Wigan-hailing indie-mainstays The Lathums have been steady risers on the scene with two number one albums already to their name and an impressive onslaught of headline shows. With new member Matty (bass) in tow, 2025 sees a new era of The Lathums, marked by the release of their third album, Matter Does Not Define, due out February 28th.
With an exciting few months ahead, we talk to guitarist Scott about his favourite tracks from the new project, their upcoming tour, and their dream live-collaboration.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Hey Scott! How’re you doing?
Scott: Not too bad!
THE INDIEPENDENT: Your third studio album Matter Does Not Define is out in a few weeks – what can you tell us about it?
Scott: I think we’re all very, very proud of it, I think it’s a bit of a step up. It’s more mature in places, and it’s Matty Murphy’s first album to be recorded with us, and he’s really, really done well and the bass is brilliant.
THE INDIEPENDENT: You say it’s more mature, can you expand on that?
Scott: The sonics, and the songs Alex is writing as well. It just feels like a step-up and ‘Long Shadows’ for example, it’s like nothing we’ve ever done before, it’s quite dramatic and intense.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Do you have a favourite track you’re excited to release from the album?
Scott: The first two, ‘Leave No Stone Unturned’ and ‘Reflections Of Lessons Left’, which has a dead good groove. I remember when Alex first started playing that tune in a green room years ago, I started whistling a little melody, and that’s what I remember and I turned it into my riff. And Matty again, he has a very groovy bass line on it.
‘Leave No Stone Unturned’, it’s a bit cinematic again and paints a picture and tells quite a nice story.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Talk to us about the title.
Scott: Well, that’s to be honest, that’s always the hardest part for ourselves. Anyway, the name of the album was ‘Reflections Of Lessons Left’ and we thought that was quite cool but we changed it because we didn’t want to have a title track on the album. Matter Does Not Define is a lyric from that track, well it alludes to that.
THE INDIEPENDENT: How does this album differ from your previous releases – apart from the addition of Matty?
Scott: It’s just an ever-growing confidence in what you’re doing in the studio, and having belief that you’ll play the right thing for the track.
THE INDIEPENDENT: During your Robin Park gig – an amazing show by the way – you brought Jake Bugg on stage for ‘Simple As This’. Do you have a dream artist you’d love to have up on stage with The Lathums (or vice versa)?
Scott: Johnny Marr I reckon.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Would you have him on vocals too or just guitar?
Scott: He can sing if he wants, but definitely on guitar.
THE INDIEPENDENT: You’ve got your tour coming up shortly, how are you feeling about that?
Scott: Excited. It feels like yonks since we’ve done any proper touring, we didn’t do very many shows last year, to be honest, we just focused on the album and the Robin Park gig. So we’re excited to get back to it.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Any plans to surprise fans with on-stage collaborations on your upcoming tour?
Scott: We haven’t, at the moment, everything’s spontaneous – maybe we will. I might have a chat with some of the support acts, see if any of them fancy getting up.
THE INDIEPENDENT: Previously, you’ve had support slots with the likes of Blossoms, The Killers and Keane – have you learnt anything from these artists that you’ve applied to your craft as a band?
Scott: With Blossoms especially. We played the Liam Gallagher Festival in Malta and me and Matty were just watching their set from the side and all the tunes are just so streamlined, and just fire into each other. We’ve been tapping away and sorting out the setlist so it’s running a lot more smoothly, there’s less pauses and more transitions between tunes and stuff, whereas on the tours we’d never really done much like that to be honest.
THE INDIEPENDENT: How did it feel being hand-picked by Liam Gallgher for his Malta Festival?
Scott: Very very flattering – it was lovely, nice to see Malta too!
THE INDIEPENDENT: Are there any artists from Wigan (or the north west) we should be keeping an eye on?
Scott: Well, Matty is actually a scouser, he says all of our Wigan nonsense now but with a scouse accent. He’s a blue one so that’s good.
There’s quite a lot to be honest. I heard from a good musical mentor and producer of the album, John Kettle about The DoubleYellows – they’re making moves. And bands like The Stanleys, I’ve been friends with them since before I knew the lads.
THE INDIEPENDENT: You’ve just collaborated with Signature Brew to craft your own Stellar Cask Lager – what was that like?
Scott: It was really good experience going down to London, seeing the brewery, they’re
all nice. It’s always a bit intimidating to me, because I’m a bit beige when it comes to beer. I don’t really like IPA or anything like that, but all the stuff that I tried was lovely.
I’m not sure how it came about. I think we got in touch with their management. We haven’t actually tried ours yet, we’re going down to do it this week – we just tried some of theirs to see what direction we wanted ours to go in. Hopefully it’ll be in all the fridges at the venues when we go on tour.
THE INDIEPENDENT: What’s your go-to pie for a Wigan kebab?
Scott: Chunky steak – you know the deep-filled one? And a buttered barm.
THE INDIEPENDENT: For any non-Wiganers, what’s the best way to describe Wigan Pier?
Scott: The whole Wigan party scene was slightly before our time, we just hear stories from back in the day and it sounds like a good laugh really.
THE INDIEPENDENT: What Lathums’ song should our readers whip out of your repertoire to impress a first date?
Scott: I was gonna say ‘Long Shadows’, but it might get a bit intense towards the end. Yeah, I’m going with ‘Long Shadows’.
Words by Lana Williams
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