Blood Red Shoes is the band’s fourth album, but the first one they’ve self-produced, having previously worked extensively with Arctic Monkeys producer Mike Crossey.“Everything was so perfect on our third album (‘In Time To Voices’), but we realised that the imperfections are what makes our band – that’s what people like about us,” says singer/guitarist Laura Mary Carter.
A new sense of positivity has also permeated the lyrics on their forthcoming album. “Our default setting as a band is to write from a negative perspective,” says Ansell. “… this time it’s about being hedonistic and free and not worrying so much.” One song in particular, ‘Everything All At Once’, comes from “the idea that you might not even wake up tomorrow, so you might as well experience everything right fucking now.”
It’s perhaps a viewpoint they’ve arrived at with the confidence of having achieved something relatively few bands of their generation have achieved – making it to their fourth album. “I think there’s an element of luck involved, but mostly it’s because we work our arses off,” says Carter, who also came up with the concept for the album’s sleeve. “We never switch off. We never let anything just happen; we steer everything. A bit control freaky, really.”
A fiercely ambitious band, Blood Red Shoes have clear aims for the album: they want it to power them on another massive tour around the world. Their long-running tours have won them huge audiences from Indonesia to Russia, Australia and beyond. Issuing the teaser for their new single, the first message received back was from a fan saying he hoped there was one in Ethiopia.
The most important thing, for Carter and Ansell, is that they’ve rediscovered the passion at their core. “You know like what it felt like when you’re a kid in art class and the teacher goes out and you just throw the paint around?” asks Ansell. “That’s the feeling of freedom that I can hear in the record. It’s really sloppy, and I love that about it.”
