Rejecting industry formalities and leading with emotion - Coach Party look back on KILLJOY five months on and talk balancing anxiety with nihilism
By Tom Adams February 2024
"Chaotic is a good word..."
Chaotic. Punk. Rock. Indie. I’m not usually one that likes to pin any kind of genre tag to a band but chaotic seemed a good fit for Coach Party, and I’m still not convinced that description is based solely upon their music. When frontwoman Jess Eastwood answered my Zoom call last week, I was met with her dog rushing into Jess’ arms and immediately gate-crashing the call before eventually being carried out for an evening walk leaving Jess needlessly apologetic. You could say the slightly chaotic start to the call was a reflection of the overt and genuine nature Jess and the band have adopted throughout their honest discography, or perhaps that might be an overly profound perspective. But nevertheless it was easily the best introduction I’ve had to an Amplifier interview with any artist so far.
If anyone is still sleeping on Coach Party, the four-piece hailing from the Isle of Wight made up of Jess Eastwood (lead singer/bassist), Steph Norris (guitarist), Guy Page (drummer/producer) and Joe Perry (guitarist) haven’t really stopped for a breather over the last few months. Coming off the back of releasing their debut album KILLJOY via Chess Club Records last year, supporting both Queens of the Stone Age and Wet Leg, taking over BBC Music’s Introducing stage at Glastonbury back in June and now currently on tour again, it felt like even getting the chance to chat to Jess about the band’s hectic last year was an achievement in itself. But even if the surrealism of the last twelve months hadn’t quite sunk in for Coach Party yet, it became clear this was a band incredibly deserving of their recent success.
“Firstly thank you for having me! We’ve had a few months off now, maybe two which have been super nice, definitely felt like we needed some time to chill out a bit. We’re just getting ready to head back out on tour on the first of February actually!”
Incredibly, that very tour she hints at is actually in support of a giant of the industry: Bombay Bicycle Club. As Coach Party opened night one at Birmingham's O2 Academy last night, before then going on to support Editors across half of their UK tour, it felt only right that the first question I asked Jess was how she and the band have possibly managed to reflect on these achievements Coach Party already have under their belt.
“Bombay Bicycle Club is Steph’s (Norris) favourite band in the world so that’s gonna be super nice and probably a full circle moment for her, as was the same with Queens of the Stone Age because they’re Joe’s (Perry) favourite band so that was great too. I mean even for me I was like shit… these are huge moments! It’s good to reflect but to be honest you do just forget as quickly as they’re done because no one really celebrates the wins. You seem to just always be moving on to the next thing so I don’t think we even get much of a chance to reflect but of course we look back and thing that was pretty good!”
But by starting out back in 2016 as a duo project between Jess and Steph under the name Jeph (for obvious reasons) it’s notable their progression in the scene since then has been significant. The more Eastwood talks about the turbulent time working up to playing their very first gig away from home in England a year after Jeph formed, the more it became incredibly admirable at just how unbelievable things must be starting to feel for them now.
“We’ve been lucky! Not as lucky as some bands where their trajectory is just straight up, we’ve had more of a small incline which actually I’m super happy with. I remember in 2017 we did our first gig, we put off doing it for so long because we actually just couldn't play anything. We thought let’s just keep playing the songs we’ve written and hope we can play them well eventually. So because we’re from such a small place here in the Isle of Wight and not a lot goes on, if you gig here you’re basically just not going anywhere - which is so wrong by the way! But anyway we thought let’s start in Southampton, nobody knows us so why not. I think also as an islander you understand that you’ve got to go to Southampton or Portsmouth because they always usually get as best as you can get because they’re touring routes so I think you just kind of swallow it, pay the extra money and just do it. But in terms of the gig… I remember coming off stage and thinking I absolutely butchered that like so badly.”
If it wasn’t already obvious, Jess is bluntly honest when reflecting on her personal introduction into the music scene, and she doesn’t stress enough that it was the recruitment of Guy and Joe that proved to be the catalyst of Coach Party’s elevation in success - even if she doesn’t quite give herself the credit she deserves yet. Their influence in the band worked so well that within two years they began grabbing the attention of those in the industry, signing to Chess Club Records in 2019 before everything came crashing down to a standstill.
“Signing with Chess Club was huge because I remember it being a woah what is actually going on moment and obviously the ego you get from that is quite phenomenal! Shortly after signing, we had a load of tours lined up and then of course we got locked down because of COVID in like March the following year so we were super pumped to get signed and then immediately couldn’t do anything about it. I remember feeling so gutted. I thought this was meant to be our time but Chess Club really didn’t let us down throughout that time, they didn’t give up on us. My first thoughts with the lockdown was that we were probably gonna get dropped because we can’t do anything, we were a band that hadn’t even gigged under the name of Coach Party yet so it was all up in the air. But obviously they kept with us and they just wanted us to keep going so I remember that being impactful at the time.”
Once things began to resume to normality and the chance to gig and play live shows returned once again, for many artists that long awaited comeback may come more naturally, but Jess admitted she found herself fighting with imposter syndrome. Across Coach Party’s discography, references of self-doubt and acknowledging insecurities remain ever present within her lyrics and since the band’s rise in popularity, it’s refreshingly commendable that she doesn’t want to shy away from the very real emotional fluctuations that come with being an artist in the industry today.
“I don’t deal with imposter syndrome well, it really took over my whole being. The first night we did with Queens of the Stone Age, we were a bit rusty because literally five minutes before going on stage they came into our dressing room and started doing shots with us and chatting. Obviously we were totally bewildered and so adrenaline fuelled that when we went on stage we basically couldn’t play at all which was silly, that gig was a holy shit moment… we’ve got to be better in every sense. We actually watched them play afterwards and I just fully thought like what the hell like if this is the bar - which it’s not by the way - then we’re not getting there anytime soon!”
“We then did all these shows and I started to convince myself that I couldn’t sing, I had my manager call me being like you’ve got this, I don’t know why you’re feeling like this and I was like I don’t know why I’m feeling like this either but here we are. It’s probably gonna happen all over again when we play with Bombay Bicycle Club but I know how to deal with it this time! There’s so many different levels of imposter syndrome but I felt like this time I was in trouble. We pride ourselves on having really good live shows and being a really well rehearsed band and I do think we’re most comfortable live, obviously more so when you’re playing your own shows, but it is all audience based for me right now. If we play shows, and this happens a lot, I'm getting nothing back from the crowd but then afterwards people come up to me and say it was the best show of their lives so when people are vibing and getting involved then I feel like I can give it back so much more easily. Plus when you’re supporting, it’s safe to assume no one is here for you and so the goal is to win over everyone in the room but you’re never gonna do that so then let’s try and win over half the room.”
One of the most likeable traits of Jess and Coach Party is how explicitly emotional the lyrics of their songs so often are. It’s intriguing to learn whether the process of writing songs for Jess begins with the emotions raw and still at the forefront of her mind, or whether it’s more effective to let those emotions settle before beginning to write songs with more control.
“I’m a very emotional person anyway so I know I can’t be right about everything I’m feeling but if there’s a leading feeling I do find it easier to write a song. For example, there’s a song from one of the EPs called ‘i’m sad’ and I wrote that in like five minutes, then our song ‘FLAG (Feel Like A Girl)’ I remember having that feeling and writing it in no time. ‘All I Wanna Do Is Hate’, I mean I’ll usually do the most lyrically and then we all think what if we changed this part to this or whatever, but with that song it was very emotionally fuelled. I recorded that with Guy and it became like this whole thing of us throwing in more and more names so when it's emotionally led, you feel like the song almost writes itself in a way.”
Jumping ahead to September eighth when the big day arrives with Coach Party releasing their debut record KILLJOY to the world. This album felt different to the band’s previous releases. While a few of the older EPs felt like acknowledging many moments of self-doubt, sadness and living with imposter syndrome, this time KILLJOY is confidently in your face and is a gritty amalgamation of life’s highs and lows based upon the foundations of learning to prioritise enjoying life. Now a few months on, I wanted to know how Jess reacted to the inevitable pressure surrounding the release of a debut album and how she viewed the week of release five months on.
“I could honestly say, if we’re being really honest here, I hated it. I was just so inundated with emails, texts, WhatsApp groups, etc… okay let me rephrase that. It was great putting it out and hearing people’s thoughts and reacting to it then seeing us play those same songs live like anything on that side of it made me so emotional. I think it was our last show in Brighton, it was sold out, people were singing every word and I was genuinely quite emotional thinking this is all just so silly to me! Like a good silly of course, I just couldn’t believe any of this was happening!”
“But the whole process of actually putting that album out was so difficult, plus when you’ve got four people that have very different opinions but all having to try and compromise on things, it’s so difficult! Obviously the win is that you get to put out this thing that’s the album but that win is so much bigger than this. I loved the actual music recording part like Guy produced it and it was so good, so writing and recording the songs was incredible but trying to decide on things and then actually putting it out… It's even things like what side of the back of the vinyl you have the 'thanks' and you just get so drawn into it. I just end up clocking out and letting the other guys decide. I trust them enough that it would look fine.”
“I remember us all listening to it and thinking what order we should put the songs in. We all wanted ‘What’s The Point In Life’ first but I wanted ‘Parasite’ at the end. The song is only a minute thirty and it’s so heavy and fast so I liked the idea of listeners going through all the songs and then being hit by this one song at the end and that would hopefully make people want to listen to it again. But I think the order is great like I didn’t think there could ever have really been a bad tracklist. We never had too many problems with pressure doing the music side of it, like even when the label wanted one more song as a single we wrote ‘What’s The Point In Life’ under the pressure of needing another single so that side of it came a bit easier but you do just come to the conclusion that whatever you do. In like ten years there’s always gonna be people that would say the debut album is the best anyway so I think we could’ve just got away with whatever with this first album but obviously we wanted to make it as great as possible so I’m happy with this, we really did made it to the best of our abilities."
Following their support of Bombay Bicycle Club in February across Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, and Nottingham then supporting Editors in Newcastle, Leeds and Liverpool just two weeks later, Coach Party will then embark on their own headline tour of Europe in Spring, playing fourteen dates in twenty seven days. As Jess turns her phone camera around to reveal a freshly decorated mic stand ready for tour, it becomes obvious how much the band don’t take their position to perform live for granted and just how excited they are to soon be back doing what they love most.
“We’re really looking forward to it! It’s new territory we’re going on so we’re hoping people buy tickets and we’re hoping those people that do buy tickets like us! I’m trying to up my aesthetic a bit for the tour. I've been painting my mic stand and trying to do a few new things so people can remember a few of the little things we do, so yeah we’re gonna try and up the look and performance because there’s really no time to stay stagnant. We’ve done a lot of touring of Europe, especially last year, which collectively we loved doing and it’s really nice to have those days off where you can actually explore and look around the different countries we’re in too, but yeah we really can’t wait!”
With Coach Party very much deservedly still riding the wave of their KILLJOY era, I wanted to ask Jess whether the album was a symbol of closing off the last few years tracing all the way back to 2019 when the band began releasing music under the name Coach Party, or perhaps KILLJOY is just the beginning of a new experimental age of unapologetically holding up two fingers to the past and learning to embrace life’s imperfections.
“What comes next for us has gotta be different! The KILLJOY era hasn't finished because there could be some secret little things coming very soon that might add to it, but you’ll know when the era is done because the new one will start! I feel like the next album we do, we’re gonna try and head in the heavier route so maybe that chaotic description you mentioned at the very start may just stay the exact same for now, but you’ll find out soon."
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