Massive Wagons: Rock & Roll Superstars
It’s incredible to think that MASSIVE WAGONS have been gigging since 2009 and yet there seems to be a sizeable amount of people that are simply unaware of them. Over the span of nearly a decade they have managed to grow from local heroes into one of the most beloved national treasures of the UK New Wave of Classic Rock scene. While their surroundings may have changed, the band themselves and their core foundations on which MASSIVE WAGONS was built have stayed the same, giving them a fast-track ticket to the top. With the release of their long-anticipated sixth album TRIGGERED!, the group are looking to cement their place and show those missing out just why they are no longer just a local concern.
“The last album House Of Noise wasn’t a concept album, but Baz (Mills) has a tendency to write about whatever he’s thinking about,” says guitarist Adam Thistlethwaite, “we stood back, and we were like ‘oh, there’s a lot of songs on here about mental health issues and that sort of stuff’, but this album has a lot of songs about everything that’s going on. So politically, with the left and right, it’s not all about one side or the other; the system; Brexit, which to be honest we feel keenly because we’re going to Europe all the time, so it’s not like we’re observing this from afar. Every time we leave our shores, we see the effects of Brexit and the bad that comes with it. Triggered was a song that was about all of these things, about people flying off the handle over things they don’t really understand. There’s a song on there called No Friend Of Mine, which is about opinions from people you thought you knew and then over the last five or six years you’ve seen a different side of them now it seems to be more acceptable to have these opinions. I think triggered was just a cool word. It summed up the album.”
The first taste fans could get of this new offering was in the form of single Fuck The Haters – an extremely bold call to arms that employs MASSIVE WAGONS’ huge arena rock sound and Baz’s roaring vocals to hold a middle finger up to anyone that needs one. Written as a supportive battle cry for those who find themselves affected by bullying in any way shape or form, Fuck The Haters has an extremely simple message that has been stripped back to its rawest and most powerful form to do exactly what it says on the tin. “There’s a deeper meaning to that one and we ran it with this anti-bullying campaign and raised money for The Sophie Lancaster Foundation. With a title like that you would instantly dismiss it as being a bit tacky, but Baz does this thing with lyrics where he weaves in and interesting spin on things, and when you read the lyrics it’s quite deep for him,” he laughs, “but it’s about being who you want to be and sod everyone else, whatever that is. People latched onto that.”
Even though the pandemic inevitably forced MASSIVE WAGONS to hit the brakes they found themselves far from deterred. After starting a Patreon page and acquiring a unit to create their own personal practice space, the band found themselves more inspired than ever and quickly hurtling headfirst toward something great. “There’s been a lot of change, as I’m sure everybody has experienced. When it comes to the band though it’s not necessarily all bad. It’s never a good time for a global pandemic; when it hit we were heading toward something with a new album and tours that were booked, and it forced us to take our foot off the gas a little bit. We’ve managed to sort our own personal circumstances out and mold our lives outside around the band to a more compatible shape. We’ve always been so reluctant to take our foot off for any amount of time because if you do that other bands move on and you get left behind, but in this situation where everybody was forced to stop, it was kind of like ‘okay, we can reassess’. As a result, things in the band just got smoother. In a way, it was good and bad – there was a silver lining to it.”
Unlike a lot of other bands post-covid (if you can call it that) MASSIVE WAGONS have steered away from narratives of entrapment & monotony that a lot of artists have found themselves drawn to since 2020, and are still working in the same format that they’ve grown to love, albeit streamlined.
“It’s changed a little bit because we have this place, and we can all come here instead of being in someone’s garage or having to rent a village hall somewhere spending an hour setting up and then an hour packing down. We can literally walk in here, put the kettle on, pick our guitars up and crack on. In terms of how we’re actually writing, it’s not really changed much. I’ll come up with the music, or Steven (Hall) will, and basically, we will work on it, give the music to Baz and he’ll put some lyrics over it. He’s intentionally and deliberately avoided singing about it or mentioning it (Covid) in any songs. Our new album deliberately avoids the subject of Covid or lockdowns. It seems to be something that people expect. I wouldn’t want to put on a CD and listen to music about that kind of stuff, so it’s trying a bit of escapism. If people want to write about that, that’s fine but it’s not us. We’re more about the good times. With a tinge of moaning – we do like a good moan. But it’s usually about trivial things rather than the big issues.”
MASSIVE WAGONS feel absolutely no need to conform, which feels a refreshing departure from many of the bands they are often mentioned in the same sentence as, as one of the bands to spearhead the New Wave of Classic Rock movement. They are a genuine and authentic band that make the music that they themselves want to hear and write about exactly what affects them the most. It’s so clearly recognisable not just on TRIGGERED!, but on their past releases too. It’s so clear as to how and why they have managed to keep the rest of their peers on their toes and will continue to do so without the need for star-shaped glasses or gimmicks. Ultimately, they are doing this for themselves, first and foremost – the huge fan following they have amassed is just a bonus.
TRIGGERED! is out now via Earache Records.
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