INTERVIEW: Mallory Knox Talk About A Revolution.

Photo: Cai Dixon

“I'm a 27 year old man. I'm not a 19 year old kid that some dickhead in the industry with X amount of followers on Facebook can push, I know what I want to do and how I want to speak and what I want to say.”

It’s true. Mallory Knox have come a long way since 2009 and, as Mikey makes sure to bring up frequently, they’re not kids anymore. Following the release of third album Wired, the band seem to have gained a new assuredness both on the record and off, a result that Mikey says was inevitable.

“I think it was just time.” he says, “We had quite a bit of time between writing Asymmetry and Wired. We grew up in that time, we learned a lot of different lessons - personally and musically - and we had a different, fantastic, team that really helped us work on ideas.” Mikey credits his bandmates and team for a lot of the shift, especially in terms of the new sound and its influences. Although he is hesitant to say that Wired is much of a departure (“It’s taking us in a particular direction, but it’s not going too far away from what we were doing”) he concedes there’s a britpop influence that wasn’t there before, something else he says was bound to happen eventually.

“I don’t think it was ever fully intentional,” he admits “but James [rhythm guitar] and Joe [lead guitar] are big britpop fans, and they’ve honed their craft with bands like that, so it was only a matter of time before those influences became a bit more noticeable.”

It’s not all chance though, there’s a weight and importance to focussing on a more homegrown sound, especially in a climate, and more widely a genre, that can sometimes feel dominated by those across the pond. It’s a responsibility he’s aware of, saying that: “British bands, especially nowadays, really look to America for a lot of our inspirations, when it comes to writing songs or finding influences.”

“We forget just how much amazing music and style has come out of the British market over the years.” he adds, “I think it's a great way to pay homage to some great acts without trying to rip them off.”

With added maturity comes added vulnerability, something that Mallory Knox in particular have been shying away from less and less in recent years. Though their music has always dealt with themes of heartbreak, mental health and, to some degree, mental illness, in the past those topics have usually been filtered through narratives - something Wired trades in for a more autobiographical lense.

“It comes with being a bit more comfortable in the skin you’re in.” Says Mikey, when asked why the stripping away of that distance when it comes to dealing with difficult topics. “I’m 27 now, I’m not worried about what people think. I don't give a fuck if someone knows I've got depression. Why the fuck should I?”

With that said, though it’s Mikey singing those vulnerable lyrics, he’s often not the one writing them, and you could be forgiven for thinking it would feel strange to be voicing your bandmates most intimate thoughts and feelings on stage. That, he says, is all down to the bonds they share as a group, and it’s helped of course by the fact that some experiences are shared by all of them.

“So I mean Sam obviously writes a lot of the music, so a lot of stuff will come from his perspective, but I’ve spent a lot of time with him, I understand the various things he’s got going on. There's also a few unifying features of our past couple of years that I suppose we've all shared. So a lot of the time there have been some private, kind of personal things written, but generally a lot of those things we do talk about we share a collective care for.” What things? The industry mostly.

“We've all shared the feelings you get within the music industry, and the feelings you get when you go home as a result of being a part of the music industry.” He says “When you’re just starting out, there's so much insecurity, there's so much ‘you can't do this, that's not cool’. You end up in a boiling pot of what someone else is telling you is the right thing. One result is for a lot of people is them shutting down their mind, shutting down from addressing issues or being open about feelings and thoughts and stuff, for fear of being judged or ostracized.”

I get the feeling that after so long in the game, the band have reached a point where that kind of pressure can no longer touch them, but before I have a chance to voice it, Mikey confirms my thoughts. “Yeah” he says “I think if we can, we should do a little bit to show them that that's all bullshit. Being honest you so open with yourself and doing what you need to do in order to feel good in yourself is the number one priority.”

It’s this ability to move beyond what others think that have allowed the band to move into a sphere they haven’t really touched before: Politics. Though he was careful to remain as nonpartisan as possible, Mikey made it clear that Savior was the song he was most proud of, and the message it carries is undeniably prescient.

“It addresses a lot of the issues I feel about society nowadays.” He says. “The state of our society today not just in terms of our governments, but the mentality of people and how we’re existing in this dictatorship of the mind.”

“We have people that use fear in order to persuade us one way or another, people who use God to persuade us one way or another, people who use money to persuade us one way or another. We're led in particular paths that we may not in our truest form ever wish to partake in. It’s venting a frustration that so many good and decent folks are scared into saying awful things or scared into living a life of complete monotony in order to pay bills.”

“We need a revolution of the mind.” he finishes by saying.

That’s an awfully large thing for one man, or even one band, to deliver - but one thing’s for sure: with their new, liberated mindset and hard won confidence, it’s hard to imagine them failing at anything they put their minds too. So maybe we’ll get a revolution after-all.

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