good. As Aled said, it felt like a throwback to starting the band. There was no pressure, no bullshit; we were just getting together and playing songs. That transferred into the writing as well I suppose, getting together and working through ideas. It’s almost like, I don’t want to say starting again because that’s cheesy! It just feels fresh, but familiar is the best way to articulate it.” ■
Kids In Glass Houses’ album ‘Pink Flamingo’ is out 25th October. Follow Upset’s Spotify playlist here.
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