The Wombats

Blithe, juvenile, delinquents – three words most people would use to describe pop-punksters, The Wombats, since chatting with them recently. ‘Flatulent’ is yet another one. ‘Farts are magical things and humanity needs to embrace them’, admitted drummer Dan Haggis, before continuing, ‘we are a very flatuent band and our tour manager can back that up. We’re very proud of each fart. We cherish them and let them come out in all their glory’.

It was lucky for me, therefore, that the band were in Olso during our conversation, safely at the other end of a telephone line. This maverick Liverpudlian trio wear their youthful exuberance as a badge of honour and is reflected in their deliberate acronym name – ‘Waste Of Money, Brains And Time’. Yet, without this acute sense of mischief, The Wombats would never have been so successful.

Following several unsigned and self-financed EP releases, the surge of internet disciples grew to such a magnitude that it could not but help bring the record labels a-courting. Up stepped 14th Floor Records as the eventual victors in the race for signature acquistion and, as Haggis believes, it was because ‘they seemed to like all the quirkiness. They didn’t want to change us and no one has been telling us what to do’. Yet, despite this resolute allegiance to his employers, there is still a minor warning in the event of such an occurrence - ‘If they did, we’d tell them where they could shove their ideas’.

Haggis, along with bandmates Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy and Tord Øverland Knudsen, have since become darlings to the industry. As well as XFM, NME and MTV2 displaying a zealous greed for their contagious indie riot, ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’, The Wombats have been on the receiving end of some serious Radio 1 backing. The culmination of which convinced Zane Lowe to chose each of their last three singles for his weekly ‘Hottest Track In The World’ honour. They’ve even shaken the hand of Sir Paul McCartney, which isn’t overly surprising since they formed in 2003 whilst studying at his Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts.

The fruit of these credentials has been an intense touring frenzy through Japan, China, the US, and Europe - fifty gigs and only four days off – as well as the recent release of their 'Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation' album. Although the title might not instill the images of fun and frivolity that the band are keen to exude, Haggis entertains the reasoning as ‘matching the paradoxical qualities of the lyrical content and the music. The album’s got this poppy, bright sound but the title misleads you into thinking that it’s going to be something different’.

Each track has meandering meloncholy at its very core but is discordantly wrapped with ‘quite dry humour’ and topped with an upbeat tempo. This is something Haggis wants to continue as the band have been writing a bank of novelty songs whilst on tour. ‘We’re actually thinking of making a Team Wombat: On The Road album’, he hopes. ‘We have a whole host of minute-and-a-half songs that we’ve done backstage and at various after-parties: ‘I Was Just An Embryo And I Cant Believe It’; ‘The Man Who Can Sing Happy Birthday With His Bottom Is The Best Man Alive’; ‘Get On The Motherfucking Bus, You Cunt’; and, ‘My Two-Day Sack’, which is a song about the bit between your leg and your sack when you haven’t showered for two days whilst you’ve been doing loads of gigs’. Hmm, charming. After singing the chorus of the latter’s immense opus – ‘Two day sack, stink so bad’ – Haggis adamantly believes ‘it’s a classic in the making. The whole of Team Wombat is going to retire and buy an island with the royalties from that album just from the amount of radio play it is bound to get’.

If this sure-fire, in-no-doubt-at-all idea miraculously fails to materialise, then at least the band can rely on touring to make their ends meet. Having co-headlined the NME Rock’n’Roll Riot Tour with The Enemy, it’s now time for The Wombats to rampantly go it alone. ‘The live stuff is all about people just letting go, abandoning all their inhibitions and just have a good forty-five minutes of pure sweaty fun’ explains Haggis. The sold out show at Koko on December 7th should be a defining moment, then. ‘Hopefully all the people who’ve got tickets have already got the album and want to go absolutely mental to every song’.

A scientific analysis of The Wombats would most likely prove nothing we don’t already know: yes, they are young; yes, they are dumb; and yes, they make fantastic singalong dance tracks that administer a healthy dose of tomfoolery to all. But is there more to these foppish munchkins than would immediately greet the eye? ‘We may look like three cute furry little animals’ Haggis draws on the connection with their marsupial namesake, ‘but we’ve got a darker side to us. We’re a serious band as well. We all read the newspaper every morning’. Ah, a breakthrough, a brief glimpse into the deeper psyche of a innocent pop band on the verge of greatness. Perhaps base.ad got it wrong after all. But wait. ‘Actually, no we don’t. I’m lying’.