Cheatahs + No Joy

Cheatahs’ long-awaited debut album is first and foremost an exploration of the possibilities of modern guitar music. A blend of ecstatic noise, ambient drone and visceral, ear-splitting alt-rock, combined with lyrics that touch on the complexities of relationships, nature, the city, memory, dislocation and self-identity, the self-titled record displays a giant creative leap from the lo-fi fuzz of the band’s first two EPs.

But let's start from the beginning. The London based band came together when Nathan Hewitt (vox, guitar), originally from Edmonton, Canada, and James Wignall (guitar, vox), originally from Leicester, met 7 years ago while both working in a pub in Camden and bonded over a shared love of Seinfeld and hardcore punk. Despite both friends playing in various bands over the next few years, it was only in 2010 that the two decided to finally make music together. After writing a handful of songs, they asked friends Marc Raue, originally from Dresden, Germany, and Dean Reid, from San Diego, USA to join them on drums and bass respectively.

To make the record, Cheatahs, headed first to the country, spending a week in an old stone-floored cottage in Cornwall, where recording was punctuated by walks in nearby forests and evenings whiled away at an isolated pub. The second location, Dropout studios in Camberwell, home of friends Part Chimp, was perhaps the polar opposite, but no less conducive to the creative process – not surprising given that the band were given access to the full arsenal of ridiculously loud vintage amps that help create the brutal majesty of Part Chimp’s recordings. As with Cheatahs' previous work, all tracks were recorded and mixed by bassist Dean and produced by the band.

With the majority of the record ostensibly finished, Cheatahs embarked on a six- week tour of the US with Wavves and FIDLAR. On returning, the band barely took time to recuperate before heading to Dean’s ramshackle studio in east London to complete the album, where they spent two feverishly productive months completing it.

The first taste of the finished record was the recent double-A-sided single, “Cut The Grass” / “Kenworth”, which AV Club described as having ”crunchy textures with dreamy melodies and wispy vocal harmonies.... an uptempo wall of sound”, whilst Stereogum said that the single “goes deeper into the more insular and seasick sound of Loveless”. For an album influenced by everything from Link Wray to Cy Twombly - influences as scattered as the band members' geography - the result is a cohesive behemoth, 12 tracks of raucous guitars, breathy vocals, and honey- dripped, soaring melodies.

 

Click here to read more…